Boosting performance and compliance with Entra Global Secure Access deployment (Part-5)

Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access is designed to bring identity-led controls closer to where users actually work, instead of forcing every session through a fixed network perimeter. It unifies Microsoft Entra Internet Access and Microsoft Entra Private Access under one operational model, giving security teams a consistent way to control access to Microsoft services, internet destinations, and private applications. (learn.microsoft.com)

For CISOs and security managers, the most compelling outcomes tend to land in two areas:

• Better user experience through smarter routing and reduced backhaul
• Stronger compliance posture through explicit tenant controls, auditable signalling, and more reliable identity logs

This article focuses on how to deploy Global Secure Access to make those outcomes measurable, governable, and scalable.

Why does performance suffer with VPN backhauling

Traditional VPN design often creates an unnecessary triangle route.

1. User connects to a VPN gateway
2. Traffic backhauls to a data centre or hub location
3. The same session then exits back out to Microsoft 365 or other cloud services

That detour adds avoidable latency and jitter, and it can also increase packet loss during congestion. In practice, the end user experiences slower file access, lag in collaboration tools, and intermittent timeouts during authentication-heavy workflows.

Global Secure Access aims to avoid that pattern by shifting enforcement to Microsoft’s service edge, so users connect to a nearby entry point and traverse the Microsoft global network where appropriate, rather than hair-pinning through your VPN concentrators. (techcommunity.microsoft.com)

Performance gains from intelligent local routing

There are two performance ideas to keep separate:

• Local breakout to the cloud so users reach Microsoft services and internet destinations without a VPN detour
• Local routing for private apps when the user is already on a corporate network and routing via the cloud would be inefficient

Intelligent Local Access for private apps on corporate networks

A frequent early pain point in Zero Trust Network Access rollouts is that users on site still get routed up to the cloud service and back down again, even though the application is on the same local network segment.

Microsoft addresses this with Intelligent Local Access, which optimises the traffic flow from Entra clients to Entra Private Access applications when the client is on a corporate or private network. The intent is to improve performance while still maintaining policy enforcement. (learn.microsoft.com)

In deployment terms, Intelligent Local Access is not just a switch you flip. It depends on you accurately modelling internal network segments and DNS behaviour, so the client can determine when local routing is safe and intended.

Practical guidance for rollout:

• Start with a small set of clearly defined application segments and a single site
• Validate DNS resolution paths and ensure the expected internal DNS servers are configured for the segment
• Use client diagnostics and traffic logs to confirm when traffic is routed locally versus via the Global Secure Access service (learn.microsoft.com)

How to measure performance improvements credibly

If you want stakeholder confidence, measure before and after with the same test plan.

A simple approach that works:

• Measure login time to a private web app and time to first byte for key pages
• Measure file share open times if you are publishing SMB via Private Access
• Measure round-trip time and retransmit for key destinations
• Compare on-site versus off-site behaviour, because Intelligent Local Access changes the on-site path

Do not rely only on subjective feedback, as it feels faster. Pair experience reports with repeatable measurements and a clear change log.

Compliance features that matter in regulated environments

Performance is usually what gets attention first. Compliance is what keeps the programme funded.

Global Secure Access includes features that can help security teams demonstrate control over identity flows, reduce data exfiltration risk, and improve the integrity of audit logs.

Universal tenant restrictions to reduce data exfiltration risk

Universal tenant restrictions allow you to apply tenant restrictions v2 signals to the authentication-plane network traffic when using Global Secure Access. The practical outcome is that you can restrict sign-ins and access patterns to approved tenants, reducing the risk of users authenticating to unapproved tenants for applications integrated with Entra ID single sign-on. (learn.microsoft.com)

This is highly relevant for organisations dealing with:

• Mergers and acquisitions where multiple tenants exist temporarily
• Contractors who bring unmanaged devices and attempt cross-tenant access
• Insider risk scenarios where unmanaged tenant access becomes a covert exfiltration route

Governance recommendations:

• Document your approved tenant list and ownership model
• Align exceptions to a formal risk acceptance workflow
• Monitor for repeated restriction blocks as a signal of shadow IT or attempted bypass

Source IP restoration for audit and conditional access integrity

One operational complaint with many security service edge models is that network-mediated access can obscure the original client IP, complicating investigations, geo controls, and audit requirements.

Microsoft provides Source IP Restoration as part of Adaptive Access for Microsoft Entra Internet Access for Microsoft services. It is designed to preserve the user's original public IP address in Entra sign-in logs when traffic flows through Global Secure Access. (learn.microsoft.com)

That matters because identity logs often underpin:

• Regulatory audit evidence
• Fraud and anomalous signs in investigations
• Geo-based conditional access guardrails
• Incident response timelines

Operational cautions:

• Validate which traffic profiles and scenarios are covered, especially if you rely on IP anchoring patterns for legacy controls (learn.microsoft.com)
• Run a parallel logging comparison during pilot so investigators understand what changes in log fields and what does not

Compliant network signalling for enforceable policy

Global Secure Access introduces a compliant network concept that can be used with Conditional Access to ensure users connect via the Global Secure Access service for the tenant and meet configured security policies. (learn.microsoft.com)

For regulated organisations, this is useful because it creates a cleaner story:

• This access path is required
• This device and user context is required
• This session is inspected and governed under defined policy

The key is to phase enforcement. Start in report only mode, observe breakage, then apply targeted enforcement by role and application criticality.

Aligning Global Secure Access with Zero Trust principles

Zero Trust is easier to say than to operate. Network modernisation programmes often fail when they replicate perimeter thinking in a new tool.

Microsoft positions deployment of the Global Secure Access client as foundational to Zero Trust network security, and Private Access specifically as a Zero Trust Network Access approach that reduces lateral movement compared with legacy VPN patterns. (learn.microsoft.com)

To keep your deployment aligned to Zero Trust outcomes, focus on these design rules:

Minimise attack surface by reducing implicit reachability

With VPN, users often receive broad network access even if they only need one application. With Private Access, design around explicit application segments and least privilege reachability.

Practical steps:

• Publish only required ports and protocols per application segment
• Separate admin access paths from user access paths
• Treat every new segment as a change-controlled event with documented owner and rollback

Make identity the control plane, not IP location

If your security posture still depends on trusted office IP ranges, you will struggle as traffic shifts to service edge routes. Use Conditional Access, strong authentication, device compliance, and session controls as the primary levers.

Assume inspection must be demonstrable

Inspection is not just a security need; it is a governance need.

Build evidence by retaining:

• Policy configurations and change history
• Access logs and sign-in logs
• Exception approvals and compensating controls

Scalability for growing organisations

Global Secure Access can scale operationally when governance is designed in from the start. Without that, growth simply multiplies exceptions, inconsistent policies, and support tickets.

A scalable operating model typically includes:

Standardised profiles and segmentation patterns

Define a repeatable pattern for:

• Application onboarding into Private Access
• Internet Access policy layers for different user groups
• Emergency break glass behaviour and communications

Multi region considerations and data residency

If your organisation has US and EU regulatory constraints, decide early where you need separation in operational processes and where you need separation in data. Microsoft provides Global Secure Access as a cloud service, so you should validate your tenant configuration, logging destinations, and residency expectations with your Microsoft account team and compliance function.

Change management that treats access as code

Even if you are not fully infrastructure as code, act like you are.

• Version policy decisions
• Define approval paths for new segments and tenant restriction changes
• Run post-change reviews tied to performance and incident metrics

A pragmatic deployment sequence

If you want to improve performance without losing compliance control, a phased approach is safer than a big bang cutover.

1. Baseline and pilot
• Identify a small user cohort and a small set of applications
• Capture baseline latency and user experience measures

• Deploy client and enable core routing
• Validate traffic profiles and basic access paths
• Introduce compliance controls
• Turn on Universal tenant restrictions
• Validate Source IP Restoration expectations in sign-in logs (learn.microsoft.com)
• Optimise on-site performance
• Implement Intelligent Local Access for key private apps where on-site routing would otherwise be hairpin (learn.microsoft.com)
• Scale with governance
• Expand to additional sites and user groups
• Move Conditional Access compliant network checks from report only to enforcement where appropriate (learn.microsoft.com)

Final thoughts

Entra Global Secure Access can deliver meaningful performance improvements by reducing VPN backhaul and optimising local routing for private applications. The larger win, especially for regulated sectors, is the ability to pair that performance with concrete compliance controls like Universal tenant restrictions and improved log integrity through Source IP Restoration.

If you treat deployment as a governance programme, not just a connectivity upgrade, you are far more likely to reduce attack surface, improve audit readiness, and scale without operational debt.

For further reading, start with Microsoft documentation on Global Secure Access, Intelligent Local Access, Universal tenant restrictions, and Source IP Restoration. (learn.microsoft.com)