Active Directory vs. Entra ID (Azure AD)
NewThe old name, Azure Active Directory, made it sound like the cloud version of Active Directory, but the two work differently. Active Directory runs on a company's own Windows servers and manages office PCs, file shares and Group Policy. Entra ID (renamed from Azure AD in 2023) is Microsoft's cloud sign-in service for Microsoft 365 and other web apps. Most companies run both, synced together, and many admins know only one of them well.
How to tell them apart on a resume
Active Directory (on-premises)
Domain controllers, Group Policy (GPO), OUs, DNS and DHCP, Windows Server, file and print servers: system administrator and IT infrastructure roles.
Entra ID (cloud)
Conditional Access, single sign-on to SaaS apps, MFA, Intune, the Microsoft 365 admin centre, app registrations: cloud identity and modern-workplace roles.
The question that settles it
“Was your work on the on-premises Active Directory, such as domain controllers and Group Policy, or on Entra ID in the cloud, such as Conditional Access and single sign-on?”
Each term in plain English
- Active Directory
Microsoft's directory for company networks: it holds every user, computer and group, checks logins, and applies settings to machines through Group Policy (GPOs).
Ask “Beyond creating users, what have you designed or changed in Active Directory, such as Group Policy, domain structure, or syncing with Entra ID?”
- Azure Active Directory / Entra ID
Microsoft's identity and access management service (recently rebranded Entra ID) — Azure's direct equivalent to AWS IAM, also widely used for enterprise single sign-on.
Ask “Was your Azure AD / Entra ID experience about securing cloud resources, enabling company-wide SSO, or both?”
- Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online
Running a company's Microsoft email and collaboration services: Exchange for mailboxes, plus Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive, along with licences and security settings.
Ask “Were you part of a move from Exchange Server to Microsoft 365? What was your part, and what went wrong?”
Open the full tool for the other look-alike pairs, role profiles, and the JD decoder.