Entra ID Tenancy Strategies for Complex Organizations

• Entra ID is a core component of Microsoft 365 services, but it has limitations that must be understood when licensing and deploying those services.
• The limitations of Entra ID and Microsoft 365 may lead organizations to deploy multiple tenancies (instances) of Entra ID.
• Entra ID was not designed with multiple tenancies and complex synchronization in mind, but it is slowly being enhanced to support aspects of tenancy coexistence.

Most commercial Microsoft online services require the use of Entra ID to manage identity, access management, licensing, and additional service functionality for users and devices. To deploy these online services effectively around the world or across organizational boundaries, customers need to understand and plan around the current limitations of Entra ID before rolling out any Entra ID–dependent Microsoft services. Failing to adequately plan can result in management and collaboration complexity, limitations in services, and additional unexpected costs. In addition, decisions made early in the process of rolling out Entra ID and Microsoft 365 services will have long-term ramifications and can be difficult to address later without needing to start over entirely.