

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks and Microsoft Sentinel both provide comprehensive solutions in the cybersecurity product category. Cortex XDR might have the upper hand in advanced threat detection, while Sentinel demonstrates superior integration capabilities.
Features: Cortex XDR includes Wildfire AI for zero-day malware security, behavior-based detection allowing policy enforcement even outside corporate networks, and seamless integration with other Palo Alto products. Microsoft Sentinel excels with real-time analytics, automated incident management via Azure Logic Apps, and comprehensive integration with Microsoft environments, such as Office 365 and Azure Security Center.
Room for Improvement: Cortex XDR could enhance reporting features, reduce false positives, and improve integration with third-party solutions. Users also note the need for better support for on-premise deployments. Microsoft Sentinel could benefit from a more intuitive user interface, better false positive management, and expanded analytics for non-Microsoft environments. Users also desire improved industry-specific analytics.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cortex XDR allows deployment across on-premises and cloud environments, although users report deployment complexity. Customer service experiences vary, with some finding it efficient and others encountering delays. Microsoft Sentinel offers a straightforward setup with excellent public and hybrid cloud integration. Users generally praise the technical support, although some face pricing clarity issues.
Pricing and ROI: Cortex XDR can be expensive due to feature-based pricing, yet it is justified by effective threat prevention that drives significant ROI. Microsoft Sentinel operates on a consumption-based pricing model, making it flexible and cost-effective, especially within the Microsoft ecosystem. While both solutions deliver strong security outcomes, Microsoft Sentinel's integration ease further reinforces valuable ROI.
They appreciate the rich telemetry data from the solution, as it provides in-depth threat identification.
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks helps to reduce my total cost of ownership significantly.
I have seen a return on investment with Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, as this product is offered at a minimal cost, and we can find a good ROI from it.
If a customer is already using Microsoft’s ecosystem, the ROI can be positive due to seamless integration.
Our MTTR, mean time to response, improved by forty to fifty percent. Earlier, medium-severity incidents took two to three hours to resolve. Now, after Microsoft Sentinel, it is forty to fifty-five minutes.
We attribute our growth to Sentinel.
The technical support from Palo Alto deserves a mark of ten because they reach out within an hour whenever assistance is needed.
There is no back and forth, and they know what we are asking for and come up with the best resolution for a solution.
If any of these services are missed, it becomes a problem in terms of support tickets, follow-up, or special configuration that needs to be done in the system.
Their solutions' integration simplifies resolving issues compared to those caused by third-party products.
Microsoft invests significantly in support, which is crucial for companies.
Working with a Sentinel engineer helped us tune settings effectively.
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks can be expanded anytime by purchasing another license without any issues related to scalability.
I think scalability for Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is good.
Office 365 and Exchange are running on it, covering about 35,000 users efficiently.
There is no need to add hardware or redesign infrastructure because it is cloud-native.
As our organization uses Microsoft Azure and Defender, everything grows together, and we can integrate various features seamlessly.
Cortex remains fast and responsive, even with increasing data and alerts.
The thresholds we've seen on our firewall boxes at some instances reached 80% to 85%, but even at that level of utilization, we don't observe any latency or any issues reported with respect to accessing the application.
Cortex XDR is stable, offering high quality and reliable performance.
So far, we have not experienced any issues, and it has been stable from the beginning.
In the past two years, our team hasn't encountered any issues with the stability of Microsoft Sentinel from an operations perspective.
I need to be aware of deprecated connectors as they may disconnect, but the data continues to be sent with a need for quick adaptation.
Improving reporting and dashboard customization, along with the addition of real-time and exportable reports, would help SOC teams greatly.
The inclusion of this feature would allow the application of DLP policies alongside antivirus policies via a single agent and console, making it more competitive as other OEMs often offer DLP solutions as part of their antivirus products.
If the per GB data could be provided at a certain level free of cost or at the same cost which the customer is taking for the entire bundle, that would be better.
Log ingestion and retention costs can grow quickly, and understanding which data source is driving cost is not always straightforward.
We have some tools, such as our off-site Meraki firewalls, that have not fully integrated with Sentinel.
Currently, we are happy to have a way in the middle with not so much cost, but it would be nice to have the ability to enhance the automation of workflows based on learned incidents.
The pricing on SentinelOne is far more reasonable and cheaper than Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks.
I would say it is definitely not a cheap product, considering how mature it is and how scalable all Palo Alto products are together.
Cortex XDR is perceived as expensive by some customers, yet offers dynamic pricing.
It has been beneficial that Microsoft Sentinel is included as part of the Microsoft package, making it more cost-effective.
Microsoft Sentinel is not a low-cost SIEM.
Microsoft Sentinel offers more capabilities than Bastion, with a more intuitive experience.
It incorporates AI for normal behavior detection, distinguishing unusual operations.
The product provides automation responses in case of a threat attack, severity assessments, centralized manageability, and comprehensive compliance features, resulting in reduced costs.
It includes machine learning to easily analyze data and detect complex threats across endpoints, networks, or clouds.
Microsoft Sentinel's ability to correlate data from multiple sources and its detection capabilities are essential.
Microsoft Sentinel has improved cost efficiency, which is one of the key areas we're able to win business against the ability to have threat intelligence.
Microsoft Sentinel's ability to correlate data from multiple sources enhances our threat detection capabilities beyond what is a simple data lake solution by filtering out the noise and consolidating the signal down to a meaningful level that is easier to investigate and see.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks | 10.0% |
| Microsoft Sentinel | 10.8% |
| Other | 79.2% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 43 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 20 |
| Large Enterprise | 44 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 38 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 22 |
| Large Enterprise | 45 |
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks delivers comprehensive endpoint security, integrating well with other systems to offer robust threat detection and real-time protection through AI-driven analytics.
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks offers advanced endpoint protection and threat detection through AI and behavior-based analytics. Its user-friendly design simplifies integration with firewalls, delivering multi-layered protection with low resource consumption. Valued for policy management, USB control, and incident correlation, Cortex XDR enhances threat management and real-time threat hunting capabilities. However, users note challenges with third-party integration, reporting, and dashboard automation. Agent performance across operating systems and memory consumption are areas for improvement, alongside reducing false positives and simplifying endpoint management and setup.
What features does Cortex XDR offer?
What benefits should be considered in reviews?
Cortex XDR is crucial in industries requiring robust endpoint protection, such as finance, healthcare, and technology. It supports malware detection, behavioral analysis, and ransomware mitigation across endpoints, including remote work environments, providing comprehensive threat visibility and security policy management. The solution's integration with firewalls and specialized industry requirements enhances security posture in diverse operational settings.
Microsoft Sentinel is a scalable, cloud-native, security information event management (SIEM) and security orchestration automated response (SOAR) solution that lets you see and stop threats before they cause harm. Microsoft Sentinel delivers intelligent security analytics and threat intelligence across the enterprise, providing a single solution for alert detection, threat visibility, proactive hunting, and threat response. Eliminate security infrastructure setup and maintenance, and elastically scale to meet your security needs—while reducing IT costs. With Microsoft Sentinel, you can:
- Collect data at cloud scale—across all users, devices, applications, and infrastructure, both on-premises and in multiple clouds
- Detect previously uncovered threats and minimize false positives using analytics and unparalleled threat intelligence from Microsoft
- Investigate threats with AI and hunt suspicious activities at scale, tapping into decades of cybersecurity work at Microsoft
- Respond to incidents rapidly with built-in orchestration and automation of common tasks
To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.
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