Migrate SSO for guest WAM applications
Implementation Effort: High – Migrating Web Access Management (WAM) applications for guest users involves rearchitecting authentication flows, replacing legacy header-based access controls, and coordinating with external partners.
User Impact: High – Guest users will experience changes in sign-in processes, necessitating communication and potential retraining to ensure a smooth transition.
Overview
This activity involves migrating single sign-on (SSO) for guest-facing applications that currently depend on legacy Web Access Management (WAM) systems, such as CA SiteMinder or Oracle Access Manager, to Microsoft Entra External ID. These systems often rely on on-premises agents, reverse proxies, or shared secrets to facilitate access control, which are incompatible with modern identity platforms. Migration entails identifying WAM-managed applications, replacing custom header-based authentication with standards-based protocols (OIDC, SAML), and integrating those applications with Entra External ID.
This aligns with Verify explicitly by removing opaque, perimeter-based trust models and replacing them with Entra External ID Conditional Access policies that evaluate contextual signals such as user identity, device compliance, and location in real time before access is granted. It enables per-request policy enforcement instead of front-door authentication alone.
It also enforces Least privilege access by allowing these previously perimeter-gated applications to adopt centralized role-based access and entitlement management through Entra External ID, eliminating overly broad access managed through brittle on-premises LDAP groups or local accounts.
Lastly, this supports Assume breach by deprecating legacy proxy-based enforcement points that are hard to monitor, often lack logging, and have limited integration with modern SIEM or threat detection tools. Migrating WAM applications to Entra consolidates telemetry into a single cloud-native control plane and enables modern detections and response.
If not addressed, WAM-based applications will remain unmanaged and exposed to risk via outdated authentication patterns, increasing lateral movement opportunities for threat actors and reducing visibility for security teams.