What is Azure Active Directory?

• Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is Microsoft’s

multi-tenant, cloud-based identity and access
management service. This service helps clients access
external resources, such as Microsoft 365, the Azure
portal, and thousands of other SaaS applications.
Azure AD also helps them access internal resources.
• Azure AD is the backbone of the Office 365 system,
and it can sync with on-premise active directory and
provide authentication to other cloud-based systems
via OAuth.
What is Active Directory?
• Active Directory (AD) is Microsoft’s directory service that stores
data about objects on your local network. It is first introduced
back in 2000, as part of Windows 2000 Server. It records
information on users, devices, applications, and groups. AD
organizes this data in a hierarchical structure so that you can
easily find details of how your network is operating from a central
location.
• Essentially, AD acts as a phone book in which we can look up data
about our network and manage devices and users from a
centralized hub.
• Active Directory lives on-premise in servers called Domain
Controllers (DC). Each DC contains a catalogue of users and
computers that are authorized to access resources on the network.
Users authenticate to DCs via Kerberos or NTLM authentication.
Differences between Azure Active Directory
and Active Directory.

Source: Varonis
References:
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-
directory/fundamentals/active-directory-whatis
• https://www.varonis.com/blog/azure-active-directory
• https://www.varonis.com/blog/what-is-active-directory
• https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/azure-tutorial/azure-
active-directory
Thank You!