Delete Is Easy – Recovery Is Not: The Reality of Entra ID Backup & Restore
Backup and restore have always been fundamental principles of IT, yet in Microsoft Entra ID they are often misunderstood, underestimated, or simply ignored.
What happens when a Conditional Access policy is modified and you suddenly need last week’s configuration? What can actually be restored in Entra ID and what is permanently lost?
In this session, we dive into deletion and recovery behavior across different Entra resource types, from identities and groups to Conditional Access policies and tenant-wide configurations. We separate myths from reality and clarify where restoration is technically possible and where it simply isn’t.
A key focus is on recent changes and new capabilities in Entra ID, including improvements around deletion and recovery as well as the Unified Tenant Configuration Management (UTCM) capability introduced in early 2026. We explore how UTCM enables administrators to track, compare, and safeguard tenant-wide configurations shifting the approach from reactive recovery to proactive control.
The goal is simple: to replace assumptions with facts and help you build a realistic protection strategy for your Entra ID environment without relying solely on third-party backup solutions.
This session is aimed at identity and security professionals working with Microsoft Entra ID who want to understand the real limitations of backup and recovery in cloud identity environments.
Attendees will gain a clear understanding of how deletion and recovery behave across different Entra resource types, including users, groups, Conditional Access policies, and tenant-wide configurations. The session highlights where recovery is possible, where it is limited, and where it is not available at all.
In addition, we explore recent platform changes and new capabilities such as Unified Tenant Configuration Management (UTCM), and how these features shift the focus from reactive recovery to proactive configuration governance.
The session combines architectural insights with practical examples and multiple live demonstrations, showing real-world behavior directly in Entra ID. Attendees will see how changes, deletions, and recovery scenarios actually behave in practice, rather than relying on documentation alone.
Attendees will leave with a realistic understanding of Entra ID protection strategies and actionable guidance for improving resilience without relying solely on third-party backup solutions.