Microsoft earlier this week confirmed the general availability of the new Office 365 Admin Center starting January 31, 2017. The software giant also made it clear that the new Office 365 Admin Center will be made the sole option for IT admins to manage tenants.
The new Office 365 Admin Center comes with a revamped look and feels — much akin to the one deployed in the Microsoft Security and Compliance Center. The upgrade has ensured that the new Admin Center can present data more logically and more accessible.
As pointed out by the folks over at Microsoft-focused publication RedmondMag, the Windows maker is now offering Office 365 users access to Azure AD for free. That essentially means that Office 365 admins will now be able to create or manage user accounts using Azure AD at no extra cost.
For the uninitiated, Azure AD (Active Directory) is Microsoft’s multitenant cloud-based directory and identity management service that merges advanced identity governance, core directory services, as well as application access management. It fetches a convenient and rich platform for IT admins to deliver access control to their application as per the applicable centralized policies and rules.
Worth noting, the free Azure AD is offer is not confined to Office 365 subscribers only, but also to Enterprise Mobility Suite and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online subscribers. While the company hinted that this free offer could be extended across other services as well, no specifics details were provided.
There are some limitations, though. The free offer can be availed by only those who have already paid for an Office 365 subscription.
As of now, Microsoft is only allowing free access to the Azure AD service, meaning other Azure services including the likes of virtual machine and databases are not covered in this free offer.