Microsoft Entra has redefined what’s possible in modern identity. Its pace of innovation is accelerating. Security standards like Zero Trust, passwordless access, and continuous compliance are now well within reach — but only in theory.

In practice, too many programs stall — not because Entra is lacking, but because legacy systems can’t keep up. And the biggest surprise? It’s not just technical debt that’s the problem — it’s the invisible architecture gap between old and new.

UNIFY’s latest research confirms what boards and CIOs have begun to sense: The biggest challenge in identity modernisation isn’t cloud maturity. It’s connecting what’s in the cloud with what still matters on-prem.

The Hidden Barrier Behind Identity Program Failure

Cloud platforms like Microsoft Entra are functionally rich — but they weren’t designed to directly replace every legacy identity source or governance flow inside a large enterprise.

Today’s identity stacks still include:

• On-premises HR systems and authoritative sources
• Legacy AD and LDAP structures
• Applications hard-coded to old authentication patterns (Kerberos, WAM, SAML 1.1)
• Disconnected workflows across governance, audit, and access provisioning

According to analyst commentary and technical guides published throughout 2024–2025, the inability to connect these systems to Entra is the most commonly cited cause of slowdowns, manual workarounds, and cloud migration risk.

Integration Is No Longer a Backend Concern — It’s the Program Enabler

When critical identity data can’t flow cleanly across systems, modernisation stalls:

• Zero Trust breaks down without unified access policy enforcement
• Compliance evidence becomes fragmented
• Business units revert to local control because centralised models can’t reach them

UNIFY’s program experience reflects what the research shows: even well-architected Entra rollouts fail to deliver value if integration is treated as a later phase — or worse, assumed to be solved by default.

In reality, success depends on orchestration:

• Synchronising authoritative data from on-prem systems and HR platforms into Entra
• Delivering policy and control to legacy apps that still matter
• Sequencing change to preserve business continuity across complex hybrid environments

The Future Isn’t Delayed — It Just Needs a Bridge

While some Microsoft partners focus only on migrating cloud-ready workloads, UNIFY helps customers bridge the hard part: the identity, access, and governance functions still tied to legacy systems.

Through integration platforms built specifically to align Microsoft Entra with existing authoritative sources, we enable:

• Faster onboarding and deprovisioning across cloud and on-prem apps
• Real-time policy enforcement without needing every app rewritten
• Continuity of governance across staged migrations

These are not edge cases. They are the defining integration challenges of every Entra program we lead.

At UNIFY, that bridge is already real. It’s called UNIFYConnect — and it’s how our customers are closing the hybrid gap, without waiting on any roadmap.

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