14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has recently started to provide details on the high-level cloud identity management plans, including info on what the Windows Azure Active Directory is all about.
The company has provided a glimpse at the technology a few months ago, but without offering all the info that the world wanted to receive.
However, it appears that the Redmond-based software giant has finally decided it was high time it unwrapped Windows Azure Active Directory, most probably in preparation for the upcoming TechEd North America conference, ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports.
Among the details that Microsoft provided so far on the technology, we can count the fact that it was designed to enable identity and access capabilities to applications that have been built for Office 365 or for Windows Azure.
It comes as the “multi-tenant cloud service” that provides the identity infrastructure Microsoft’s Office 365 is based on.
“Windows Azure Active Directory utilizes the enterprise-grade quality and proven capabilities of Active Directory, so you can bring your applications to the cloud easily,” Microsoft explains.
“You can enable single sign-on, security enhanced applications, and simple interoperability with existing Active Directory deployments using Access Control Service (ACS), a feature of Windows Azure Active Directory.”
ACS, in its turn, offers a variety of features, including a single sign-on experience, increased flexibility for the use of tools and social identities, along with interoperability with existing on-premises Active Directory authentication.
Apparently, Microsoft is determined to make the Windows Azure Active Directory more social, through offering devs the possibility to come up with applications capable of connecting the directory to other apps, platforms and social networks.
Additionally, the Redmond-based company is considering adding support for applications designed for mobile platforms, Mary Jo Foley notes.
Microsoft is also planning on making it easy for Windows Azure Active Directory to be connected to an existing directory. Thus, companies would be able to set up identity federation and directory synchronization between existing directory and Windows Azure Active Directory.