Cleaning up Active Directory and Entra ID: how to regain control over groups and access rights

In many organisations, managing Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID groups has slowly got out of hand. Over the years, new security groups, Microsoft 365 groups, SharePoint permissions and Teams memberships have been created, often for temporary projects or exceptions. What rarely happens, however, is structural cleanup.

The result is a landscape in which it is unclear which groups are still actively used, which rights are linked to them and why certain users even have access. This not only creates unnecessary complexity, but also poses a serious security and compliance risk.

Why groups in AD and Entra ID clutter so quickly

Active Directory and Entra ID are powerful platforms, but they lack native overview and context. Groups are created technically, but rarely managed functionally. When an employee changes roles, a project ends or someone leaves the company, groups and rights often remain.

Over time, a situation arises where:

• no one knows what a group is intended for anymore

• groups no longer have an owner

• users are members of multiple overlapping groups

• rights are indirectly assigned through chains of group memberships

Without insight, cleaning up is risky. Many IT teams do not dare to delete groups for fear of breaking something. And so, the problem continues to grow.

No insight means no control

Without a central overview, it is virtually impossible to answer simple questions such as:

• Which groups exist in Active Directory and Entra ID?

• Who is a member of which group?

• Which rights have resulted from this?

• Are these groups still actively used?

This becomes painfully visible during audits. Auditors expect demonstrability, traceability and periodic verification. In practice, organisations must then rely on manual exports and Excel lists, which are often already outdated by the time they are generated.

How Joinly helps with cleaning up AD and Entra ID groups

With Joinly, organisations bring structure back to their Microsoft identity landscape. Joinly provides insight into which groups exist, who is in them and what access results from this, both in Active Directory on-premises and in Microsoft Entra ID.

By bringing this data together in a single overview, true control is established for the first time. IT teams see not only the group structure, but also the actual usage. Groups that have not been used for a long time become visible. Redundant or duplicate groups can be safely identified.

More importantly, cleaning up is not done blindly. Joinly shows which rights are linked to which groups, which greatly reduces the risk of unintended impact. This finally makes it possible to clean up old groups in a controlled manner.

From one-off cleanup to structural management

Cleaning up is only the first step. Without structural management, the sprawl will return sooner or later. Joinly therefore also supports the continuous management of groups and access rights.

New groups become part of a manageable model. Rights are assigned based on roles instead of ad-hoc exceptions. The connection between user, group and resource remains transparent, meaning access is no longer a historical problem, but a controlled process.

With this, Joinly forms the foundation for mature Identity & Access Management and Identity Governance within Microsoft environments.

Audit-proof Active Directory and Entra ID

Because Joinly provides continuous insight into group memberships and access rights, organisations are better prepared for audits. It can be demonstrated instantly:

• who has access

• through which group

• and why that access exists

This makes compliance with standards such as ISO 27001/NIS2 and SOC 2 a lot easier and avoids stressful audit preparations.

Conclusion

Group management in Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID is often underestimated, but lies at the heart of access and security within organisations. Without insight and cleanup, risk is inevitable.

With Joinly, organisations regain control over their groups, their rights and their Microsoft environment. Not by rebuilding everything, but by finally bringing overview and structure to what is already there.

Want to know how we can help you with this? Schedule a demo with us!