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PODCAST

Entra.Chat

Merill Fernando

Entra Chat is a weekly podcast hosted by Merill Fernando and delivers practical insights for Microsoft administrators and security professionals through conversations with identity experts who"ve been in the trenches. Episodes feature seasoned Entra practitioners sharing real-world deployment experiences and Microsoft Entra team members who build the features you use daily. Get the inside track on best practices, implementation strategies, and upcoming capabilities directly from those who design

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All Episodes

58:03

Red Team Secrets: How we bypass Conditional Access...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/08/29

In this episode of Entra.Chat, I dive deep with cybersecurity architect Fabian Bader into his research on bypassing poorly designed Microsoft Entra’s conditional access policies and what you can do about them. We also cover the game-changing new Group Source of Authority feature that lets you finally manage synced groups in the cloud, and share insights from Fabian’s work with MSRC to secure the platform—don’t miss this one if you want to stay ahead in cloud security!Subscribe with your favorite

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75:26

Inside Entra Resilience: Microsoft's Outage War...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/08/23

In this episode, I sit down with my boss, Tarek Dawoud, to pull back the curtain on what really happens during a major service outage. Tarek shares some incredible "war stories" from his time in the trenches, from the early days of DirSync where the team had to edit a sync file with a debugger to prevent an incident, to the massive outages of 2017 and 2018 that changed everything. We'll give you a peek into the high-stakes, quick-thinking world of a "live site" incident and reveal the groundbreaking

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65:41

Identity War Stories: Surviving the Domain Cutover...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/08/15

In this episode, I sit down with Conrad Murray, a seasoned expert who lives and breathes the complexities of IT migrations during mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures.We dive deep into the real-world challenges that companies face, from the political battles of deciding whose tenant to use, to the technical nightmares of migrating three-quarters of a petabyte of data for a major global firm.Conrad shares some incredible "war stories" about the single hardest part of any migration—the domain

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50:23

Don't Get Left Behind: The Future of Identity Governance

Entra.Chat ·

2025/08/09

In this episode we are joined by Jef Kazimer, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft to discuss the critical role of Microsoft Entra ID Governance. We explore the entire identity lifecycle from joiners, movers, and leavers (JML), the financial and security benefits of automated provisioning, and the pitfalls of legacy IGA solutions. Jef shares his extensive experience, from deploying complex MIM solutions to helping shape the future of cloud-native governance, and provides key insights into how AI

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53:37

The Zero Trust Mistakes 90% of Companies Are Making...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/08/02

In this eye-opening episode, I sit down with Microsoft's Clay and Ramiro, two Customer Experience (CxE) architects who've collectively run over 150 Zero Trust workshops with enterprise customers. They reveal the shocking gaps they consistently find—like customers spending millions on compliance policies but forgetting to actually block non-compliant devices with conditional access. We dive deep into their comprehensive Zero Trust Workshop framework that's become the "seventh wonder of the Excel

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44:33

Building Entra's CA AI Agent: A Creator's Perspective

Entra.Chat ·

2025/07/26

In this episode, I sit down with Jordan Dahl, a Product Manager on the Entra Conditional Access team, to discuss the newly GA'd Conditional Access Optimization Agent. Jordan shares the origin story of the agent, explaining how customer feedback about the difficulties of managing CA policies at scale led to its creation. We delve into how this AI-powered "digital colleague" works to identify and remediate security gaps, its future roadmap including Service Now integration and phased rollouts, and how

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55:14

The Unpopular Opinion: Why I Actually LIKE Hybrid Join

Entra.Chat ·

2025/07/18

In this exciting episode of Entra Chat, I dive into the world of Entra + Windows devices with the passionate and knowledgeable John Towles, a solution architect and MVP for Windows 365 and more. We unpack why Entra hybrid join is still relevant for some organizations, explore the ins and outs of Windows Autopilot, and reveal practical tips for navigating the complexities of modern device management. Plus, we share a sneak peek into the upcoming Workplace Ninjas US event and get a special

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55:01

Entra Chat 🎙️ → A master class with Entra’s Identity...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/07/11

In this episode, I sit down with Chetan Desai, a Principal Product Manager on the Microsoft Identity Governance team. We dive deep into a side of Entra that many admins never see: the critical "first mile problem" of getting identities into your system in the first place.We talk about the evolution from on-prem scripts and MIM to specific connectors for Workday and SuccessFactors and then to the new powerful, generic API-driven approach that can handle any HR system and the architectural decisions

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63:01

The Secret to Great Tech Content? A Masterclass in...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/07/04

In this episode, I chat with the legendary Tony Redmond, a prolific writer and author of "Office 365 for IT Pros". Tony shares unfiltered insights from his career, critiques the state of technical writing and AI, and discusses the challenges with PowerShell and the future of AI agents in the Microsoft ecosystem.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Tony RedmondTony Redmond is a well-known and prolific writer in the Microsoft 365 space. After a long career in large

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72:14

The Ultimate Guide to App Consent in Microsoft Entra

Entra.Chat ·

2025/06/27

In this episode, I sit down with Erin Greenlee, the Product Manager for App Consent on Microsoft’s App Platform Team. We dive into the critical world of app consent and the upcoming Microsoft 365 secure-by-default changes. We explore the nuances of user and admin consent, the impact of the mid-July 2025, policy shift, and how admins can prepare for a more secure Entra environment.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Erin GreenleeErin Greenlee is a Product Manager

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47:37

Pushing Microsoft Entra to its Limits to Secure...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/06/20

In this episode, we talk with an identity expert, ex-Microsoftie and Principal Domain Architect, Mark Renoden, about creating a modern Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution for on-premises Active Directory. Discover how to build a secure "Bastion Forest" architecture using Microsoft Entra. We talk about PIM for Groups, group write-back, phish-resistant credentials, Privileged Access Workstations (PAW), securing an Entra tenant from the ground up, and navigating challenges with Cloud Solution

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64:12

From Active Directory to AI Agents: The 25-Year Saga...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/06/14

In this very special episode, I sit down with the "Yoda of Entra" himself, Tarek Dawoud, who also happens to be my manager!We dig deep into the fascinating and often surprising history of Microsoft's identity platforms. Tarek, who has been on the team since 2007, takes us on a journey from the revolutionary launch of Active Directory in 1999, through the creation of the cloud services that battled Google Apps, to the formation of the identity division and the eventual rebrand to Entra.You'll hear

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58:35

From NetIQ to Cloud-Native Entra: A Decade-Long IAM...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/06/06

In this episode, we are joined by Maqsood Bhatti, the IAM Principal Engineer at Elkjøp Nordic, who takes us through their incredible journey of migrating from the legacy NetIQ platform to Microsoft Entra. What's fascinating is how they accomplished this years ago, completely bypassing traditional tools like Entra Connect and adopting a "production-only" environment. Maqsood shares how they built a truly cloud-native identity solution from the ground up, leveraging custom connectors, app roles, and

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58:40

Decommissioning On-Prem AD: Lessons Learned from We...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/05/30

Tobias Binkert, Head of IT at We Are Era, and Yusuke Kodama, Product Manager at Microsoft (who specialises in cloud-first identity, among many other things), join us to discuss We Are Era’s successful migration from on-premises Active Directory to a fully cloud-native Microsoft Entra ID environment.We delve into the motivations behind this significant shift with practical strategies for migrating devices using Microsoft Autopilot, modernizing applications, managing user accounts and groups in the

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53:28

Unmasking Entra ID Threats: A CrowdStrike...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/05/24

In this episode we chat with Sapir Federovsky, a Security Researcher at CrowdStrike, who shares her journey from military service to becoming an identity threat researcher.She discusses her learning methods, the importance of community, and the challenges of keeping up in the fast-paced world of Azure and Entra ID security.Sapir also delves into specific Entra ID features she focuses on, the critical role of prevention alongside detection, and her experiences as a woman in the tech industry.LinkedIn

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51:53

Microsoft's Entra Kerberos: Bridging Legacy AD to...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/05/17

In this episode we chat with Microsoft PM Jordan Gross about the exciting world of Entra Kerberos.Discover how this crucial feature bridges the gap between traditional on-premises Active Directory and the modern cloud, enabling seamless authentication for legacy applications in hybrid environments.Jordan delves into the mechanics of Entra Kerberos, its different operational modes (up-level and down-level trust), and its significance for organizations migrating to the cloud.We also explore MAM

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38:08

Entra & Azure Power-Up: Secure Service Principal...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/05/10

In this episode, Simon Gottschlag, CTO of Co-native and a Microsoft MVP in Azure, discusses his innovative prototype for implementing Azure service principal impersonation using Azure Functions and Key Vault.We explore the challenges of managing service principals, the journey to building a solution, and the potential for improving developer experience in platform building. Simon shares insights on the four-eyes principle, Entra ID's newer attribute-based access control (ABAC) vs the traditional

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46:18

Unlocking Entra ID's NEW QR Code Sign-In. Fast &...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/05/02

🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chatThis episode of Entra Chat features Anju Singh, a Product Manager at Microsoft in the Microsoft Entra Authentication Experiences team. We discuss the newest authentication method in Entra: QR codes!Anju answers heaps of questions in this deep dive including why Microsoft chose QR codes, how it works under the hood, what you should and shouldn't use it for, and the biggest question - is it considered MFA?LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjusingh29/Prefer

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67:52

Entra @ McDonald's: Managing 2.2 million workforce...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/04/25

George Roberts, Director of Identity Governance and Administration at McDonald's, shares his extensive experience in migrating the company's workforce identity platform from on-premises ADFS to Microsoft Entra.We also talk about challenges like handling unique frontline worker needs (including a creative paper-based MFA solution) and integrating with various applications.About GeorgeGeorge Roberts is the Director of Identity Governance and Administration at McDonald's, where he leads a global team

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38:33

Inside Entra Sync: Dhanyah, the Microsoft PM for...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/04/18

Join us for a conversation with Dhanyah Krishnamoorthy, Product Manager at Microsoft, as she discusses Microsoft Entra Connect Sync and Cloud Sync solutions for synchronizing on-premises Active Directory identities to Entra ID.Learn about Microsoft's overall strategy for syncing and what you can do to prepare for the future including security considerations and scaling guidance.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About DhanyahDhanyah Krishnamurthy is a Principal Product

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45 results

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