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Illumio vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.3
SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security improves efficiency, reduces costs by 40%, cuts vulnerability management time by 80%, and boosts ROI.
Sentiment score
6.3
Illumio is praised for cost-effectiveness and efficiency, offering comprehensive features that enhance ROI and improve operations.
Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Defender for Cloud boosts efficiency, cuts remediation time, improves security, and reduces overhead despite varied cost perceptions.
After implementing SentinelOne, it takes about five to seven minutes.
Cloud engineer at a construction company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Our ability to get in and review our vulnerability stance, whether daily, monthly, weekly, or whatever it might be, has drastically improved over our prior provider.
IT Support Specialist at a non-tech company with 201-500 employees
It has saved us more than 50% of our time.
Sr security engineer at Halodoc
I observe extensive return on investment with Illumio.
Senior Security Consultant at Orange Cyberdefense
Illumio serves as a single endpoint technology where I can implement various features, including a zero-trust network, north-to-south and east-to-west configurations, and micro-segmentation, all coming from one platform, which ultimately saves us time and money.
Security Professional at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Illumio definitely demonstrates its value in money-saving capabilities, enhancing our lateral environment inside the organization and providing effectiveness overall once integrated.
Security delivery specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Defender proactively indexes and analyzes documents, identifying potential threats even when inactive, enhancing preventative security.
Endpoint management at a government with 10,001+ employees
Identifying potential vulnerabilities has helped us avoid costly data losses.
Manager at CBTS
Compared to not having Microsoft Defender for Cloud in place, we definitely saw an advantage by not having downtime due to a security threat.
Principal Microsoft Consultant at MicroAge
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.8
SentinelOne Singularity support is praised for being helpful and proactive, despite occasional slower responses and complexity challenges.
Sentiment score
5.0
Illumio customer service is generally satisfactory but needs improvement in response times and empathy for some users.
Sentiment score
6.3
Microsoft Defender for Cloud support receives mixed reviews, with praise for documentation but issues with response times and escalation.
Having a reliable team ready and willing to assist with any issues is essential.
Director, DevOps at Relay Network
Throughout the migration, they remained available for several hours without complaint, providing assistance at every step.
Mobile Application Developer at a retailer with 1-10 employees
In my experience, I have never encountered a junior person or someone without knowledge coming into support from SentinelOne.
Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited
Whenever I raise a case with their support team, regardless of the priority level—P1, P2, P3, or P4—they generally reply within an hour
Security Professional at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Even if we raise an issue on non-working days like Saturdays or Sundays, we receive prompt responses.
IT Specialist at Allianz
The customer support is very prominent.
Security delivery specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Since security is critical, we prefer a quicker response time.
Manager at CBTS
The support team was very responsive to queries.
Programme Manager- Cyber Fusion- Group CISO at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
They understand their product, but much like us, they struggle with the finer details, especially with new features.
Endpoint management at a government with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security excels in scalability and integration, accommodating diverse workloads across various environments with ease.
Sentiment score
7.1
Illumio's scalability is praised for ease of expansion, seamless cloud integration, and efficient support for diverse environments and devices.
Sentiment score
7.5
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is scalable, easily deployable, integrates well, and adapts to growth but may incur higher costs.
The SentinelOne Singularity Cloud exhibits high scalability.
Security Analyst at Intersistemi Italia s.p.a.
We've automated in our MDM so any device that we start in our MDM automatically installs SentinelOne.
IT Support Specialist at a non-tech company with 201-500 employees
It is scalable. I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.
Sr security engineer at Halodoc
Scaling it to a large level is not an issue for us.
Cyber Security Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
By employing Linux scripting or other methods, I can push the policy to all devices at once, making it easy to scale.
Security Professional at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Illumio's scalability is very good; it is quite easy to scale.
Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
As we have reduced our on-premises infrastructure, it is about how we can migrate workloads to the cloud to make it easier, and then having everything fully encompassed and secured within that area makes it much easier for us to scale as needed and grow.
Principal Microsoft Consultant at MicroAge
We are using infrastructure as a code, so we do not have any scalability issues with Microsoft Defender for Cloud implementation because our cloud automatically does it.
Senior Cloud Platform Engineer at Deutsche Börse
It has multiple licenses and features, covering infrastructures from a hundred to five hundred virtual machines, without any issues.
Snr. Infrastructure Architect (Data Centre) at LogicEra
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
SentinelOne Singularity Cloud is highly stable, with minimal downtime and robust security, rivaling competitors despite minor UI glitches.
Sentiment score
8.1
Illumio is praised for strong stability, reliability, and effective use of native firewall functions to prevent disruptions.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is stable and reliable, with minor issues quickly resolved, earning high user ratings.
SentinelOne Singularity Cloud is incredibly reliable.
Security Analyst at Intersistemi Italia s.p.a.
The only downtime we had was when switching from V1 to V2 but it was smooth.
Cloud Security Specialist at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability.
Sr security engineer at Halodoc
Illumio is a stable solution with no glitches or bugs reported, making it a reliable product for us.
IT Specialist at Allianz
Defender's stability has been flawless for us.
Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
I have not experienced any crashes or downtime.
Head Of IT at Cirrus Response
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is very stable.
Cloud architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek improved SentinelOne Cloud Security in administration, integration, reporting, customization, real-time protection, cost, and support.
Illumio users desire better integration, support, and interface, with improved automation, scalability, compatibility, security, and deployment processes.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud needs enhanced customization, integration, automation, scalability, support, pricing, and user experience for better efficiency.
If notifications are available, then it will be more helpful, easy, and time-saving.
Sr Security Analyst at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Alerts should be directly tied to compliance standards and have a clear role in the overall compliance process.
Cloud Security & Architecture Specialist at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
The Infrastructure as Code service available in PingSafe and the services available in AWS cloud security can be merged so that we can get the security data directly from AWS cloud in PingSafe.
Cloud Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
They need to install an agent in the container world, while Akamai Guardicore does not need to install an agent, so they have native support that Illumio lacks.
Senior Security Consultant at Orange Cyberdefense
There could also be more examples of how the automations can be done using Illumio.
Cyber Security Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Another improvement might be around scalability, ensuring that as organizations grow, Illumio can handle even larger, more complex environments seamlessly.
DevOps at a marketing services firm with 51-200 employees
Microsoft, in general, could significantly improve its communication and support.
Endpoint management at a government with 10,001+ employees
It would be beneficial to streamline recommendations to avoid unnecessary alerts and to refine the severity of alerts based on specific environments or environmental attributes.
Works at Coca-Cola HBC
The artificial intelligence features could be expanded to allow the system to autonomously manage security issues without needing intervention from admins.
Cloud Consultant at i-Community AG
 

Setup Cost

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security offers flexible pricing and licensing, being cost-effective for some but expensive for smaller businesses.
Many find Illumio's flexible pricing, despite being costly, offers a good balance of cost and capability compared to competitors.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud pricing varies by workload and region, with some finding value and others noting hidden costs.
With very little negotiation involved, we just let them know what we could pay and they were willing to meet us at slightly above what we paid with Sophos, which was still very fair for what we were looking at.
IT Support Specialist at a non-tech company with 201-500 employees
If you want to buy just EDR, the price is less. XDR is a little bit more expensive.
IT Security Specialist at Tailor Security Tech
It should not be based on subscription. It should be based on the number of servers that I am scanning.
AVP DevOps and Product Support at a recruiting/HR firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
I know that Illumio is the cheapest solution in the security area.
IT Specialist at Allianz
But when you compare it to firewalls, then it may not be that expensive.
Senior Security Consultant at Orange Cyberdefense
I think it's not very expensive if we compare it with Guardicore.
Cyber Security Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Security has essentially no cost when compared to the cost of a breach.
Director, Cloud and Modern Workplace at Informanix Technology Group
Every time we consider expanding usage, we carefully evaluate the necessity due to cost concerns.
Programme Manager- Cyber Fusion- Group CISO at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We appreciate the licensing approach based on employee count rather than a big enterprise license.
Manager, Microsoft Technology Alliance at Silverfort
 

Valuable Features

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security offers real-time AI threat detection, automated remediation, and intuitive interface for enhanced security management.
Illumio offers real-time control, micro-segmentation, and centralized rule management, enhancing security and visibility in dynamic environments.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides comprehensive security with CSPM and CWPP, enhancing threat detection, compliance, and automation across multi-cloud environments.
This tool has been helpful for us. It allows us to search for vulnerabilities and provides evidence directly on the screen.
Cloud Security Specialist at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
The cloud misconfiguration feature gave us almost zero false positives.
Sr security engineer at Halodoc
PingSafe has sped up the process by 80% to 90%.
Sr Security Analyst at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Illumio helps in audit purposes by saving data and showing blocked traffic, ensuring no outside traffic is allowed.
IT Specialist at Allianz
The most important feature is the traffic review analysis, where we use the draft view and the reported view that helps us understand how the application interacts with other applications in the environment, and based on that, we are able to define the policies.
Cyber Security Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Illumio is a powerful tool for micro-segmentation and zero trust security that provides strong visibility, flexible policy management, and effective threat containment, enhancing an organization's internal security posture.
Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The most valuable feature for me is the variety of APIs available.
Programme Manager- Cyber Fusion- Group CISO at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
This feature significantly aids in threat detection and enhances the user experience by streamlining security management.
Cloud Consultant at i-Community AG
The most valuable feature is the recommendations provided on how to improve security.
Cloud architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

SentinelOne Singularity Clo...
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Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
124
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (4th), Cloud and Data Center Security (5th), Container Security (3rd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (3rd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (3rd), Compliance Management (1st), AI Observability (3rd)
Illumio
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
11th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Cloud and Data Center Security (3rd), Microsegmentation Software (1st)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (5th), Container Management (6th), Container Security (5th), 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)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) category, the mindshare of SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is 4.9%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Illumio is 4.0%, down from 6.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 14.0%, up from 13.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud14.0%
SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security4.9%
Illumio4.0%
Other77.1%
Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
 

Featured Reviews

Sreeraj Mohandas - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Engineer at HashXpert
Consolidated cloud security has reduced manual work and has automated vulnerability remediation
I elaborate on my rating of SentinelOne support by mentioning that there was some time where the troubleshooting took a longer time. In fact, there were many meetings going on. The availability of the document on the internet is on a lesser side because as an engineer, I would want to know about the troubleshooting aspects of this particular tool. When I am facing a customer, I do not prefer to bring the vendor to every call and try to resolve it, as it takes months and months. It would be better to have a training session with the engineer on site to explain and train properly. This is not the case with SentinelOne, so this is the only thing I have a complaint about. I do not have any other room for improvement to suggest within SentinelOne itself. However, I would really want the AI assistant for the threat hunting part to be more accessible. They have it, but they are making it licensed, so it is a bit on the higher end.
Irfan Sharfi - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Professional at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Micro-segmentation has transformed endpoint protection and now isolates internal threats effectively
Illumio can be improved in several areas based on our feedback. Sometimes, the PCE experiences slowness, especially when deploying around 300,000 endpoint devices. When these devices communicate within the network, loading the map or connections can cause latency, which needs improvement for a more user-friendly and faster experience. Regarding improvements to the interface, I believe we can add more features to the graphical user interface, such as proper logs. While the logs currently indicate what was blocked or allowed, clicking on a specific log should provide more information, such as which extra-scope rule is causing a denial, offering better analysis for troubleshooting.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
5%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
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 Business52
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise58
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise49
 

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PingSafe?
My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing of SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is that the pric...
What needs improvement with PingSafe?
Integration could be improved because not all solutions can be integrated with SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Illumio Adaptive Security Platform?
It will be the same price as the Akamai price for Guardicore. It's expensive, that's true. But when you compare it to...
What needs improvement with Illumio Adaptive Security Platform?
Illumio does not have much in terms of application dependency mapping features. They lack layer 7 process level segme...
What is your primary use case for Illumio Adaptive Security Platform?
Illumio's use case compared to Akamai is exactly the same. For the purpose of micro-segmentation, it is the same.
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...
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 an...
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 inges...
 

Also Known As

PingSafe
Illumio Adaptive Security Platform, Illumio ASP
Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Plantronics, NTT Innovation Institute Inc.
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 Illumio vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.