The best thing about moving your enterprise data to the cloud is that you no longer have to worry about things like data protection and disaster recovery, right? Wrong.

While it’s true that using a cloud-based storage system does afford you a certain level of security, the fact remains that no cloud ecosystem is foolproof and you should always stay informed about how your data is secured in the event of an outage. 

Microsoft 365 is no exception. While the cloud-based productivity suite has been making great strides with regard to data protection in general, Azure Active Directory is one avenue where Microsoft’s data loss prevention measures are still somewhat lacking.

Simeon Cloud frees your organization of all its Azure AD backup woes by securely storing your identity and access configurations in a cloud-based server each time a change is implemented. That includes everything from enterprise app registrations to user directory settings to conditional access policies, and much more. 

Learn more about how Simeon can boost your organization’s security posture by backing up your Azure AD configurations safely in the cloud!

This article covers:

• What Is Azure Active Directory?
• The Importance of Backing Up Your Azure AD Configuration
• Simeon’s Automatic Azure AD Backup and Restore Service

What Is Azure Active Directory?

Microsoft Azure Active Directory, also called Azure AD, is a cloud-based identity management and online authentication service that allows your organization’s employees to access a variety of external services and internal resources through single sign-on.

If you’re a Microsoft 365 user, enterprise or otherwise, you’re already using this service whether you know it or not. That’s because Active Directory is used to log into all Microsoft 365 applications and services, including Office 365 and Azure.

At any point in time, Active Directory stores a host of crucial data and configuration files that enable your organization’s workers to securely access various services needed for their jobs. That’s why it’s wise to back up your configuration files — to make sure that your employees don’t face issues accessing business-critical data and services in case of an error or outage.

The Importance of Backing Up Your Azure AD Configuration

Backups aren’t just for doomsday scenarios. Massive server attacks and data leaks do happen, but they’re not everything you need to secure your organization against. 

Human mistakes are a lot more common. Employees poking around in places they shouldn’t be, only to make unintentional changes with no way to roll them back to a previous state — that’s a lot more likely than an attack at one of the data centers at Microsoft. 

Azure Active Directory doesn’t just store data. Everything from user group settings to enterprise app registrations to conditional access policies lives within your Azure AD configuration files. If you don’t have a reliable way to back up these configurations, you may very well find yourself in a situation where you have to reconfigure everything from scratch just because one employee made a change they didn’t intend to.

Of course, backup and restore isn’t the only issue. You also need detailed documentation to develop an account of events in the event of an issue with your cloud ecosystem. Luckily, there’s a service that can help you do both.

Simeon’s Automatic Azure AD Backup and Restore Service

Simeon Cloud offers single-pane-of-glass configuration management software for Microsoft 365 that lets you automatically back up your Azure AD configuration each time a change is implemented within your tenant. 

Backups happen automatically, either periodically or when a new change is implemented within your Azure AD configuration. If something goes wrong, you can perform a granular restore of every single one of your configuration settings to any of its previous instances with one click. 

Simeon lets you back up and restore a wide variety of Azure AD configuration settings, including app registrations, company branding, custom domains, user directories, group memberships, diagnostic settings, security principles, and much more. 

Let’s take a look at the top benefits of backing up your Azure AD configuration settings with Simeon Cloud:

• Disaster Recovery: What do you do when your Azure AD services stop working as intended due to an accidental change implemented by someone within your organization? Simeon ensures that you can quickly bounce back from such scenarios by restoring things to a known good state.

• Organizational Accountability: Apart from backing up your configuration each time someone makes a change, Simeon also provides detailed documentation on who implemented the change and when. This helps ensure accountability within your enterprise and restrict access from unauthorized personnel.

• Forensic Discovery: Having detailed documentation on your Azure AD configuration status also helps in the event of an investigation or lawsuit. It enables you to go back in time to view the state of things like user permissions and role assignments throughout your organization before and after an incident.

Of course, Simeon offers a lot more than Azure AD backup services. In fact, it’s a full-scale security and compliance solution that lets you align your tenants to universal best practices. 

Simeon also makes it easier to manage multiple tenants seamlessly and lets you clone tenant configurations for better consistency. These services are available not just for Azure AD, but also for Office 365, Intune, and Azure.

Interested in learning more about what Simeon can do for your organization? Sign up for a quick demo to learn more!