Apple is launching federated authentication for Microsoft Azure Active Directory (AD). This means that educators can link their Azure AD to Apple School Manager.
[6 Education Apps for Teachers]
Managed Apple IDs
This partnership helps Apple and Microsoft compete with Google in education. Google’s G-Suite gives schools a single sign-on solution to manage student and teacher accounts, with documents, email, etc., baked in.
Federated authentication only
When you link to Microsoft Azure AD, Managed Apple IDsare automatically created for users and they simply sign in with their current email address as their Managed Apple ID. If a user is removed from Microsoft Azure AD, that user can be removed from Apple School Manager.
Federated authentication with users from other sources
When you link to Microsoft Azure AD, Managed Apple IDsare automatically created for users, and they simply sign in with their current email address as their Managed Apple ID.
You then link to your SIS or upload files with SFTP. All information, such as classes and rosters, are updated for the users in your Microsoft Azure AD system. If a user is removed from Microsoft Azure AD, that user must be deactivated in Apple School Manager by an account with permissions to change the status of users.
Important: If you’re connecting to a Student Information System (SIS) or importing users with Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), andusing federated authentication, users musthave an email address.