Entra Chat 🎙️ → A master class with Entra’s Identity Provisioning Wizard!

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 behind it. Chetan also gives us a masterclass on how the provisioning engine differs from the Graph API and provides advice for anyone looking to migrate from a legacy Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) solution. Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇 About Chetan Desai Chetan Desai is a Principal Product Manager at Microsoft on the Entra team. For the past seven years, he has been a core part of the Entra Identity Governance and Provisioning team. Before his time at Microsoft, Chetan spent 17 years in consulting within the identity and access management domain , bringing a wealth of real-world deployment and integration experience to his product management role. 🔗 Related Links * Application and HR provisioning documentation * Provisioning with SCIM * API-driven inbound provisioning concepts 📗 Chapters 00:34 The "First Mile Problem" in Identity 04:51 From AD Sync to HR-Driven Provisioning 09:52 The Entra Provisioning Service Architecture 16:17 Hybrid vs. Cloud-Only Identity Flows 19:17 Beyond Workday: The Need for a Generic Connector 27:43 The Great Debate: CSV vs. SQL vs. API 35:34 Provisioning API vs. Graph API: What's the Difference? 43:24 The Latest Evolution: Custom Security Attributes 49:26 Advice for Migrating to Modern IGA Podcast Apps 🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat 🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple 📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube 📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify 🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast 🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast 🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rss Merill's socials 📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx 👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill 🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill 🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf 🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net 🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill 🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf 🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe