Consider deprecating old utils API

**Description**
Currently auth lacks proper monitoring support.

**Proposed solution**
Add configurable monitoring with sensible defaults.

**Priority**: Low/Medium

First reconcile the title about the old utils API with the description about authentication monitoring, then inspect the authentication implementation and any existing monitoring configuration. The issue does not name files, tests, defaults, or completion criteria, so those need to be established before implementation can begin.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.