

Microsoft 365 Defender and Cisco XDR are powerful security solutions that excel in different areas. Microsoft 365 Defender is preferred for its seamless integration with other Microsoft products, while Cisco XDR stands out with comprehensive threat intelligence. Cisco XDR has an edge due to its broader scope of features.
Features: Microsoft 365 Defender offers robust threat protection, integration within the Microsoft ecosystem, and effective incident response capabilities. Cisco XDR provides extensive threat intelligence, advanced analytics, and cross-domain visibility features.
Room for Improvement: Microsoft 365 Defender could enhance threat detection accuracy, reduce false positives, and improve its non-Microsoft product compatibility. Cisco XDR needs to improve user-friendliness, provide better documentation, and streamline complex deployment processes.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft 365 Defender deployment is straightforward within Microsoft environments, with responsive customer service. Cisco XDR has a more complex deployment process but offers comprehensive support post-deployment.
Pricing and ROI: Microsoft 365 Defender is favored for its competitive pricing and value within Microsoft-centric organizations. Cisco XDR's cost is higher, reflecting its extensive features and threat intelligence. Microsoft 365 Defender delivers better ROI in Microsoft setups, while Cisco XDR justifies its higher cost for broader-spectrum security needs.
Two customers faced a network breach and a bad configuration incident, but unlike in the past where recovery took days, they managed to shut down access points quickly.
The biggest return on investment when using Cisco XDR is the downtime aspect, specifically not having to roll out to sites and not having customers experience downtime.
The biggest return on investment when using Cisco XDR is that, being a small company where everybody has multiple roles, the quicker I can mitigate something, the faster I can return to my scheduled tasks for that day.
We can quarantine and isolate a device within minutes.
Microsoft Defender XDR has saved me at least 50% of my time.
It helped stop multiple intrusion points where we would have had millions in lost revenue if the attackers got in.
They responded quickly, they were always willing to meet, and they were always willing to work as per my schedule.
the tech support is excellent
I would rate Cisco customer service a ten out of ten.
You get stuck in low-level support for way longer than you should, instead of them escalating the issue up the chain.
It's critical to escalate SEV B issues immediately to a domestic engineer.
Once issues are escalated to the second or third layer, the support is much better.
Cisco XDR is designed to handle significant scaling of endpoints, allowing management of a large scale of environments with thousands of sessions.
In terms of scalability, I rate it as the best.
My concern is about the scale of events and alerts being generated, and the product is doing a very good job of only surfacing the important items for us.
Microsoft Defender XDR shows tremendous scalability, much more so than on-premises solutions.
Microsoft Defender XDR scales pretty well.
Customers have mentioned that the stability and scalability are good compared to competitors.
Once they got it fixed and figured out the issue with the observables and with the character limit, it's been flawless.
The stability and reliability of Cisco XDR, similar to most Cisco products, are bulletproof.
The service has remained consistently online, with any issues isolated to specific components, suggesting a well-designed and modular architecture.
The services within our ecosystem have been reliable, meeting their SLAs.
It provides high-fidelity signals.
Competitors offer more visibility without any additional licensing, which is a significant drawback for Cisco.
If it can capture threats from worldwide new threats and publish them into a particular database linked with an AI-driven system that can immediately alert people, that would be very good for zero-day threats.
Offering some free XDR licenses for testing features, similar to VPN licenses, could have a significant impact on costs.
The licensing process needs improvement and clarification.
Improvements are needed in automated response capabilities.
Some inconsistencies exist between blades, which could be improved for a more seamless user and UI experience.
This integration and discounting are something we cannot get from competitors, leading to reduced security costs.
Users can customize their use of Cisco XDR significantly from the onset, which has resulted in a lower total cost of ownership.
Overall, the price is a bit expensive compared to local competitors.
There are certainly savings when using Microsoft Defender XDR, which can range from 30%, 40%, and even up to 50%.
I would rate the pricing as eight out of ten, indicating it is a reasonable cost for the product.
Microsoft purposefully obfuscates this through marketing ploys to hide costs.
Between the clarity, the granularity, and the dashboard, it just works.
The feature I appreciate the most about Cisco XDR is the flexibility for a user to be able to create their own reporting and dashboards.
Cisco XDR helps prevent data loss during ransomware attacks by integrating with multiple levels of security, tying to identity management systems, and allowing placement of blocks at the endpoint level.
With Microsoft threat intelligence information, it detects various types of threats, including insider attacks, malicious content, and data exfiltration.
This allows us to secure our systems in advance and proactively improve security, rather than waiting for incidents to occur.
Once we have it on the security dashboard, we can see a real-time storyline.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Defender XDR | 4.8% |
| Cisco XDR | 1.8% |
| Other | 93.4% |

| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 4 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 4 |
| Large Enterprise | 2 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 47 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 25 |
| Large Enterprise | 38 |
Cisco XDR delivers an advanced threat detection and response experience through integration with Cisco's security suite, offering enhanced visibility, intelligence, and automation for network protection and system evaluations.
Cisco XDR integrates with Cisco Meraki and Splunk, excelling in threat intelligence and zero-day attack detection. Its automated response features provide crucial support in managing extensive networks, while the comprehensive log management facilitates detailed troubleshooting. Dashboards assist in system evaluation for effective gap mitigation. Despite its licensing complexity and upfront costs, it remains a key tool for Security Operations Center analysts and internet service providers, helping isolate threats and ensuring consistent security monitoring.
What features make Cisco XDR stand out?Cisco XDR is widely implemented in sectors requiring robust network management and monitoring. Organizations use it alongside Cisco Firepower Threat Defense and Meraki for comprehensive security measures, benefiting global customers and internet service providers for traffic and routing insights across devices and data centers.
Microsoft Defender XDR is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect against threats in the Microsoft 365 environment.
It offers robust security measures, comprehensive threat detection capabilities, and an efficient incident response system. With seamless integration with other Microsoft products and a user-friendly interface, it simplifies security management tasks.
Users have found it effective in detecting and preventing various types of attacks, such as phishing attempts, malware infections, and data breaches.
Watch the Microsoft demo video here: Microsoft Defender XDR demo video.
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