Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud comparison

Akamai and Microsoft are both solutions in the Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) category. Akamai is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.0, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.1. Akamai holds a 7.1% mindshare in CWPP, compared to Microsoft’s 13.6% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Akamai users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation and Microsoft Defender for Cloud compete in the security and compliance category. Guardicore appears to have the upper hand with its micro-segmentation and telemetry capabilities, offering more granular control and visibility across platforms.

Features: Guardicore offers micro-segmentation, rich telemetry, and deception features that enhance active defense strategies. It provides compatibility with multiple platforms and offers comprehensive visibility into traffic. Microsoft Defender for Cloud focuses on threat detection, security posture improvement, and integration with the Azure ecosystem, delivering comprehensive protection across multi-cloud environments.

Room for Improvement: Akamai Guardicore Segmentation could improve integration with major vendors, enhance policy management, and offer more flexible user-level control. Microsoft Defender for Cloud could work on reducing false positives, improving real-time monitoring, and offering better integration with external tools while clarifying its pricing model.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Akamai Guardicore Segmentation supports robust on-premises and hybrid cloud deployment, with technical support praised for its responsiveness. Microsoft Defender for Cloud excels in public and hybrid cloud deployments with strong Azure integration, though some customers note a need for more responsive support in high-stakes environments.

Pricing and ROI: Akamai Guardicore is considered expensive but offers substantial ROI through improved security and resource efficiency. The flexible licensing adapts to client needs, leading to long-term savings. Microsoft Defender for Cloud has competitive pricing for those already in the Microsoft ecosystem, offering value through subscription-based pricing, though some find specific costs steep. Both solutions enhance security and compliance, with Guardicore providing immediate operational benefits and Defender leveraging its ecosystem for cost-effectiveness.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 865,295 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

SentinelOne Singularity Clo...

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) category, the mindshare of SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is 3.2%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is 7.1%, up from 6.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 13.6%, down from 16.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)

Featured Reviews

Andrew W

VP - Information Technology at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

Tells us about vulnerabilities as well as their impact and helps to focus on real issues

Looking at all the different pieces, it has got everything we need. Some of the pieces we do not even use. For example, we do not have Kubernetes Security. We are not running any K8 clusters, so it is good for us. Overall, we find the solution to be fantastic. There can be additional education components. This may not be truly fair to them because of what the product is going for, but it would be great to see additional education for compliance. It is not a criticism of the tool per se, but anything to help non-development resources understand some of the complexities of the cloud is always appreciated. Any additional educational resources are always helpful for security teams, especially those without a development background.

Read full review

KlavsThaarup

Senior Security Consultant at Orange Cyberdefense

Offers micro segmentation capabilities and easy to setup

It's micro-segmentation The label-based segmentation is the most valuable feature. There are always areas for improvement. It doesn't support a PAAC solution (Platforma as a service) in the cloud. So that could be improved. In future releases, I would like to see more integration with other…

Read full review

Vibhor Goel

Senior Cloud Platform Engineer at Deutsche Börse

A single tool for complete visibility and addressing security gaps

Currently, issues are structured in Microsoft Defender for Cloud at severity levels of high, critical, or warning, but these severity levels are not always right. For example, Microsoft might consider a port being open as critical, but that might not be the case for our company. Similarly, it might suggest closing some management ports, but you might need them to be able to log in, so the severity levels for certain things can be improved. Even though Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides a way to temporarily disable certain alerts or notifications without affecting our security score, it would be better to have more granularized control over these recommendations. Currently, we cannot even disable certain alerts or notifications. There should be an automated mechanism to design Azure policies based on the recommendations, possibly with AI integration. Instead of an engineer having to write a policy to fix security gaps, which is very time-consuming, there should be an inbuilt capability to auto-remediate everything and have proper control in place. Additionally, enabling Defender for Cloud at the resource group level, rather than only at the subscription level, would be beneficial.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Visibility is the most important aspect."

"SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security's integration is smooth. They are highly customer-oriented, and the integration went well for us."

"The user interface is well-designed and easy to navigate."

"My favorite feature is Storyline."

"The cloud misconfiguration is the most valuable feature."

"The most valuable aspects of SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security are its alerting system and the remediation guidance it provides."

"It's positively affected the communication between cloud security, application developers, and AppSec teams."

"It gives me the information I need."

More SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security pros

"The most valuable features of the solution are the maps and ring fencing that help monitor events."

"From day one, you get threat intelligence. It will immediately block active threats, which has been useful."

"Guardicore makes its own rule set automatically, so we can work fast when creating a rule set."

"The tool is a complete package that offers many features like visibility. You can get a graph with real-time workflows and visibility into server-to-server communication. We get visibility into many things happening within our environment."

"That is primarily because I've seen increased rules. It's kind of caught us a little off guard. With GuardiCore, I have had to deal with their technical support and engineering team in Israel. They are amazing. They are very quick to adapt."

"We like the centralized management of the firewalls. Until we installed Guardicore Centra, we managed all our firewalls individually, so making changes was complicated, difficult, and time-consuming."

"Application Ring-Fencing and Deception Server, which is basically like a honeypot, are pretty useful features."

"The interface and dashboard are amazing."

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation pros

"Scalability is great, and I would rate it a ten out of ten."

"It is very intuitive when it comes to policy administration, alerts and notifications, and ease of setting up roles at different hierarchies. It has also been good in terms of the network technology maps. It provides a good overview, but it also depends on the complexity of your network."

"The most valuable feature is the hunting feature, which integrates well into the entire Microsoft ecosystem."

"The security policy is the most valuable feature for us. We can go into the environment settings and attach any globally recognized framework like ISO or any benchmark."

"With respect to improving our security posture, it helps us to understand where we are in terms of compliance. We can easily know when we are below the standard because of the scores it calculates."

"The most valuable feature for me is the variety of APIs available."

"It works seamlessly on the Azure platform because it's a Microsoft app. Its setup is similar, so if you already have a Microsoft account, it just flows into it."

"One important security feature is the incident alerts. Now, with all these cyberattacks, there are a lot of incident alerts that get triggered. It is very difficult to keep monitoring everything automatically, instead our organization is utilizing the automated use case that we get from Microsoft. That has helped bring down the manual work for a lot of things."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pros

Cons

"The Automation tab is an add-on that doesn’t work properly. They provide a list of scripts that don’t work and I have asked support to assist but they won’t help. When running on various endpoints the script doesn’t work and if it does, it’s only a couple. There are a lot of useful scripts that would be beneficial to run forensics, event logs, and process lists running on the endpoint."

"I would prefer to see SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security develop into a single pane of glass for ASPM and CSPM."

"SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is on the costlier side."

"The cost has the potential for improvement."

"We've found a lot of false positives."

"While SentinelOne offers robust security features, its higher cost may present a challenge for budget-conscious organizations."

"The SentinelOne customer support needs improvement, as they are sometimes late in responding, which is critical in a production issue."

"There is scope for more application security posture management features. Additionally, the runtime protection needs attention."

More SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security cons

"The dashboard needs improvement. It should be more flexible so that I can easily see what I want or need to see."

"It doesn't support a PAAC solution (Platforma as a service) in the cloud."

"Needs more customization of honeypots and a vaster catalog of systems able to be mimicked."

"It would be very helpful for beginners if the solution had more windows to help with the terms inside instead of going to the documentation."

"Incident tagging could be improved. Other vendors offer semi-automatic tagging, which Guardicore doesn't yet have."

"I would rate the stability a six out of ten, where one is low and ten is high stability."

"The product needs a few features like enhanced user policies and payload-level inspection to improve the offering."

"Customers would want to see the cost improved."

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation cons

"With the new Copilot functionality available everywhere, it is challenging to pinpoint areas for improvement. If I put in a lot of thought, I might identify things, but right now, nothing significant pops into my mind, but there is always room for more transparency, especially in pricing."

"We would like to have better transparency as to how the security score is calculated because as it is now, it is difficult to understand."

"I would like to see better automation when it comes to pushing out security features to the recommendations, and better documentation on the step-by-step procedures for enabling certain features."

"There are challenges with the licensing policies, which are quite complicated."

"For improvements, I'd like to see more use cases integrated with Microsoft Sentinel and support for multi-cloud environments beyond just Azure."

"The customer service at Microsoft has room for improvement. The first line of support is not technically adept and often requires engaging higher-level technicians to resolve issues."

"I would suggest building a single product that addresses endpoint server protection, attack surface, and everything else in one solution. That is the main disadvantage with the product. If we are incorporating some features, we end up in a situation where this solution is for the server, and that one is for the client, or this is for identity, and that is for our application. They're not bundling it. Commercially, we can charge for different licenses, but on the implementation side, it's tough to help our end-customer understand which product they're getting."

"I would like to see more connectors and plugins with other platforms."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"While SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security offers robust protection, its high cost may be prohibitive for small and medium-sized businesses."

"SentinelOne offers excellent pricing and licensing options."

"It is a little expensive. I would rate it a four out of ten for pricing."

"PingSafe is fairly priced."

"Its pricing is constant. It has been constant over the previous year, so I am happy with it. However, price distribution can be better explained. That is the only area I am worried about. Otherwise, the pricing is very reasonable."

"The features included in PingSafe justify its price point."

"For pricing, it currently seems to be in line with market rates."

"It's not cheap, but it is worth the price."

More SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security pricing and cost advice

"Guardicore Centra provides better value for money than NSX, was the other solution that we looked at, which was too expensive for what it does."

"The solution is reasonably priced and I would rate it a six out of ten. The tool's licensing costs are yearly."

"The pricing is too high."

"This is not a cheap solution but you have to consider the bigger picture, which is what it is giving you."

"The price is the same as other products in the market. There's no price argument to choose one or the other product, it will cost the customer approximately the same."

"The customer would complain about the cost."

"Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is expensive."

"Compared to the pricing we were seeing from both Illumio and Edgewise, Guardicore was very competitive."

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation pricing and cost advice

"Azure Defender is definitely pricey, but their competitors cost about the same. For example, a Palo Alto solution is the same price per endpoint, but the ground strikes cost a bit more than Azure Defender. Still, it's pricey for a company like ours. Maybe well-established organizations can afford it, but it might be too costly for a startup."

"I am not involved in this area. However, I believe its price is okay because even small customers are using Azure Security Center. I don't think it is very expensive."

"Azure Defender is a bit pricey. The price could be lower."

"Although I am outside of the discussion on budget and costing, I can say that the importance of security provided by this solution is of such importance that whatever the cost is, it is not a factor."

"It is bundled with our enterprise subscription, which makes it easy to go for it. It is available by default, and there is no extra cost for using the standard features."

"This is a worldwide service and depending on the country, there will be different prices."

"Microsoft Defender for Cloud is pricey, especially for Kubernetes clusters."

"We are using the free version of the Azure Security Center."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about PingSafe?

The dashboard gives me an overview of all the things happening in the product, making it one of the tool's best featu...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PingSafe?

I don't handle the price part, but it isn't more expensive than Palo Alto Prisma Cloud. It's not cheap, but it is wor...

See all answers

What needs improvement with PingSafe?

There is scope for more application security posture management features. Additionally, the runtime protection needs ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Guardicore Centra?

I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive. I know other micro-segmentation t...

See all answers

What do you like most about Guardicore Infection Monkey?

Initially, I liked the telemetry part. But later, we used the microsegmentation features that we were able to deploy ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Guardicore Infection Monkey?

When we have more than one interface, we can only have one policy for both interfaces. Normally, you have assets with...

See all answers

How is Prisma Cloud vs Azure Security Center for security?

Azure Security Center is very easy to use, integrates well, and gives very good visibility on what is happening acros...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Cloud?

The entire Defender Suite is tightly coupled, integrated, and collaborative.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Cloud?

The pricing is pretty standard.

See all answers

Comparisons

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 14% of the time

Wiz vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 13% of the time

AWS GuardDuty vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 8% of the time

Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 5% of the time

Orca Security vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 4% of the time

More SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security Competitors

Illumio vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 43% of the time

VMware NSX vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 10% of the time

Cisco Secure Workload vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 9% of the time

Cisco ACI vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 3% of the time

Cisco Hypershield vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 2% of the time

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation Competitors

AWS GuardDuty vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 25% of the time

Wiz vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 12% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Defender XDR vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 1% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

July 2025

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security report

Download SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security product report

Buyer's Guide

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

August 2025

Download Akamai Guardicore Segmentation product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

August 2025

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud product report

Also Known As

PingSafe

Guardicore Centra, GuardiCore

Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

SentinelOne

Demo not available

Akamai

Microsoft

Overview

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security offers a streamlined approach to cloud security with intuitive operation and strong integration capabilities for heightened threat detection and remediation efficiency.

Singularity Cloud Security stands out for its real-time detection and response, effectively minimizing detection and remediation timelines. Its automated remediation integrates smoothly with third-party tools enhancing operational efficiency. The comprehensive console ensures visibility and support for forensic investigations. Seamless platform integration and robust support for innovation are notable advantages. Areas for development include improved search functionality, affordability, better firewall capabilities for remote users, stable agents, comprehensive reporting, and efficient third-party integrations. Clarity in the interface, responsive support, and real-time alerting need enhancement, with a call for more automation and customization. Better scalability and cost-effective integration without compromising capabilities are desired.

What are SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security's standout features?

Ease of Use: Intuitive operation simplifies navigation across platforms.
Real-Time Detection: Quick identification and response to threats.
Automated Remediation: Streamlines recovery processes with integration capabilities.
Forensic Visibility: Aids in thorough threat analysis and prevention strategies.
Comprehensive Console: Offers full visibility and historical data tracking.
Platform Integration: Supports seamless operation across cloud and hybrid environments.

What benefits should users expect from SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security?

Enhanced Efficiency: Automation and third-party integration improve threat response.
Improved Detection: Reduces mean time to detect and respond to threats.
Operational Support: Comprehensive visibility and forensic tools aid operational decisions.
Cost Efficiency: Affordable integration with scaling capabilities without high overhead.

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is deployed in industries needing robust cloud security posture management, endpoint protection, and threat hunting. Utilized frequently across AWS and Azure, it assists in monitoring, threat detection, and maintaining compliance in diverse environments while providing real-time alerts and recommendations for proactive threat management.

SentinelOne

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is a software-based microsegmentation solution that provides the simplest, fastest, and most intuitive way to enforce Zero Trust principles. It enables you to prevent malicious lateral movement in your network through precise segmentation policies, visuals of activity within your IT environment, and network security alerts. Akamai Guardicore Segmentation works across your data centers, multicloud environments, and endpoints. It is faster to deploy than infrastructure segmentation approaches and provides you with unparalleled visibility and control of your network.

Akamai

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a comprehensive security solution that provides advanced threat protection for cloud workloads. It offers real-time visibility into the security posture of cloud environments, enabling organizations to quickly identify and respond to potential threats. With its advanced machine learning capabilities, Microsoft Defender for Cloud can detect and block sophisticated attacks, including zero-day exploits and fileless malware.

The solution also provides automated remediation capabilities, allowing security teams to quickly and easily respond to security incidents. With Microsoft Defender for Cloud, organizations can ensure the security and compliance of their cloud workloads, while reducing the burden on their security teams.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Santander, Frontier Airlines, OpenLink, Intermountain Healthcare, Cellcom, BancoBASE

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is trusted by companies such as ASOS, Vatenfall, SWC Technology Partners, and more.

Buyer's Guide

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

July 2025

Free Report: Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud report.

See our list of best Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) vendors.

We monitor all Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.