A hard deadline is concentrating minds across enterprise IT departments, with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) set to retire SMS and Voice delivery inside Microsoft Entra ID from February 1, 2027.
The move is part of a broader shift by the technology giant toward passkeys as its preferred default authentication experience for users.
Organisations that still depend on telephony-based multi-factor authentication will be required to source and manage their own third-party providers once Microsoft withdraws the built-in capability.
Sydney-based Soprano Design, which powers more than 32 billion secure interactions annually across 4,500-plus organisations, has stepped into that gap with a dedicated integration product.
The company has launched Soprano Connect for Microsoft Entra, making it available through the Microsoft Security Store under both per-user and per-transaction pricing structures.
Soprano has held Microsoft partner status for more than 15 years, giving it an established position from which to serve enterprise and government clients affected by the upcoming retirement.
Chief Technology Officer Mohamed Odah framed the challenge as one of balancing progress with operational continuity, saying: “Having provided secure authentication solutions to our enterprise and government customers for more than 30 years, we understand that organisations must balance the adoption of new authentication methods with continuity for the users, systems and requirements they support today.”
Director of Product and Development Asha Potla cautioned against underestimating the complexity involved, noting that “for many organisations, this won’t be a simple switch from one authentication method to another.”
Potla added that varying regulatory requirements, user groups, and system dependencies can create sharply different authentication needs even within a single organisation, and that early planning is critical.
Microsoft’s own partner product manager for security, Ankur Patel, endorsed the integration’s rationale directly, stating: “Security continuity is key to our ecosystem. As we evolve our authentication practices, we want customers to have clear options that meet their business needs.”
Patel went further, noting that Soprano’s connection to Microsoft Entra ID workforce tenants gives clients “the flexibility to choose the telephony provider that best supports their users and organizational requirements.”
The product is specifically targeted at businesses with regulatory, technical, or operational mandates that prevent a clean migration away from SMS or Voice MFA before the retirement rollout begins.
Soprano Design operates globally from its Sydney headquarters and serves clients across healthcare, finance, logistics, and government sectors, markets where authentication continuity carries significant compliance weight.
