PIM in Entra ID: How to Protect Privileged Access

• Why PIM Matters for Zero Trust
• How PIM Works in Entra ID
• Common PIM Scenarios in Microsoft 365
• Design Tips for PIM Policies
• Step-by-step Example
• How to Get Started

Zero Trust assumes that attackers may already be inside the environment, which makes standing administrative access especially risky. PIM in Microsoft Entra ID addresses this by limiting how long and how broadly privileged roles are active. Instead of leaving powerful permissions turned on all the time, PIM lets you convert them into time-bound, audited access that is requested and approved when needed.

Why PIM Matters for Zero Trust

In many tenants, global admin and other powerful roles stay active continuously. If those accounts are compromised, attackers can make large-scale changes with very few barriers, such as creating new accounts, modifying security policies, or disabling monitoring. PIM reduces this exposure by requiring activation, justification, and often approval before elevated roles are used.

From a Zero Trust perspective, this aligns privileged access with the principle of least privilege and continuous verification. Administrators receive just enough access, only for the period required to complete a task, and their activity is easier to monitor and review afterward. This narrows the time window during which compromised credentials or devices can be abused.

PIM also helps Canadian organizations demonstrate better control over privileged roles for internal auditors and external regulators. Instead of explaining why a long list of permanent admins existed for years, you can show which roles were activated, by whom, when, and for what purpose.

How PIM Works in Entra ID

PIM changes how roles are assigned. Instead of being permanently active, roles are configured as eligible. A user who is eligible for a role can request activation when they need to perform privileged work. Activation can require multifactor authentication, justification, and approval, and it only lasts for a defined time.

PIM policies define several key elements: which roles are managed, who is eligible for each role, how long activations can last, whether justification is required, whether approval is needed, and which alerts should be raised. This provides a way to shape how privileged access works, not just who has it.

What a Typical Activation Flow Looks Like

In a typical activation flow, an admin signs in with their normal account, which has limited rights by default. When they need to perform a privileged task, they open the PIM portal, choose the role they are eligible for, and start an activation request. Depending on policy, they may be prompted for MFA, asked to provide a justification, and possibly to select a ticket number or change request ID.

If the policy requires approval, the approver receives a notification and can review the request. After the request is approved, the role becomes active for the configured duration — for example, one or two hours. When the activation window ends, the role automatically returns to its eligible state, and the user goes back to their normal level of access without needing manual intervention.

All of these steps are logged. This means security teams can review which roles were activated, how often, and whether the pattern of requests matches expectations. Over time, this audit trail can highlight where roles are used too often, where workflows can be improved, or where permanent access is still being granted unnecessarily.

Common PIM Scenarios in Microsoft 365

PIM can be applied to many roles in Microsoft 365 and Entra ID. The most common starting point is to focus on the roles that can change tenant-wide settings, security posture, or identity configuration.

1. Just-in-time Global Administrator

Global admin is one of the most sensitive roles in any tenant. A common scenario is to move all permanent global admin assignments to PIM-based eligibility. Administrators retain the ability to become global admins when needed, but they must activate the role with justification, MFA, and a limited time window. This reduces the chance that a compromised account can immediately control the entire environment.

2. Time-bound Security Administrator and Compliance Roles

Security administrators, security readers, and compliance-related roles can also be managed through PIM. These roles often have broad visibility into alerts, data classifications, and security settings. PIM lets you require approvals and shorter activation periods so that these roles are only used when there is an investigation or configuration change to perform.

3. Workload-specific Roles for Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams

Many organizations also use PIM for workload-specific roles, such as Exchange Administrator, SharePoint Administrator, or Teams Administrator. In these scenarios, the goal is to avoid having permanent administrators for each workload. Instead, staff responsible for email, collaboration, or telephony can activate roles when they need to run changes, then automatically drop back to standard access once the work is done.

4. Scoped Roles for Operations and Support

Some operational roles are less powerful than global admin but still important, such as Helpdesk Administrator or User Administrator. These can be configured with more flexible settings in PIM: perhaps shorter approvals or longer activation windows. That way, day-to-day tasks remain practical, while more sensitive roles are governed more strictly.

Design Tips for PIM Policies

Good PIM design starts with identifying which roles are truly sensitive and which can remain permanently assigned. Roles that can change tenant-wide settings, affect identity or security, or access large volumes of data are prime candidates for PIM. Less critical roles may not justify the additional workflow overhead.

It is also important to keep activation workflows workable. If policies are too strict — for example, requiring multiple approvers for every minor change — administrators may try to bypass the process or push back on adoption. If they are too loose, PIM will not reduce risk meaningfully. The right balance often involves stricter requirements for a small set of high-impact roles and more relaxed rules for operational roles.

PIM vs Permanent Roles and Manual Processes

Without PIM, organizations typically manage privileged access in two ways: permanent role assignments or manual procedures. Permanent roles are simple to manage but carry high risk, because a compromised account always has powerful permissions. Manual processes — such as asking someone to temporarily assign a role and then remember to remove it — often break down under pressure or during incidents.

PIM offers a more structured alternative. It automates the activation and expiry of elevated roles, makes approvals part of the workflow, and records what happened. Compared with permanent roles, it reduces the time during which high-level access exists. Compared with manual processes, it is less reliant on memory and informal coordination.

Best Practices for PIM in Canadian Organizations

For Canadian tenants, a few practices tend to work well in real deployments:

• Start with global admin, security admin, and other roles that would cause serious impact if misused.
• Define clear activation durations that match real work — for example, one or two hours for most changes.
• Require MFA for every role activation, even if MFA is already enforced at sign-in.
• Use justification fields to capture ticket numbers or change references, so activations can be traced back to specific work items.
• Review PIM usage regularly to see which roles are activated most frequently and whether any patterns look unusual.

Step-by-step: Setting Up PIM for a Global Administrator

To make this more concrete, consider a simple example of moving the global admin role to PIM in a Microsoft 365 tenant.

Step 1: Inventory existing global admins
Export a list of all accounts that currently hold the global admin role. Confirm which of these accounts still need the ability to perform tenant-wide changes and which can be downgraded or removed.

Step 2: Make key admins eligible instead of permanent
For the accounts that should retain global admin capability, update their assignments so the role becomes eligible rather than active by default. This keeps the link between the user and the role but requires activation for actual use.

Step 3: Configure a PIM policy for global admin
Create or adjust the PIM policy for the global admin role. Require MFA on activation, set a reasonable maximum activation duration (for example, one hour), and enable justification. Decide whether activations require approval and, if so, who can act as approver.

Step 4: Test the activation experience
Ask a small group of admins to test the flow. They should sign in, request activation, complete MFA, provide justification, and wait for approval if needed. Confirm that they can perform necessary tasks during the activation window and that access is removed afterward without manual steps.

Step 5: Roll out to all remaining global admins
Once the test group confirms the process works, apply the same pattern to all global admin accounts. Communicate clearly with administrators about how and when to use PIM, and make sure documentation is available so they know what to expect.

Step 6: Monitor and adjust
After rollout, review PIM logs regularly. Check whether activations are happening as expected, whether durations need to be shorter or longer, and whether any accounts are requesting access more often than anticipated. Use this feedback to refine your PIM policies over time.

How to Get Started

Most organizations begin with a discovery phase, mapping current admin roles and permissions, and then piloting PIM for a small set of critical roles. From there, they expand to cover more roles and integrate PIM with Conditional Access, logging, and governance.

To see where PIM fits in your broader identity strategy, review Entra ID P1 vs P2, Entra Suite Worth It?, and the identity pillar in Zero Trust Architecture: 6 Pillars, then place that work on your 12-Month Zero Trust Roadmap.

If you already know that advanced privileged access controls are required, you can also review licensing options such as Microsoft Entra ID P2, which includes richer capabilities for identity protection and administrator role management.

When you are ready to implement, our Entra ID Deployment service can help design and roll out PIM policies in a structured way, with support from Zero Trust Assessment and Microsoft 365 Security 90 Days engagements for broader context.