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Azure Active Directory Authentication is in Public Preview

Azure SQL Database V12 now supports (in public preview) Azure AD authentication,
a mechanism of connecting to SQL Database by using identities in Azure AD for managed
and federated domains.

With Azure AD authentication, you can centrally manage the identities of database users and
other Microsoft services in one central location. Central ID management provides a single place
to manage SQL Database users and simplifies permission management.

  • This feature provides an alternative to SQL Server authentication
    and helps stop the proliferation of user identities across database servers owned
    by an organization. Furthermore, the same Azure AD identity that can connect to
    Azure SQL DB can also be used to authenticate to a growing number of Microsoft
    cloud services. Azure AD authentication enables a “single sign-on” experience for
    customers who have federated their on-premise Active Directory Federation
    Services (ADFS) with Azure AD in the cloud. Once logged on to a domain-joined
    machine, users connect to their Azure SQL DB databases without being prompted
    for credentials.  By allowing users to represent Azure AD groups as database users,
    Azure AD authentication enables customers to manage permissions by moving
    the principals to and out of Azure AD groups

For more information on Azure AD authentication see
Connecting to SQL Database By Using Azure Active Directory Authentication

In addition to the main document indicated above, attached is the zip file with details on the
PowerShell and programming interface (with a readme file) for Azure AD authentication.

Mirek Sztajno, Senior Program Manager Azure SQL DB - Security Team

ProgramExamples.zip