Entra ID consulting — identity is your security perimeter
When attackers go after a small or mid-sized organization, they usually just sign in — with a phished password or a stolen session. We configure Microsoft Entra ID so that stops working: conditional access, phishing-resistant MFA and tightly held admin roles.
Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) holds the keys to everything your team touches — email, files, VPN and, increasingly, every SaaS tool you’ve signed up for. That concentration cuts both ways: one well-configured identity platform protects all of it, and one loose setting exposes all of it.
We design, configure and document the identity layer of your Microsoft tenant — conditional access, multi-factor authentication, privileged roles, hybrid sync and application sign-on — then hand your team something it can maintain on its own. The engagement ends when you understand your policies, not when the last portal tab closes.
Identity locked down? The rest of the tenant deserves the same treatment — our Microsoft 365 security service hardens Defender, email protection, Purview and your Secure Score.
Identity work, from policy to desk
Conditional access design
Policies that evaluate every sign-in by user, device, location and risk — designed as one coherent zero-trust set rather than a pile of one-off rules. We always leave properly protected break-glass accounts in place, so a miscalibrated policy can never lock you out of your own tenant.
Phishing-resistant MFA rollout
SMS codes were a good start in 2015. We move your team to phishing-resistant methods — passkeys, FIDO2 security keys, Microsoft Authenticator with number matching — in stages, so the rollout doesn’t run out of steam on day two.
Least privilege, PIM & governance
Standing global admins turn small compromises into total ones. We cut role assignments back to least privilege, put Privileged Identity Management (PIM) in front of the roles that remain, and set up access reviews so permissions expire instead of accumulating.
Hybrid identity (AD Connect / Entra Connect)
Still running on-premises Active Directory? We design and clean up synchronization with Entra Connect — sync scope, password hash sync or pass-through authentication, seamless SSO — so your local directory and your cloud identity stay one identity.
SSO & app onboarding
One identity for every application. We connect your SaaS and line-of-business apps to Entra ID for single sign-on — SAML or OpenID Connect — with automatic provisioning where the app supports it, so a new hire is one account and a departure genuinely closes every door.
Tenant identity-posture review
A focused examination of your tenant’s identity layer: authentication methods, conditional access coverage and blind spots, privileged roles, dormant accounts, legacy authentication and risky app consents — ending in a prioritized fix list your team can act on.
Identity and access management, sized for an SMB
Identity and access management (IAM) carries an enterprise reputation — governance suites, a dedicated team, a project that stretches across years. In a Microsoft 365 tenant, though, most of IAM lives inside Entra ID, on licences you probably already hold: who has an account, how that person proves who they are, what they can reach, and who holds the privileged roles.
For an SMB we reduce IAM to a lifecycle that runs without constant supervision: joiners get the right access through groups, role changes adjust it, and departures close it the same day. It’s less spectacular than a governance platform — and it’s what actually protects your data when someone walks out the door still knowing their password.
Certified for identity work, available across Canada
Two certifications anchor this service. Microsoft Identity and Access Administrator covers precisely the ground on this page — conditional access, MFA, PIM, hybrid identity — while SC-100 (Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert) places that identity work within a full security architecture. Behind both sit more than twenty years of hands-on IT and security practice.
We’re based in Ottawa and Gatineau, and we’ll gladly sit down with your team anywhere in the National Capital Region. The work itself happens in your tenant’s admin portals, though, so organizations across Canada get the same engagement remotely, in English or French. Once we’ve reviewed your tenant, you get a fixed fee for the full engagement.
Frequently asked questions
Is Entra ID the same thing as Azure AD?
Yes. Microsoft renamed Azure Active Directory to Microsoft Entra ID in 2023. It’s the same service and the same licences — the name and the admin portal changed, and new capabilities such as passkeys now ship under the Entra brand. If your contracts, documentation or habits still say Azure AD, nothing is broken: the two names point to the same thing.
Do we need Entra ID P2, or is P1 enough?
For most SMBs, P1 goes a long way. It’s included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium and E3, and it covers conditional access, hybrid identity and group-based access — the controls that stop the majority of identity attacks. P2 adds sign-in risk policies, Privileged Identity Management and access reviews. Our usual advice is to get full value from P1 first, then add P2 where it pays for itself — it’s licensed per user, so some organizations buy it only for the people who use those features. Every engagement starts from the licences you already own.
Our MFA rollout stalled — can you deal with the pushback?
Yes, and it’s one of the most common reasons we get called. Resistance almost always traces back to two things: prompts that fire too often, and methods that interrupt work. We tune conditional access so sign-ins from compliant, trusted devices aren’t challenged constantly, move people to number matching and passkeys — quicker than typing a code — and stage the rollout group by group with plain-language communication. Break-glass accounts and tested exclusions mean nobody is afraid to turn enforcement on.
We’re a 15-person company. Is IAM overkill for us?
No — it just takes a different shape at your size. Identity and access management for a small team isn’t a governance suite or a year-long project; it’s a short list of decisions your Microsoft tenant enforces on its own: multi-factor authentication for everyone, no standing admin rights, an offboarding step that actually runs the day someone leaves, and a periodic glance at who can reach what. Nearly all of it is configured once in Entra ID and then quietly does its job. Attackers don’t check your headcount before trying the door.
What does Entra ID consulting cost?
We don’t run an hourly meter. Every engagement starts with a review of your tenant’s identity posture; from there we quote a fixed fee scoped to what actually needs doing — some tenants need a policy redesign, others mostly a cleanup. Because the work runs on the Entra ID P1 or P2 licences already included in most Microsoft 365 plans, there’s rarely anything new to buy: the fee is usually the whole cost. If a licence step-up is genuinely warranted, we tell you before you spend a dollar.
Make a stolen password worthless
One review, one plan, and a phished password stops being a skeleton key. We look at your authentication methods, conditional access and privileged roles, then tell you what to fix first.
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