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Could you please define cloud based authentication services Azure AD B2C and B2B with it's uses and their differences if any. Please provide list of web resources if you can.

Chris Gillum
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jitendra joshi
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    I would recommend reading up the documentation on these 2 services and then come back with specific questions - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/services/active-directory-b2c/ & https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/documentation/articles/active-directory-b2b-collaboration-overview/. – Gaurav Mantri Jan 19 '16 at 13:03
  • Also have a look at this presentation around (1:02:00) https://channel9.msdn.com/events/Ignite/2016/BRK3108 – Gopal Krishnan Dec 09 '16 at 11:05

2 Answers2

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The uses of Azure AD B2C (Business to Consumer) and Azure AD B2B (Business to Business) are very different. These differences are highlighted in the documentation.

B2C documentation: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/services/active-directory-b2c/

Azure Active Directory B2C is a highly available, global, identity management service for consumer-facing applications that scales to hundreds of millions of identities.

In a nutshell, it allows you to authenticate customers using social identities, like Facebook or Microsoft Account, but still within the context of Azure AD.

B2B documentation: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/documentation/articles/active-directory-b2b-collaboration-overview/

Azure AD B2B collaboration lets you enable access to your corporate applications from partner-managed identities. You can create cross-company relationships by inviting and authorizing users from partner companies to access your resources.

In a nutshell, it allows you to authenticate corporate users from other companies.

So one is for consumer-facing applications, and one is for business applications.

Chris Gillum
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    For SaaS applications aimed at corporate clients, what's the approach for federating with onsite identity providers? ACS allowed custom StS but that functionality is being moved into B2B? – Sentinel Feb 17 '16 at 10:06
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    Azure / Microsoft is very bad a clearly defining what their services do. I see that azure B2C is still in preview though? Can we make us of it in a production environment? – Zapnologica Sep 21 '16 at 19:15
  • As of right now Azure B2C is GA (out of preview) in North America only: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azuread-b2c-ga-announcement/. – Chris Gillum Sep 21 '16 at 21:47
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https://predica.pl/blog/azure-ad-b2b-b2c-puzzled-out/

Azure AD is an identity as a service provider aimed at organization users to provide and control access to cloud resources

Azure AD B2B is not a separate service but a feature in Azure AD. It allows cross-organization collaboration in applications from an identity standpoint.

Azure AD B2C is an independent service for building a consumer application identity repository. If you need a service to handle email or Facebook login – it is there for you.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/b2b/compare-with-b2c

B2B collaboration capabilities

Single sign-on (SSO) to all Azure AD-connected apps is supported. For example, you can provide access to Office 365 or on-premises apps, and to other SaaS apps such as Salesforce or Workday.

Partner lifecycle: Managed by the host/inviting organization.

Azure AD B2C stand-alone offering

SSO to customer owned apps within the Azure AD B2C tenants is supported. SSO to Office 365 or to other Microsoft and non-Microsoft SaaS apps is not supported.

Customer lifecycle: Self-serve or managed by the application.

Nimesh Gami
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