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Google Cloud Run vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Google Cloud Run
Ranking in Container Management
15th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
2.2
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Containers as a Service (CaaS) (5th)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Ranking in Container Management
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (5th), Container Security (5th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (4th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (5th), Microsoft Security Suite (7th), Compliance Management (4th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

AS
Technical Lead at a construction company with 1-10 employees
Microservices deployment has become faster and cost optimization is driving daily development
While Google Cloud Run does a great job of reducing costs, to mitigate cold starts, users can set minimum instances, but scaling to zero costs has become a cost-saving advantage even when idle, and idle instance costs might occur. This can be avoided because whenever a heavy container causes a cold start, it affects latency and sensitivity of the application. When it starts from idle to full run, it scales slowly, causing slowness in the service deployed; sometimes some of the APIs fail to respond. It is difficult to identify the bug because it is often due to the idleness of the application and not the code, which can be quite frustrating. Additionally, simple tasks for developers who just want to run a few lines of code can be more complex. I would say optimizing concurrency can improve the experience; currently, managing multiple containers in a single Google Cloud Run instance becomes quite difficult, especially tasks such as logging and local proxy monitoring. Google provides fully orchestrated alternatives, but Cloud Run is better for scaling. Slowness in applications is a notable issue.
RW
Head Of IT at Cirrus Response
Cloud security has cut investigation time and now reveals threats faster but needs simpler oversight
When deploying AI applications, my key security concerns with Microsoft Defender for Cloud are data loss, leakage of data, and guardrails around the actual AI, and I am hoping that this is going to help me put those guardrails in place and identify data exfiltration. Microsoft Defender for Cloud has not helped me manage and secure multi-cloud environments, as we are 100 percent Microsoft and have not really got it in any other environment at all. I am not yet using the unified AI-powered security feature offered by Microsoft Defender for Cloud, but that is coming. I am not yet using the integrated XDR feature of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, but that is coming. I am not yet utilizing the GenAI threat protection features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud. That is also coming and a lot of that will come from learning it here. I have enabled the agentless scanning in my cloud environment with Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Assessing the impact on my workload protection without needing to install agents with Microsoft Defender for Cloud makes it a lot easier, but it also identifies a lot more, which puts more load on me sometimes. I would advise another organization considering Microsoft Defender for Cloud that it is the most logical route to follow if their whole ecosystem is Microsoft. It is easy to implement and it is very self-explanatory when doing it, making sense to just follow the steps as it is too simple, really. I would rate this review a 7.5 out of 10.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Google Cloud Run is a very good tool that I use for deploying applications; its ease of deployment, auto scaling features, and resource optimization are very nice features that help individuals deploy their apps and solutions into the cloud without any hiccups."
"Google Cloud Run and the Google Cloud environment positively impact my organization by providing almost 99.9% availability for applications, which instills confidence in the organization and users by reducing the dependency on the physical network and allowing access to applications and data."
"Google Cloud Run has positively impacted my organization in numerous ways, such as significant cost efficiency and reduced overhead since we only pay for the resources that we use."
"In Google Cloud Run, we are mainly using the feature where we can directly pull images from Docker Hub."
"Google Cloud Run has impacted my organization positively through faster deployment and development, where developers can deploy applications quickly without worrying about infrastructure, push the app live with just containers, speed up time to market significantly, launch features faster and iterate more often, pay only when code runs without maintaining idle servers, reduce cloud costs dramatically for applications with low or unpredictable traffic, automatically scale based on traffic spikes to handle sudden loads without manual intervention so our business does not lose users during peak hours, and let developers focus on business logic instead of DevOps."
"Google Cloud Run has positively impacted our organization by saving us five thousand dollars per month based on scheduling our infrastructure from nine p.m. to nine a.m. for shutdown and starting, as well as stopping the MongoDB clusters."
"Most importantly, it's an integrated solution. We not only have Defender for Cloud, but we also have Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Office 365, and Defender for Identity. It's an integrated, holistic solution."
"Defender for Cloud provides a complete DevOps security package for cloud services."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the insights, meaning the remediation suggestions, as well as the incident alerts."
"Provides a very good view of the entire security setup of your organization."
"Microsoft Defender for Cloud has significantly enhanced our overall security posture by approximately 20 to 25 percent."
"I appreciate the features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud the most because it incorporates itself into the entire Microsoft platform, and it's a one-stop shop for administration in the web."
"DSPM is the most valuable feature."
"It improves the transparency and visibility of the traffic in and out of the network of each workload on my system."
 

Cons

"There are a few areas that could be improved. We have experienced cold start latency because when scaling from zero, the first request is slow."
"There are a few areas where Google Cloud Run could improve."
"One area where Google Cloud Run could be better is the cold start; when a container scales, it starts from zero and takes a moment to boot up before it can serve the request."
"When it starts from idle to full run, it scales slowly, causing slowness in the service deployed; sometimes some of the APIs fail to respond."
"If speaking about improvements for Google Cloud Run, I think they could reduce the cold starts and manage to configure a set number of minimum instances to keep the instances in a warm phase."
"They could always work to make the pricing a bit lower."
"Defender could improve how data is represented. It can be unstructured or slow to load."
"I don't know what the issue is but when we do the agent deployment, sometimes it works, and sometimes it fails and we need to go inside the virtual machine and manually install the agent."
"The product must improve its UI."
"We haven't experienced issues with Microsoft Defender for Cloud for our company size of about five hundred people. However, I've heard there might be issues with scalability for larger enterprises."
"Azure Security Center should be more easily understood by a non-technical person. It needs to be simplified and made more user-friendly for a non-technical person."
"Agent features need to be improved. They support agents through Azure Arc or Workbench. Sometimes, we are not able to get correct signals from the machines on which we have installed these agents. We are not able to see how many are currently reporting to Azure Security Center, and how many are currently not reporting. For example, we have 1,000 machines, and we have enrolled 1,000 OMS agents on these machines to collect the log. When I look at the status, even though at some places, it shows that it is connected, but when I actually go and check, I'm not getting any alerts from those. There are some discrepancies on the agent, and the agent features are not up to the mark."
"Microsoft Defender for Cloud is pricey, especially for Kubernetes clusters. It could be cheaper."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Pricing is a consideration, but we strive to keep costs low by enabling only necessary services."
"Understanding the costs of cloud services can be complicated at first. As with a lot of things in the cloud, it can be quite hard to understand the end cost, but it becomes clearer over time. Early on, the lack of transparency is a challenge. Microsoft does not tell you the cost when they launch something. It is clever marketing, and there is room for improvement there. There should be clarity from the start."
"Its pricing is a little bit high in terms of Azure Security Center, but the good thing is that we don't need to maintain and deploy it. So, while the pricing is high, it is native to Azure which is why we prefer using this tool."
"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."
"This solution is more cost-effective than some competing products. My understanding is that it is based on the number of integrations that you have, so if you have fewer subscriptions then you pay less for the service."
"Defender for Cloud is pretty costly for a single line. It's incredibly high to pay monthly for security per server. The cost is considerable for an enterprise with 500-plus virtual machines, and the monthly bill can spike."
"There is a helpful cost-reducing option that allows you to integrate production subscriptions with non-production subscriptions."
"The cost is fair. There aren't any costs in addition to the standard licensing fee."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise49
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Google Cloud Run?
While Google Cloud Run does a great job of reducing costs, to mitigate cold starts, users can set minimum instances, but scaling to zero costs has become a cost-saving advantage even when idle, and...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Run?
I am mainly using Google Cloud Run for running microservices and its web APIs, creating GraphQL APIs and validation. I also use it for event-driven processing, uploading files into cloud storage, a...
What advice do you have for others considering Google Cloud Run?
Google Cloud Run is something I have worked with and I have experience using it. The platform is very user-friendly, simple, and easy to use. The portability is highly portable. Google handles its ...
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 across your ecosystem. It also has great remote workforce capabilities and supports a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Cloud?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing was that the license cost was the only consideration. Setup and support had no issues.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Cloud?
To improve Microsoft Defender for Cloud, I think pricing-wise, the license price is a little bit higher from an ingestion cost perspective. Depending on what license you choose, you might have to p...
 

Also Known As

Google Cloud Functions, Google Run, GCF
Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is trusted by companies such as ASOS, Vatenfall, SWC Technology Partners, and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Cloud Run vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.