Azure SQL Database now supports Azure Active Directory authentication in public preview. Azure Active Directory authentication is a mechanism of connecting to Microsoft Azure SQL Database by using identities in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). With Azure Active Directory authentication you can centrally manage the identities of database users and other Microsoft services in one central location. Central ID management provides a single place to manage SQL Database users and simplifies permission management.
Benefits include:
- It provides an alternative to SQL Server authentication.
- Helps stop the proliferation of user identities across database servers.
- Allows password rotation in a single place
- Customers can manage database permissions using external (AAD) groups.
- It can eliminate storing passwords by enabling integrated Windows authentication and other forms of authentication supported by Azure Active Directory.
- Azure Active Directory authentication uses contained database users to authenticate identities at the database level.
For more information, visit the Microsoft documentation here. Contact us at Perficient and one of our 28 certified Azure consultants can help envision your Azure solution today!
