

Symantec Advanced Threat Protection and Microsoft Defender for Identity compete in the cybersecurity category. While both offer robust solutions, Microsoft Defender for Identity seems to have the upper hand due to its seamless integration with Microsoft ecosystems and effective cloud security features.
Features: Symantec Advanced Threat Protection offers real-time threat analysis, integration with SIEM products, and strong network protection features. Microsoft Defender for Identity excels in identity protection, real-time behavioral analytics, and integration with Microsoft 365 components, ensuring security across both on-premises and cloud environments.
Room for Improvement: Symantec could enhance its graphical threat representation, flexibility, and cloud capabilities. Microsoft Defender for Identity needs better data correlation for anomaly detection, reduced false positives, and improvements in sensor load management.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Symantec supports varied deployments but has faced inconsistent support quality, particularly post-acquisition. Microsoft Defender provides excellent cloud environment support with responsive technical assistance, earning positive user reviews.
Pricing and ROI: Symantec offers competitive pricing, although costs fluctuate with user licenses. Microsoft’s inclusion in the Microsoft 365 suite, especially for E5 license holders, makes it a cost-effective option with valuable bundled features, enhancing perceived value over Symantec.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Defender for Identity | 4.5% |
| Symantec Advanced Threat Protection | 1.9% |
| Other | 93.6% |

| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 8 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 4 |
| Large Enterprise | 14 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 9 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 3 |
| Large Enterprise | 13 |
Microsoft Defender for Identity offers real-time threat detection and protection for hybrid Active Directory environments. It integrates with Microsoft 365 components for seamless security and monitors advanced behaviors, enhancing identity protection across cloud and on-premises environments.
Microsoft Defender for Identity provides detailed threat insights and user behavior analytics to detect unauthorized access and notify anomalies. It allows setting custom detection rules, enhancing threat response automation. While it needs improvements in cloud security, SIEM integration, and access controls, users leverage its ability to mitigate identity threats like suspicious logins and ransomware. Enhanced integration with Microsoft security products ensures a coordinated threat response for identity control and privilege management.
What are the key features of Microsoft Defender for Identity?In specific industries, organizations implement Microsoft Defender for Identity to secure on-premises and hybrid Active Directory environments through user and entity behavior analytics, malicious activity detection, and integration with Microsoft security tools. This approach enhances security posture assessment and helps mitigate identity threats like identity harvesting and unauthorized access.
Symantec Advanced Threat Protection is a single unified solution that uncovers, prioritizes, and remediates advanced attacks. The product fuses intelligence from endpoint, network, and email control points, as well as Symantec’s massive global sensor network, to stop threats that evade individual security products. It leverages your existing Symantec Endpoint Protection and Symantec Email Security.cloud investments, so it does not require the deployment of any new agents. You can deploy a new installation of Symantec Advanced Threat Protection and start to discover suspicious activity in under an hour. Using the proven technology in Symantec Insight reputation based detection, Symantec SONAR behavioral analysis with the new Symantec Cynic sandbox and file analysis platform, Symantec Advanced Threat Protection provides better detection and prioritization than other vendors, allowing security analysts to “zero in” on just those specific security events of importance.
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