Azure AD vs miniOrange

Why should you choose miniOrange over Microsoft Azure AD?

This differentiating document is based on our experience and customer feedback across many platforms (G2, Capterra, Gartner Peer Insights), which depict how miniOrange is the best Azure AD alternative compared to other IAM providers. It covers major aspects and reasons why enterprises look outside of Microsoft's licensing scheme.

1. Advanced RADIUS Solution

The majority of businesses have begun to migrate their IT infrastructure to the cloud. However, a VPN or remote access approach is frequently used to protect their current environments. All of these approaches are compatible with the RADIUS protocol. "For these types of use cases, Microsoft Azure AD MFA partially supports the RADIUS protocol. It also necessitates the installation of a Network Policy Server (NPS) server, which adds to the setup difficulty. RADIUS features are limited to a few VPN providers."

1. Full fledge MFA solution for RADIUS-based Clients

miniOrange, as compared to Azure AD, provides a fully functional pre-integrated RADIUS solution. This aids in the support of a wide range of legacy VPN and Remote Desktop Environment use cases. It provides settings for practically all major VPN providers, as well as a competitive advantage.

2. Protecting Windows Desktop Login

Nowadays, protecting Windows Desktop Login is a new security mandate. macOS endpoints are also becoming more popular in the corporate world. Because business leaders, technical administrators, software developers, and security teams use both Windows and macOS, safeguarding this attack vector should be a top priority.

"For Windows Logon, Microsoft Azure AD hasn't been able to provide an exact MFA solution. Working with Linux and Mac OS systems also necessitates extra resources."

1. Protect Windows Logon, Linux, macOS & RDP with MFA




Windows Logon credential provider from miniOrange can be installed on both Windows desktops and Windows servers. Anyone attempting to connect to Windows directly or remotely via RDP (or another specified connection) will be asked to provide MFA. Only Domain or Local Administrators can be prompted for MFA when RDPing into servers, limiting access for users outside of this group and reducing the risk of credential misuse.




The miniOrange macOS and Linux MFA solution may be easily implemented to supplement the usual workflow and provide safe access to macOS and Linux devices, greatly decreasing the risk of unauthorized access to the business environment

3. Extended MFA Capabilities

The added layer of protection provided by MFA ensures that the information being accessed is safe from phishing, malware, hacking, and other threats. A b MFA configuration ensures that your organization's Identity and Access Management (IAM) is secure and that your resources are protected.

Additional steps are required to enable Microsoft MFA services. When it comes to MFA authentication, Azure only offers a few options; it misses out on popular authenticator-based techniques Authy and Google Authenticator, Push Notifications, Hardware Token, etc. Adaptive Authentication functionality is not in an optimum mode."

Using miniOrange as an alternative to Azure AD, enabling MFA is as simple as logging into the admin portal, selecting one of the MFA methods, configuring it, and enabling MFA. There is no need to follow complex configuration steps to set up On-premise MFA. miniOrange also provides an on-the-go Adaptive Authentication solution, which allows you to authenticate your staff and clients based on their IP address, location, and login time.

4. Advanced SSO with User Groups Capabilities

Along with standard SSO login capabilities, there are some unique characteristics that provide SSO with a competitive edge. On-the-fly user creation, policy configuration, and effective user group management are just a few examples.

Azure falls short of giving the finest of the aforementioned features. The admin must still create the user on the on-premises active directory server before creating the user in Azure Active Directory. The policies under the conditional access controls in Azure do not offer a one-click on/off option. User group capability features for better management of access and rights among users, as well as temporarily disabling users (you can only delete the user), are missing aspects in the SSO functionality.

With miniOrange, you can set up SSO for both Workforce and Customer Identity across multiple Apps. All contemporary protocols, such as SAML, OAuth/Open ID, JWT, and tacacs, can be used to integrate with any app. On the other hand, it includes Azure and allows for on-the-fly user creation with real-time sync for all integrated directories and databases (No need for manual intervention). Users and groups may be simply maintained, with the possibility to disable users temporarily.

5. Multi-Directory Management

Organizations have a variety of directories for different types of users and employees. One of the main reasons that firms must maintain several directories is because of acquisitions and mergers. Managing and sustaining all of these multi-domain settings is time consuming and costly. If not carefully considered, security risks may arise.

1. miniOrange Directory Integration

   
   

   One of miniOrange's primary features, unified directory integration, allows real-time bidirectional synchronization across various directories. A wide range of directories are supported, including Microsoft Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, and Google Workspace, as well as connections with any of the local databases.

   
   

   miniOrange functions as an IDP, serving as a single source of truth for all digital user identities and the applications and resources to which they have access. With the Unified method, new- joiners, promotions, and leavers may be handled automatically as well: if a user is disabled/deleted anywhere, their access to all other directories is likewise disabled in real-time, thanks to the bidirectional synchronization capabilities.




2. User Lifecycle Management

   
   

   Onboarding is automatically controlled from the parent directory, (Azure AD, Microsoft AD, Google Directory) where accounts are synchronized to miniOrange IAM. The synchronization control is very granular depending on domain or group membership. Once onboarded, the user can continue to use their existing password, reducing friction and ease of adoption.

6.Exceptional Support from Technical Experts

When it comes to implementing overall Identity and Access Management for organizational security, timely and effective support is essential. Organizations don't just need assistance when something breaks down; they also require direction and advice on best practices or solutions for dealing with business difficulties.

"The greatest issues we get from Azure users are being forced to search high and low for a phone number to speak to someone who can help or being directed to non-technical 1st line support."

1. 24*7 Dedicated Focused Support

   
   

   As an alternative to Azure AD, a specialized Client Experience support team at miniOrange ensures that every customer encounter is of the highest quality. Each call is sent directly to an expert Technical Engineer, avoiding the time-consuming and sometimes irritating process of navigating faceless automated chatbots.

   
   

   We try to keep customer communications consistent by routing calls to engineers that have previously worked with the customer. This gives us a better perspective and understanding of the customer's environment, resulting in faster call closure times and higher customer satisfaction.

   
   

   Customers frequently benefit from our unique consultative service in addressing business concerns, in addition to receiving high levels of support and working closely with our skilled development team.

   
   

7. Easy installation and migration

Feature-driven products that are difficult to set up appear to be a time-consuming tasks for organization administrators. Organizations want solutions that are simple to set up, and the migration procedure appears to be as simple as a single click.

"The setup and migration process of Azure Active Directory is complex, especially for non-Microsoft products," most customers say, and it takes a long time. On-premise Active Directory to Azure Active Directory synchronization is fairly buggy. To clean up name conventions that Azure Active Directory does not support, manual intervention is usually required.

1. Quick and Easy Deployment

   
   

   miniOrange is a simple-to-install On-Premise and Cloud solution that can be used in any environment. Integrate with any directory, such as Azure Active Directory, LDAP, Active Directory, and any database can be used to perform one-click migration and synchronization. With an added advantage to it, miniOrange offers a quick time deployment.

8. Proper Administration and management

1. Pre-Configured Integrations

   Take advantage of the huge application catalog's pre-built application integrations. Single Sign-On (SSO) to the applications is enabled in a few clicks by automatically creating identity provider (IdP) URLs and certificates with built-in documentation.




2. Timely Auditing

   The ability to visualize both live and historical activity is provided by an appealing, easy-to-understand dashboard that captures user metrics such as login activity, license count, agent connection status, throughput, and application access. It also helps to get a deeper understanding of how your end-users access apps and whether you have potential security risks.




3. Self-Service Capabilities

   Reduce help desk costs by allowing users to reset their passwords securely through self-service password reset. Either a web portal, a point of logon, or the mobile app itself can start and finish the lost password recovery process.

9. Simple navigation and a clean UI

Easy GUI, in addition to specialized features and functionality, is the primary point of contact for administrators. Every network administrator needs proper navigation with high-level functions at a glance.

Azure falls short in this area; their user interface is unclear. It appears to be highly user-friendly, however there are far too many options. Finding what we're looking for can be difficult at times.

1. Simple Intuitive Dashboard

   
   

   miniOrange, as compared to Azure AD, has a simple and intuitive user interface, with the bulk of important features apparent right away. The menus and navigation are simple, straightforward, and intuitive. Configurations are not hidden behind layered menus and are simply accessible.This allows administrators to quickly become acquainted with the user interface. Because configurations are often applied only once, there is little need to tweak the solution on a regular basis.

10. Effective Pricing

Given the fact that small and mid-sized businesses are growing rapidly these days. Their business part is cracked by a solution that meets their needs at a reasonable price.

The Microsoft Licensing Policy is just too complex. Their P1 and P2 subscriptions, which include most of the popular IAM features, cost roughly $6 per user per month with a $599 minimum. The majority of people have commented that their Azure On-Premise Infrastructure and setups are highly expensive.

miniOrange, compared to AzureAD, excels in the pricing department, with the most cost-effective per-user Workforce IAM solutions. miniOrange uses a special tier-based pricing structure for customer-specific (B2C) IAM services, making user authentication very economical.