Modern Identity Simplified: Migrating from ADFS to Entra ID

In today’s cloud-first world, organisations are rethinking how they manage identity and secure user access. For years, Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) served as the foundation for Single Sign-On (SSO). However, maintaining ADFS now means managing complex infrastructure, higher operational costs, and increased security risks at a time when businesses are seeking simpler, more secure, and scalable identity solutions.

Enter Microsoft Entra ID: the modern identity and access management platform that replaces outdated federation models with cloud-native, secure, and user-friendly authentication.

Why Organizations Are Moving Away from ADFS

ADFS has served its purpose for years but comes with operational challenges, security gaps, and architectural limitations that no longer align with today’s cloud-driven world:

• High Operational Overhead
  Managing ADFS/WAP farms, patching servers, renewing certificates, and maintaining load balancers requires significant time and resources. Research shows that IT teams spend up to 30% of their time maintaining legacy identity infrastructure, rather than focusing on strategic initiatives.
• Legacy Protocol Exposure
  ADFS often relies on outdated protocols such as WS-Trust and Basic Auth, which increase the attack surface and make organizations more vulnerable to password spray and credential-stuffing attacks. According to Microsoft, 99% of password spray and credential-stuffing attacks exploit legacy authentication protocols.
• Complex Policy Management
  Per-application claims rules and fragmented MFA integrations create policy sprawl that is difficult to audit, manage, and enforce consistently. A Ponemon Institute study found that 60% of organizations struggle to enforce consistent identity and access policies across applications.
• Limited Threat Intelligence
  ADFS lacks built-in tools for risk-based evaluation, continuous access monitoring, and policy-driven insights, leaving organisations blind to potential identity threats. Microsoft has reported that identity-based attacks have increased by 300% in the past two years, making proactive detection critical.

How Microsoft Entra ID Solves These Challenges

Microsoft Entra ID provides a modern, secure, and streamlined identity solution designed for hybrid and cloud-native environments:

• Centralized Conditional Access
  Define unified, granular, app-aware access policies across all apps — replacing scattered ADFS claims rules and enabling a Zero Trust security model.
• Risk-Based Protection
  Built-in Identity Protection automatically evaluates user and sign-in risks, applying just-in-time remediation without unnecessary friction.
• Passwordless and Adaptive Authentication
  Native support for FIDO2 passkeys, Windows Hello, and Continuous Access Evaluation enables secure, seamless authentication experiences.
• Modernizing On-Premises Access
  With Entra Application Proxy and Kerberos Constrained Delegation (KCD), users get secure SSO and MFA for on-premises apps without relying on complex ADFS infrastructure.
  For advanced scenarios, Entra Private Access supports Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), reducing or replacing VPN dependencies.
• Cloud Authentication Resilience
  Moving to Password Hash Sync or Pass-Through Authentication eliminates federation dependencies, ensuring authentication continuity even during on-prem outages.

Architecture Pitfalls with ADFS — and the Entra ID Alternative

Microsoft-Recommended Migration Path

1. Discover & Assess Applications
   Use the ADFS migration experience to identify apps, review readiness, and map claims.
2. Select a Cloud Authentication Model
   Choose between Password Hash Sync (recommended for resiliency) or Pass-Through Authentication. Use staged rollouts to minimize risk.
3. Modernize On-Premises App Access
   Publish through Entra Application Proxy (with KCD where needed) or leverage Entra Private Access for secure, identity-based Zero Trust access.
4. Harden Security Posture
   Establish Conditional Access baselines, block legacy authentication, enable Identity Protection, and configure Continuous Access Evaluation.
5. Pilot → Cutover → Decommission
   Migrate low-risk apps first, validate authentication flows, then transition critical workloads. Decommission ADFS/WAP only after achieving stable operations.

Expected Outcomes

• Lower Costs & Simplified Operations
  Eliminate ADFS infrastructure, certificate management, and complex server maintenance. A Forrester TEI study found that organisations save up to 60% on identity management costs by migrating to Microsoft Entra ID.
• Improved Security Without Added Friction
  Risk-based, passwordless, and adaptive authentication enhance protection while improving the user experience. According to Microsoft, passwordless adoption can reduce phishing-related breaches by up to 80%.
• Faster Application Onboarding
  Entra ID’s pre-integrated SAML/OIDC app gallery and migration tools accelerate deployment and simplify claims mapping.

Market Trends Driving the Shift

• Zero Trust over VPNs
  Organisations are replacing VPN-heavy models with identity-centric Zero Trust approaches powered by Entra Private Access. Gartner predicts that 60% of enterprises will phase out VPNs in favour of ZTNA by 2025.
• Passwordless Authentication Momentum
  Microsoft is pushing passkeys, FIDO2, and Windows Hello as the new standard. By 2026, passwordless methods are expected to be used in 60% of enterprise authentication scenarios.
• Blocking Legacy Protocols
  With majority of identity-based attacks leveraging outdated authentication, blocking legacy protocols is now a baseline security requirement.

👉 Reach out to Oreta — we’ve got the experts to design and deliver your ADFS to Entra ID migration, aligned with Microsoft’s best practices.

References:

1. recordpoint.com – Legacy systems consume up to 80% of annual IT budgets and can cost around $30M each to maintain.recordpoint.com
2. microsoft.com (Digital Defense Report 2024) – Password-based attacks make up over 99% of 600M daily identity attacks.Microsoft
3. microsoft.com (Identity Threat Protection whitepaper) – 300% rise in identity-based attacks over one year.Microsoft CDN
4. securityweek.com (via CrowdStrike) – Identity-based attacks have doubled year-over-year.SecurityWeek
5. microsoft.com (Microsoft Digital Defense report coverage) – 7,000 password attacks per second from 579 in 2021.Source
6. microsoft.com (security Insider / eSentire reporting) – 156% increase in identity-based attacks; now 59% of confirmed incidents.TechRadar
7. tei.forrester.com – Composite org saves $2.1M over 3 years by eliminating legacy infrastructure.Forrester
8. ilink-digital.com – Microsoft saw 50% reduction in compromised accounts after passwordless adoption.ilink-digital.com
9. tei.forrester.com (Microsoft 365 E3 TEI) – Entra ID SSO yields 70+ hours of user productivity savings annually.Forrester
10. jumpcloud.com – Passwordless authentication market projected at over $20B in 2025.JumpCloud
11. www.itpro.com – Over 80% of breaches stem from weak or reused passwords; device-bound passkeys counteract this.IT Pro