Zero Trust and Cloud identity security: SAP + Microsoft use cases

Zero Trust architecture has evolved from a security framework into a business-critical imperative for enterprises running SAP environments in 2026. Organisations managing hybrid and cloud-based SAP deployments now face unprecedented identity-based threats, with credential compromise accounting for 31% of all data breaches over the past decade, according to Verizon's 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report.

The integration of Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) with SAP security baselines offers a powerful defence mechanism that addresses these vulnerabilities while meeting the escalating compliance demands identified by IDC's 2026 enterprise security priorities.

The Evolving Threat Landscape for SAP Environments

The complexity introduced with hybrid SAP implementations that involve on-premise ERP solutions combined with cloud solutions such as SuccessFactors or Ariba no longer protects IT assets in a way that can be guaranteed with perimeter security solutions, as these introduce intricate attack surfaces that are not well-guarded with perimeter-centric security solutions. The attack vector is based on credentials, where 36% of attacks involve spear phishing attacks, with 24% being attacks where credentials are stolen straight away.

Such data emphasises an important risk that more and more threats take advantage of identity-related vulnerabilities to jump from cloud-based SAP applications and into core mainframe systems via insecure APIs and interfaces.

The scattered visibility within hybrid environments exacerbates this risk. Security operations centres often fail to correlate suspicious cloud login attempts with unusual API traffic in on-premises systems, allowing attackers to establish footholds in cloud environments before laterally moving to exfiltrate sensitive financial data from core SAP ERP systems.

Microsoft Entra ID Integration: A Zero Trust Foundation

Integration of Microsoft Entra ID with SAP systems helps build a holistic identity management infrastructure that protects against the risks associated with the vulnerabilities described through continuous verification principles. Integration of Microsoft Entra ID with SAP helps organisations enable Single Sign-On functionality with their SAP applications, thereby removing the need to have unique passwords, specifically with SAP systems.

Indeed, more critically, it also enables compliance with company-wide Multi-Factor Authentication Policies on SAP systems, ensuring vital protection against stolen credentials.

This architecture utilises authentication from Microsoft Entra ID and ensures that both SAP Identity Authentication Service (IAS) and SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) are retained for authorisation. This will give organisations the capability to manage all their identities centrally from the perspective of Microsoft Entra ID, and, at the same time, reduce total cost through automated authentication within the Microsoft and SAP ecosystems. Microsoft groups can be correlated with Role Collections in the IAS/BTP.

Unified Threat Detection with Microsoft Sentinel

In addition to managing identity, the integrations of SAP Security Audit Logs with Microsoft Sentinel, which is the cloud-native Security Information and Event Management solution by Microsoft-provide end-to-end visibility from application through to infrastructure. This is countering the disjointed visibility that permits stealthy attacks to remain undetected.

The security operation teams get a single pane of glass to correlate SAP security events and Azure infra data, so attack chains that cross cloud and on-premises infra can be detected.

Azure Infrastructure Security Baseline for SAP

Microsoft has established a security standard for SAP on the Azure computing system. This standard consists of implementing a Transparent Data Encryption technique (TDE), which will encrypt any SAP database, and create a method of managing the encryption (keys) in either the Azure Key Vault or Hardware Security Module.

Testing to date indicates that the performance impact associated with TDE can vary between 0 to 2%, which is negligible compared with the added benefit of protecting against the data inside SAP from being stolen during backup procedures.

2026 Zero Trust Priorities and Strategic Implementation

IDC's 2026 enterprise security priorities emphasize three themes directly aligned with SAP-Microsoft integration: enforcing Zero Trust through continuous verification across systems and users, securing AI/ML lifecycles that increasingly touch SAP data pipelines, and proving audit-ready compliance in practice.

The convergence of these priorities with SAP digital transformation initiatives creates an urgent imperative for organizations still relying on legacy VPNs and perimeter-based security models.

Industry predictions for 2026 indicate accelerated adoption of Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architectures, with enterprises favouring phased integration approaches over wholesale infrastructure replacement. This aligns with recommended Zero Trust implementation frameworks that begin with establishing identity foundations through centralised identity management and MFA deployment (1-3 months), extend verification capabilities with device health checks and just-in-time access (3-6 months), and mature toward adaptive authentication based on risk scoring (6-12 months).

Business Impact and Risk Reduction

Organisations that have integrated Microsoft Entra ID and SAP security frameworks experience measurable risk reduction. As the fact that attacks using already-compromised credentials have emerged as a prominent threat in 21% of breach incidents signifies, identity governance with automated lifecycle management is critical at this point in time.

Additionally, the integration caters for compliance requirements that will increase in 2026, where IDC forecasts that 100% of AI products will be expected to receive audit-level evidence by 2025, and 50% will track partner risk from outside attack surface scans by 2029.

Strategic Recommendations for Enterprise Leaders

Enterprise leaders who are responsible for SAP transformations should make Zero Trust architecture a foundational element of their initiatives and not use as an aspirational end state. As credential-based threats continue to converge with regulatory pressures and hybrid deployment complexities, enterprises have an opportunity to proactively invest in Microsoft Entra ID-SAP integration which offers both risk mitigation and operational efficiencies.

To maximize these benefits, organisations should implement a phased rollout with the first step being federated authentication through the SAP Identity Authentication Service (IAS) to establish Microsoft Entra groups for authorisation in BTP environments and then incrementally deploy MFA across all user communities. Organisations making parallel investments in Microsoft Sentinel integration will have not only the improved identity controls but also enhanced threat detection capabilities throughout their SAP environment.

Conclusion

As SAP landscapes continue to span cloud and on-premises environments, identity has become the primary control plane for enterprise security. Integrating Microsoft Entra ID with SAP security services provides a practical, phased path to Zero Trust, reducing credential-based risk, improving visibility across hybrid systems, and meeting rising compliance demands without disrupting business operations. For organizations modernizing SAP in 2026, this convergence of identity, monitoring, and infrastructure security is no longer optional; it is a foundational requirement for protecting core business data and sustaining digital transformation at scale.

Written By - Sudhir Kothari, CEO and MD from Embee Software

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