Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access for Small Businesses in Berlin

Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access is Microsoft’s Security Service Edge (SSE) platform, delivering both Entra Internet Access and Entra Private Access under a unified cloud-native architecture. For small businesses in Berlin operating hybrid work models — employees connecting from home, shared workspaces, and travel locations — Global Secure Access provides Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) principles as a managed cloud service without requiring SD-WAN infrastructure, on-premises proxy appliances, or complex VPN client management. The service intercepts and routes network traffic through Microsoft’s global backbone, applying Conditional Access policy evaluation to every network session rather than only to application sign-ins, extending identity-aware security from authentication events to network connectivity itself.

Entra Internet Access: Secure Web Gateway for Cloud Traffic

Entra Internet Access provides a cloud-delivered Secure Web Gateway (SWG) for outbound internet traffic. The Global Secure Access client, installed on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices, tunnels traffic to Microsoft’s SSE infrastructure where web category filtering, FQDN-based access control, and Microsoft 365 traffic optimization policies are applied. A primary use case is Microsoft 365 tenant restriction — organizations can enforce policies that prevent employees from accessing competitor or personal Microsoft 365 tenants using corporate devices, a control that is otherwise difficult to enforce as Microsoft 365 traffic is encrypted HTTPS that cannot be inspected by traditional URL filters without TLS decryption. Universal Conditional Access policies applied to internet access extend the same evaluation engine used for application access to network sessions, allowing organizations to block internet access from non-compliant devices using the same compliance signals that drive application Conditional Access.

Entra Private Access: Zero Trust Replacement for VPN

Entra Private Access replaces traditional VPN for access to private applications hosted in on-premises datacenters, Azure Virtual Networks, or other private networks. Rather than granting network-level access to the entire corporate network as VPN does, Entra Private Access grants per-application access based on Conditional Access policy evaluation at connection time. The Entra Private Access connector — a lightweight agent installed on a server in the private network — establishes an outbound connection to the Microsoft Global Secure Access infrastructure, eliminating the requirement to open inbound firewall rules for remote access. Remote clients connect to private applications through the Global Secure Access client using per-app tunnels rather than network-level tunnels, substantially reducing the lateral movement opportunity available to attackers who compromise a remote access credential.

The per-app access model means that a compromised device that authenticates through Entra Private Access can only reach the specific applications explicitly granted to the user’s identity — not the entire network segment behind the connector. Combined with Conditional Access policies that enforce device compliance requirements and MFA step-up for sensitive application access, this architecture reduces the blast radius of credential compromise from network-wide to application-specific, a significant improvement over traditional VPN architectures where network-level access enables broad lateral movement.

Deployment Architecture and Client Requirements

Global Secure Access deployment requires the Global Secure Access client on endpoints and the Microsoft Entra Private Access connector on servers hosting private applications. The client integrates with Intune for device-based deployment and policy assignment, allowing organizations to target client deployment to specific device groups and configure which traffic profiles (Microsoft 365, Private Access, Internet Access) are active for each device group. The connector is deployed as a Windows Server service and does not require opening inbound firewall rules — only outbound HTTPS to Microsoft’s Global Secure Access infrastructure. For organizations already using Conditional Access and Intune, the integration model is familiar: the same policy constructs apply to network sessions that apply to application access.

ITEXPERTS Berlin: Global Secure Access Design and Deployment

ITEXPERTS Berlin designs and deploys Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access for small and medium businesses in the Berlin area, covering traffic profile configuration, Conditional Access policy integration for network sessions, Private Access connector deployment for on-premises application access, Microsoft 365 tenant restriction configuration, and integration with Microsoft Sentinel for network access logging and analytics. For businesses looking to eliminate traditional VPN while maintaining controlled private application access, we assess current remote access architecture and design an Entra Private Access deployment that matches the access control requirements of your on-premises application portfolio. Contact us to evaluate Global Secure Access for your hybrid work environment.