Lifecycle Management

  • 7 min read

OneLogin Vs. Azure Active Directory: Which User Lifecycle Management Tool Suitable for Your IT Teams?

Rohit Rao

13th August, 2023

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As a CIO, you may compare OneLogin and Azure Active Directory as possible user lifecycle management tools for your team. Both platforms offer essential user lifecycle management (ULM) capabilities, including user provisioning and deprovisioning, but they differ in a few key areas.

As a CIO, evaluating OneLogin’s identity lifecycle management (ILM) and Azure Active Directory (AAD) requires a comprehensive analysis of their respective capabilities and alignment with your IT team's requirements.

For instance, if your IT team prioritizes managing user identities and ensuring access to essential applications, OneLogin may be the ideal solution. However, Active Directory might be the simpler choice for an organization focusing on on-premise MFA and SSO.

Now, let us evaluate and compare both tools based on various parameters.

OneLogin vs. Azure AD - 5 Parameters to Compare Their ULM Capabilities

Let us explore the various factors that will help to make a distinctive comparison between the tools.

1. User provisioning and deprovisioning

With OneLogin, your team can efficiently manage user access across the systems and applications. OneLogin's user provisioning and deprovisioning features provide employees with seamless onboarding and offboarding experiences. It ensures that the right individuals have access to the right resources at the right time.

Firstly, OneLogin integrates with HR systems, such as Workday and BambooHR, enabling automatic user provisioning and deprovisioning based on HR data. This eliminates manual processes and reduces the risk of errors, ensuring that user access is granted or revoked promptly when employees join, change roles, or leave the organization.

Additionally, OneLogin supports customizable workflows for user provisioning. Your team can define the approval processes, such as multi-level manager approvals or IT department validations. This flexibility allows for tailored provisioning workflows aligning with your organization's security and compliance requirements.

Now, let's compare OneLogin's user provisioning and deprovisioning capabilities with those of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). While both solutions provide user provisioning and deprovisioning functionalities, there are some key differences to consider.

One significant distinction is OneLogin's comprehensive integration with HR systems. This integration allows for seamless user provisioning based on HR data, which can greatly simplify the onboarding process. 

On the other hand, Azure AD relies on manual or custom-built integrations to achieve similar functionality, which may require additional effort and maintenance for provisioning and deprovisioning processes.

Furthermore, OneLogin offers customizable workflows for user provisioning, allowing your team to define the approval processes. 

In contrast, Azure AD does offer user provisioning workflows, but they may be more limited in terms of customization options.

2. Integration with other tools

Without proper integration, your team can face a number of issues, including redundant data entry, lack of data accuracy, and poor collaboration between teams. Integration helps your team streamline IT operations and improve productivity by enabling systems to communicate and share data.

• OneLogin provides a comprehensive set of pre-built connectors and APIs, enabling seamless integration with a wide range of applications, including popular cloud-based solutions, on-premises systems, and custom-developed applications. 
  
  This extensive library of connectors ensures compatibility with diverse technology stacks, reducing the complexity of integration projects and accelerating time-to-value for your organization.
  
  OneLogin's integration capabilities also extend to various directories like LDAP, Active Directory, and HR systems, enabling a centralized and synchronized user management experience. This streamlines user provisioning, deprovisioning, and access control, reducing administrative overhead and ensuring consistent security policies across your enterprise.

• In contrast, Azure AD also provides integration capabilities, but it is more tightly coupled with the Microsoft ecosystem. Azure AD seamlessly integrates with Microsoft products and services such as Office 365, Azure services, and Windows devices. 
  
  Azure AD's integration capabilities can be advantageous if your organization heavily relies on Microsoft technologies. However, if you have a multi-vendor environment or require integration with various non-Microsoft systems, OneLogin's broader compatibility and flexibility make it a compelling choice.

3. User directory

Let's take a closer look at the differences between these two tools to help you make an informed decision for your user directory needs.

• OneLogin's user directory allows your team to manage user access to various applications and systems from a centralized location. It provides a comprehensive view of all user access within the organization, including user roles, permissions, and group memberships. 
  
  This makes it easier for your team to manage user access and ensure that the right users have access to the right applications and systems.
  
  Also, it provides a single source of truth for managing users that eliminates the need to manage user access across multiple systems and applications, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors. 
  
  Further, it provides automated user provisioning and deprovisioning, which can help to improve security and reduce the risk of data breaches.

• On the contrary, Azure Active Directory (AAD) is another popular user directory solution that provides a centralized location for managing user authentication and authorization for Windows-based systems and applications. 
  
  Like OneLogin, AD also provides a comprehensive view of all user access within the organization, including user roles, permissions, and group memberships.
  
  AD also provides a range of features, including group policies, that can be used to manage user access and permissions. 
  
  However, one of the limitations of Azure AD is that it only works with Windows-based systems and applications. If you have cloud-based applications or any non-windows systems, your team will need to use additional user directory solutions to connect them with AAD.

4. Multi-factor authentication capabilities

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) has become essential to modern IT infrastructure. It provides an additional layer of security to protect against unauthorized access to sensitive data, systems, and applications.

Let’s see how both tools provide MFA capabilities.

OneLogin offers robust multi-factor authentication (MFA) capabilities that greatly enhance user lifecycle management. It provides an additional layer of security, ensuring that only authorized individuals gain access to critical organization applications and data. 

With OneLogin's MFA, your team can protect against unauthorized access attempts and safeguard their valuable digital assets.

Firstly, OneLogin offers a wide range of authentication factors, including push notifications, one-time passwords (OTPs), biometric authentication, and hardware tokens. This enables your teams to choose the authentication method that best suits the organization’s security needs and user preferences. 

Additionally, OneLogin's MFA seamlessly integrates with your existing identity and access management systems, simplifying the deployment and management processes.

OneLogin also provides granular access controls, allowing your team to define MFA requirements for specific applications or user groups, further tailoring the authentication experience.

Several key differences emerge when comparing OneLogin's MFA capabilities to Azure AD's MFA. 

OneLogin offers a broader range of authentication factors, including biometric authentication and hardware tokens, which provide added security options beyond Azure AD's primarily Windows-based MFA methods. 

Azure AD's MFA also provides policy-based controls, but OneLogin's granular access controls offer greater flexibility in defining MFA requirements for specific applications or user groups. This level of customization enhances user experience and security, enabling your team to strike the right balance between usability and protection.

4. Pricing & ratings

OneLogin offers a subscription-based pricing model that is scalable and flexible to meet the unique needs of different businesses. This means that your organization only pays for the features you need and can easily adjust its plan as your organization grows and your needs change. 

Additionally, OneLogin offers transparent pricing that is easy to understand and budget for, which can help you effectively manage your costs and resources.

In contrast, AD's pricing model is typically based on a per-user license fee, which can become costly as an organization grows and requires more licenses.

Also, AD offers two editions: Standard and Datacenter. The Standard edition is designed for small and medium-sized businesses, while the Datacenter edition is designed for large enterprises with complex IAM requirements. The pricing for AD varies depending on the edition and the number of licenses required.

Customer ratings of OneLogin

• G2: 4.3/5

• Capterra: 4.6/5

Customer ratings of AAD

• G2: 4.5/5

• Capterra: 4.8/5

While AD and OneLogin offer similar capabilities, OneLogin's cloud-based approach and flexible pricing model make it a better option for your IT teams that need to manage user access to their applications and services. OneLogin's advanced features, like API access management, provide an added layer of security and convenience that AD cannot match.

If you've recently learned about OneLogin and Active Directory and their respective roles in user lifecycle management, you may now have a better understanding of which tool would be optimal for your IT team. However, there's another player in the market that you should know about – Zluri.

Zluri - An Intelligent User Lifecycle Management Platform

Zluri offers an intelligent user lifecycle management platform that automates provisioning and deprovisioning processes, making your IT team's everyday tasks easier. Zluri, with its automated onboarding and offboarding workflows, makes it easier for your IT admin to grant, modify, and revoke access to the right user with the right level of access to SaaS apps at the right time. 

For this, it integrates with your organization's HRMS to get all the updated employee details. 

Let's explore how Zluri works across the employee lifecycle stages to showcase its power and flexibility.

Effortlessly automate user provisioning

To begin employee onboarding in Zluri's interface, access the workflow module and choose the onboarding option from the drop-down menu. Click "New Workflow" to proceed.

Next, checkmark the user box for onboarding and choose the desired employee(s). You can use the search bar to find a specific employee. After selecting the employee(s), click "Continue" to proceed.

Zluri offers a personalized and flexible experience by providing contextual-based app recommendations based on the user's role, department, and relevant factors like seniority level. This ensures that new employees have a smooth onboarding experience, saving time and improving productivity.

It also provides in-app suggestions to your IT teams, helping them automate further tasks, such as adding users to relevant channels or sending them welcome messages, etc.

Workflows created in Zluri can be saved as "playbooks" for future reuse. This eliminates the effort and time required when onboarding employees with the same designation, user role, permission level, etc.

With a list of playbooks, your IT teams can avoid repetitive tasks and focus on more critical and strategic initiatives.

Simplify your ad-hoc request management 

Zluri helps streamline the app request process for employees and your IT teams. It offers a self-serve model -Employee App Store- where employees can now enjoy a hassle-free experience for requesting necessary apps in just a few clicks.

By establishing triggers and conditions based on factors like job roles and seniority levels, Zluri empowers your IT team to create automated workflows that swiftly and accurately approve every app request with minimal manual intervention.

Imagine having a content writer in your organization who needs the Grammarly tool. With Zluri, your team can set up automated workflows that trigger app approval requests specifically for content writers based on their roles within the organization. 

Moreover, by implementing seniority levels, your team can ensure that only authorized team members have the authority to approve or deny these requests, eliminating unnecessary delays or bottlenecks.

But that's not all. Zluri’s EAS gives your IT teams the control they need to manage app availability for employees, ensuring compliance with organizational policies and regulations. This proactive approach significantly reduces the risk of security breaches, as your IT teams can efficiently monitor all apps within the organization.

In addition, Zluri simplifies the procurement process for new apps your organization may need. If an employee requests an app that's currently unavailable, Zluri also offers SaaS buying services to help you quickly and easily procure it. This ensures your team remains productive as we free up your IT team to focus on more strategic initiatives.

Regarding negotiations, Zluri has a team of experts who can assist you in securing the best deals for your SaaS apps. Leveraging benchmark data, Zluri provides knowledge on fair pricing, strengthening your negotiation process, and ensuring optimal value for your organization.

By utilizing Zluri, you unlock the ability to save valuable time and boost employee productivity by effortlessly procuring the required apps and ensuring seamless access to the tools your employees need to succeed. 

Additionally, Zluri empowers your IT teams to discover, track, and manage the entire SaaS landscape within your organization.

Streamline user deprovisioning for enhanced efficiency

Zluri offers automated user deprovisioning, ensuring data security and compliance when employees leave. From Zluri's main interface, go to the workflow module. Select "offboarding" from the drop-down list and click "New Workflow."

Within the platform, choose the dedicated offboarding user box. Locate the desired employee(s) by scrolling or using the search bar. Click "Continue" after selecting users to offboard.

Review all applications that are accessible to the offboarded employee. Clicking on an application reveals suggested actions under recommended actions. Choose and execute the necessary actions for selected applications.

Additionally, save the workflow as a "playbook" for future use.

Interested in trying Zluri and seeing how it can provide a better user experience to the employees. Request a demo today!

About the author

Rohit Rao

Rohit works in the Community and Marketing Team of Zluri and is a strong advocate of community led growth.