In this episode, I sit down with Jordan Dahl, a Product Manager on the Entra Conditional Access team, to discuss the newly GA'd Conditional Access Optimization Agent. Jordan shares the origin story of the agent, explaining how customer feedback about the difficulties of managing CA policies at scale led to its creation. We delve into how this AI-powered "digital colleague" works to identify and remediate security gaps, its future roadmap including Service Now integration and phased rollouts, and how you can get started with it in your own tenant.

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About Jordan

Jordan is a Product Manager on the Entra Conditional Access team at Microsoft. Her current focus is on the Conditional Access Optimization Agent. Previously, she was a PM for per-policy reporting in Conditional Access and for Groups within Entra.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-dahl-840182127/

🔗 Related Links

* Conditional Access optimization agent in Microsoft Entra

📗 Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:31 The Origin of the CA Optimization Agent

05:08 How the Agent Works

07:40 Autonomous Policy Changes?

12:39 How to Deploy the Agent

16:12 Customizing the Agent's Behavior

23:59 Upcoming Agent Features: Phased Rollouts & ServiceNow

29:45 The Future: A "Digital Colleague"

35:08 How to Give Feedback

41:09 Getting Started: Your Action Items

Podcast Apps

🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat

🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple

📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube

📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify

🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast

🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast

🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rss

Merill's socials

📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx

👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill

🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill

🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf

🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net

🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill

🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf

🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill

In this very special episode, I sit down with the "Yoda of Entra" himself, Tarek Dawoud, who also happens to be my manager!

We dig deep into the fascinating and often surprising history of Microsoft's identity platforms. Tarek, who has been on the team since 2007, takes us on a journey from the revolutionary launch of Active Directory in 1999, through the creation of the cloud services that battled Google Apps, to the formation of the identity division and the eventual rebrand to Entra.

You'll hear the inside story on how our customer experience team became a "secret weapon" and, most excitingly, we'll look at what the future holds for Identity and Access Management in the new age of AI agents.

Watch on YouTube

PS. Can I ask a favor? If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and rating! Thank you 🙏 - Merill

About Tarek Dawoud

Tarek Dawoud is a long-time veteran at Microsoft, having been with the company for over 18 years. Tarek currently leads the architecture team within the customer engineering (CXE) organization, where he helps customers deploy Entra, gathers insights for the product group, and works to solve the hardest identity problems.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarekdawoud/

🔗 Related Links

📗 Chapters

00:00 Intro

08:58 The Beginning: The Vision of Active Directory (AD)

14:51 The Consumer Side: Microsoft Passport & The Standards Debate

18:29 A Defensive Play: How Google Apps Sparked Microsoft's Cloud Identity

27:21 The First Merger: Active Directory & Cloud Teams Unite

32:03 The Birth of Conditional Access & The Authenticator App

42:52 The Security Re-org: Identity Moves to a New Home

45:30 A New Era: Rebranding to Entra

48:52 The Future is Now: AI, Agentic Identities, and the End of PowerShell?

Podcast Apps

🎙️ Entra.Chat → https://entra.chat

🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple

📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube

📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify

🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast

🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast

🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rss

Merill's socials

📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx

👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill

🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill

🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf

🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net

🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill

🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf

🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill