Microsoft Email OTP for Enhanced BYOI Options

Businesses are increasingly relying on digital solutions to better integrate their B2B partners into their ecosystem for secure and seamless collaboration. Such a solution allows external users to access the organization’s resources using their existing identities. In this approach to digital authentication, called bring your own identity (BYOI), the user credentials are managed by a third-party solution provider.

Microsoft empowers businesses with these capabilities using Azure Active Directory. With Azure Active Directory External Identities, businesses can secure and manage the digital experience for their customers and partners beyond their organization’s boundaries. In this article, let us explore how the new Microsoft Email OTP enhances BYOI options for business.

How Does Azure AD External Identities Work?

Azure AD External Identities offers flexible and customizable solutions for organizations to connect and collaborate with external users.

• External users, including partners, can sign up and sign in to access the organization’s resources using their existing social media IDs, phone numbers, or enterprise credentials.
• Organizations with Azure AD subscriptions can customize the sign-in experiences to enable partners to collaborate using Office 365, SaaS, or other custom line of business (LOB) applications.
• Admins can implement advanced intelligent security features, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and governance policies to protect identities and monitor security risks when external users access the organization’s data.
• This implementation eliminates the need for synchronization and manual lifecycle management overheads as partners do not require Azure AD.

How Does Microsoft Email One-Time Passcode Authentication Help?

The email OTP feature can be used to authenticate B2B guest users who need to collaborate with the organization’s employees for a short duration. Here is how an organization with Azure AD can collaborate with external users when the email one-time passcode feature is enabled.

• Users in the organization can share a link or send an invitation via email.
• Guest users who accept the invitation will prove their identities with the verification code that they receive by email. The verification code sent to their email is valid for 30 minutes.
• Once the guests have been authenticated, they can use the resources shared with them for 24 hours.
• At the end of each session, the user will have to renew access using a new verification code sent to the same email address to prove that they continue to own the email address and are authorized to access the shares resources.

Apps4Rent Can Help in Azure AD Configuration

While the email one-time passcode feature will be turned on for all tenants from March 2021, including the existing ones, Microsoft will not support unmanaged (“viral” or “just-in-time”) Azure AD for B2B collaboration.

Azure AD External Identities uses the Monthly Active Users (MAU) pricing model for billing and is available with Azure AD Premium P1 and Premium P2 licensing in which the first 50,000 MAUs are free for either plan. As a Tier 1 Microsoft CSP with Gold Competency in Cloud Platform and Cloud Productivity, Apps4Rent can help you implement Azure AD based on your organization’s requirements. Contact our Microsoft certified Azure consultants, available 24/7 via phone, chat, and email for assistance.