A company wants to provide secure external access to a partner application without creating user accounts manually. They need to allow partners to authenticate using their existing corporate identities (e.g., from other organizations) and configure policies for access. Which Microsoft Entra feature should they use?
Microsoft Entra External ID (B2B collaboration) is the correct solution as it specifically enables organizations to invite external users, such as partners, to access their applications and resources using their own existing identities. This feature integrates partner users into the inviting organization's Microsoft Entra tenant as guest users, allowing for the application of robust access policies and secure management of their access to partner applications.
Why this answer
Microsoft Entra External ID (B2B collaboration) allows organizations to securely share applications and resources with external partners by letting them authenticate using their own corporate identities (e.g., from other Azure AD tenants, Microsoft accounts, or social identity providers). It eliminates the need to manually create and manage user accounts for partners, while enabling you to apply conditional access policies for granular control over external access.
Exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often confuse B2B collaboration (External ID) with B2C (External Identities for customer-facing apps) or think that Privileged Identity Management is needed for external access, but the question specifically asks about allowing partners to use their existing corporate identities without manual account creation, which is the core purpose of B2B collaboration.
How to eliminate wrong answers
Option A is wrong because Microsoft Entra Identity Protection is a risk-based security tool that detects and responds to identity threats (e.g., leaked credentials, sign-in anomalies) for users within your tenant, not a feature for inviting external partners or federating with their existing identities. Option C is wrong because Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM) manages, controls, and monitors access to privileged roles within your own directory (e.g., just-in-time admin access), not for enabling external partner authentication or collaboration. Option D is wrong because Microsoft Entra Domain Services provides managed domain services (e.g., LDAP, Kerberos, NTLM) for legacy on-premises applications in the cloud, not for external identity federation or B2B guest access.