We have roughly 70 users in Entra ID, and I'm reviewing our policies ahead of our first SOC 2 audit using Sprinto. I'm trying to decide whether a dedicated Entra ID backup solution is worth the cost. We rely heavily on Entra for Conditional Access policies, around 40 enterprise applications, dynamic groups, and attribute-based access. If the tenant suffered a major accidental or malicious deletion, I would currently be the only person responsible for rebuilding it. What level of backup or recovery planning would make sense for an organization like ours?
3 Answers
A useful way to judge this is to ask how badly a rogue deletion or configuration disaster would affect the business, and how long you could operate without the tenant. Entra doesn’t provide the same kind of straightforward backup and failover experience that traditional domain controllers did. Documenting the configuration is a start, but automated backups and tested restoration could be worthwhile when so many access workflows depend on it.
It may be worth comparing tenant-configuration backup products rather than buying a standalone tool immediately. Some Microsoft 365 backup providers, including Veeam, Cohesity, and Druva, offer Entra-related protection. A product such as CoreView may also be useful because it can back up configuration, show changes over time, and help compare settings against security benchmarks. Those audit and change-tracking features could also support your SOC 2 evidence, although you should confirm exactly what your auditor requires.
The answer depends on how much of your environment depends on Entra. If it’s only basic identity for 70 users, manually recreating the tenant might be acceptable and a dedicated product may not justify the expense. But if Entra is also the foundation for Microsoft 365, Conditional Access, enterprise applications, groups, and other integrations, the recovery effort could be significant. In that case, a Microsoft 365 backup platform that includes Entra configuration may be a practical option.
We use Entra extensively, including detailed Conditional Access policies, about 40 enterprise apps, dynamic groups, and attribute-based access. If the tenant were damaged today, I’d be in serious trouble rebuilding everything alone.
That’s exactly my concern. I understand the backup would mainly cover configuration such as Conditional Access, groups, and related settings, and we would be in a very difficult position without it.