Entra ID and Microsoft Accounts in CIAM Tenant

Jeremy 136 Reputation points
2024-04-09T16:32:06.2133333+00:00

I'm a bit confused with how some of the Identity options work in the new CIAM External Identities tenant. Let's say I have some customers who want to access my applications using Local accounts (email), and others who want to authenticate using either their Entra ID, or Microsoft Accounts.

If I allow users to self service register, then there appears to be no options for using Entra ID or Microsoft Accounts as their was in the B2C tenant.

If I only create accounts administratively, then it appears to be that I need to make guest accounts for everybody. As it wouldn't be clear looking at an email, if that person would need a local account or not. If I end up going this route, then what are the benefits of using a CIAM tenant? (Since I wouldn't have any Customer objects) Ideally there would be some reporting or self-service user flows available to Customers of some kind (like the B2C edit my profile flow)

[UPDATE] As an example, the old B2C tenant had Microsoft Account on the User Flows IDP Selection List

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But the new CIAM tenant doesn't have this. So where is the parity?

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Side Question 1: It appears that both user types can use the user flows for sign in, which appears good. But are there issues with having Guests using External Identities User Flows? It feels off, but perhaps I'm too used to B2C.
Side Question 2: Is it possible to have the customers authenticate to marketplace SaaS apps? Or can customers ONLY authenticate using the External Identities User Flows?

Microsoft Entra External ID
Microsoft Entra External ID
A modern identity solution for securing access to customer, citizen and partner-facing apps and services. It is the converged platform of Azure AD External Identities B2B and B2C. Replaces Azure Active Directory External Identities.
2,650 questions
Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft Entra ID
A Microsoft Entra identity service that provides identity management and access control capabilities. Replaces Azure Active Directory.
19,547 questions
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  1. Shweta Mathur 27,711 Reputation points Microsoft Employee
    2024-04-15T07:29:43.7133333+00:00

    Hi @Jeremy ,

    Thanks for reaching out.

    Since this feature is still in preview and continuously evolving, our product team is actively working on integrating Microsoft and Entra ID Federation into Microsoft Entra External ID soon.

    However, at this moment, we don't have a specific timeline for its release.

    Thanks for your time and patience.

    Hope this will help.

    Thanks,

    Shweta

    Please remember to "Accept Answer" if answer helped you.

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  1. Babafemi Bulugbe 1,870 Reputation points MVP
    2024-04-10T06:14:14.4066667+00:00

    Hello Jeremy,

    Thank you for posting this in the Microsoft Q&A Community.

    From my understanding, you would like to know how the user flow works in Entra ID B2B works.

    Please note that this is strictly for guest accounts and not a CIAM type of Identity management. Entra ID B2B is a business-to-business collaboration as against Azure B2C which gives customers the ability to authenticate to your application with their preferred identity provider and also gives them the ability to create a local account. The type of account created within the Azure B2C for customers using the user flow is known as a consumer account. This consumer account cannot manage any Entra ID objects.

    In Entra ID, users that authenticate using the Self Service Sign-up are created as a Guest account in the tenant and can manage tenant Objects with the right permissions assigned to them.

    When creating a sign-up, you can add External Identity Providers as it is in Azure B2C.

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    Follow this link to get more information on how to configure this...

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/external-id/customers/how-to-user-flow-sign-up-sign-in-customers

    Let me know if this answers your question.

    Babafemi