Microsoft is a 5-time Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Access Management

We are honored that Gartner recognized Microsoft as a Leader in Gartner® Magic Quadrant^TM for Access Management in Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). In addition, Microsoft has placed the farthest right on the “Completeness of Vision” axis.

None of this is possible without you, our passionate customers. You help shape our vision and roadmap, and it is your short- and long-term priorities that guide our investments for a comprehensive identity solution. We value your partnership as we work together on adapting to hybrid work and defending against advanced and persistent threats. As your needs continue to evolve, these emerging trends are shaping our product vision:

1. Zero Trust drives deeper integration of access control across digital environments

As cyberattacks intensify and attackers explore seams in cyber defenses, it is increasingly important to protect your digital environments end-to-end. A Zero Trust strategy is a business necessity in order to take a proactive and integrated approach to security. We’re advancing Zero Trust security by integrating access control across Zero Trust pillars, such as endpoint management with Microsoft Endpoint Manager, threat protection with Microsoft Defender, and networks with secure hybrid access partnerships with network security vendors. We will continue to add innovative, fine-grained access controls that can be consistently applied across your entire digital estate.

2. Multi-cloud digital environments demand multi-cloud security and governance

You’ve told us that your companies already operate in a multi-cloud world and that you need us to deliver solutions that protect you across all the cloud services your organization uses. We’ve heard you and we also know that digital transformation and multi-cloud architectures are driving explosive growth in workload identities and permissions across your multi-cloud IT estate. As these identities and permissions multiply, they expand the attack surface and increase your risk. Earlier this year, we acquired CloudKnox to ensure that you can discover, organize, and manage permissions for all identities across all your clouds. This is part of a larger effort on how we protect identities while also managing and governing their access.

3. Growing a digital ecosystem and ubiquitous decentralized computing require a new trust fabric

As more interactions turn digital, the role of identity is expanding. Today, not only employees but also partners, customers, creators, digital services, and smart devices all collaborate online. And you need ways for all of them to establish trust in real-time. Identity is becoming a critical system not just for organizations but for society at large because it is the only system that can establish ubiquitous trust in a digital world. Together with partners across the industry, we’re building the digital identity systems that will serve as a trust fabric for the ubiquitous, decentralized digital ecosystem of the future with our decentralized identity

Thank you for your continued partnership and trust. We look forward to building this new era of identity with you.

Learn more

We invite you to read the full Gartner® Magic Quadrant^TM for Access Management report.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Microsoft.

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Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Access Management, By Henrique Teixeira, Abhyuday Data, Michael Kelley. 1 November 2021.