Even though Google® and Microsoft® are fierce competitors, IT organizations often deploy their services together in the same environment.
We’re often asked if you can connect a Google Cloud Identity® with Azure®. This is beneficial so that end users accessing cloud infrastructure in Google Cloud Platform and Azure can use the same core credentials to access both, and those same credentials would enable them to access G Suite™ and Microsoft 365™ as well.
Although you can establish Azure Active Directory as the identity provider for Google Cloud Platform with some machinations, you can’t easily and natively use Google’s G Suite Directory or Google Cloud Platform identity services to extend identities to Azure. First, we’ll explore why these identities should be synced to these major platforms and then examine how to do so most efficiently through a third-party platform.
Why Sync Cloud Infrastructure Identities
Beyond productivity suites, many cloud-forward organizations use cloud infrastructure from both Google and Microsoft (as well as Amazon Web Services®). Each of these providers has their own user management system, and these tech titans focus on locking you into their platform and suite of tools.
However, you might have reasons to use more than one cloud infrastructure provider to ensure your organization has best-of-breed tools — like Microsoft’s data visualization service, Power BI, or Google’s analytics service, BigQuery.
By establishing core identities for users to access disparate cloud infrastructure providers, you can ensure you have centralized control over user access and avoid identity sprawl. It also improves the user experience because they don’t have to keep track of multiple sets of credentials to access their core services.
Centralized Identity Management For Cloud Infrastructure
The most straightforward way to achieve this is to establish an authoritative identity provider that sits as the center of your cloud infrastructure providers, as well as other corporate resources.
Cloud directory platforms are designed to seamlessly integrate with most resources via industry-standard protocols, and you can use them to extend your Google Cloud Identities not only to Azure but also AWS, devices, and networks.
Reference:https://securityboulevard.com/2020/09/connect-google-cloud-identity-with-azure/
