The 2029 Illusion: Moving From MIM to Entra ID
11.5.2026, 4 minutes read time.
The Illusion of time
Think you have time? You are wrong. It’s as simple as that. The extension of end-of support is an illusion. End of support is just that: end of support. It does not make for a better product that is geared for everything putting a toll on your identity management right now.
For every day you wait, your identity landscape grows a bit more complex, and a bit more chaotic, without you even noticing. Cleaning it up in a controlled way, without breaking production, is going to take time. Time you won’t be having in the end, if you choose to wait until 2029.
What breaks first
MIM problems rarely show up as a dramatic failure. They show up as operational friction that gets normalized. A new hire starts and does not get access on time, so somebody fixes it manually. A leaver leaves and access removal is delayed, so the team adds a script. A manager needs an exception, so a rule is adjusted. A system owner changes a field in the source system, so the flow is patched.
From a leadership perspective, this is where the cost lives. In interruptions, escalations, and risk that you cannot quantify until an audit or incident forces you to. The longer you wait, the more the estate becomes shaped around these exceptions, and migration becomes harder the longer you wait, not easier.
Why do migrations from MIM to Entra ID fail?
Most identity migrations fail because the organisation thinks a big project is needed. Therefore, they wait as long as possible, and fail to see that a migration can start as a program that removes uncertainty. .
The first step is to answer three questions in plain language. If you cannot answer the first question confidently, you are not ready for a big plan. You are ready for a short discovery.
What does a good discovery phase look like?
A good discovery phase is an operational map that tells you which identity outcomes you rely on, who depends on them, what sources feed them, and what systems receive them. It also tells you where exceptions happen, where manual work happens, and where security exposure is most likely to hide.
When leadership has that map, the migration conversation changes. It stops being a debate about timelines and becomes a decision about priorities, and a timeline decision makers can steer
A practical timeline
First you establish clarity. Document what is in scope, who owns decisions, and what success means. Also choose the first scenario to modernize. Not the biggest scenario. The one that gives visible improvement without destabilizing operations.
Then, deliver one outcome in production. Something the business can feel: faster onboarding, cleaner offboarding, better access control and fewer escalations. Reporting will become better and clearer. The specific outcome will vary, but the point is the same. You create proof that the program works, and you build a repeatable pattern.
Now you are ready to scale the pattern across the rest of the estate as a sequence of controlled moves.
Each move reduces the legacy surface area, reduces manual handling, and increases governance. This is the difference between a migration that becomes a story of disruption and a migration that becomes a story of control.
What “starting now” really buys you
Starting early means buying options. You get time to choose the right target for each scenario. Most importantly, you get to migrate with your best people still around and with the organization still willing to focus. That is the real value of starting now.
If you run MIM, you will have to migrate to another Identity and Access Management system, the question is whether you want to keep paying in friction and uncertainty until 2029, or whether you rather want to convert that cost into a controlled modernization.
The 2029 date is not your real deadline. Your real deadline is the moment when the next change lands, the next exception shows up, and your identity engine becomes just a little bit harder to understand.
Start with that moment. It’s the only moment you have.