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Microsoft Sentinel vs USM Anywhere comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

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
6.8
Microsoft Sentinel enhances ROI with faster incident response, automation, and cost efficiency, providing significant operational and security improvements.
Sentiment score
6.8
USM Anywhere enhances security, saves time and resources, reduces staffing needs, and meets compliance, offering financial and time benefits.
If a customer is already using Microsoft’s ecosystem, the ROI can be positive due to seamless integration.
senior cyber security at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
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.
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
For example, time saving on incidents is 40 to 50%, and previously, incident analysis took two to three hours, whereas now it takes 30 to 60 minutes.
Network Security Engineer at Arrow PC Network Pvt Ltd
Customers see ROI as they save on staff and other resources.
Co-Founder/Director at Bangkok MSP Company Limited
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Microsoft Sentinel customer service is praised for staff expertise, but premium support is quicker; communication consistency could improve.
Sentiment score
8.0
USM Anywhere's customer service is generally praised for responsiveness but experiences occasional delays and inconsistent support information.
Microsoft invests significantly in support, which is crucial for companies.
Director de Microsoft y Transformación Digital at Compucad
I believe Microsoft could improve by keeping customer service within the US for Microsoft Sentinel customers who are within state and federal government sectors.
Infosec at a government with 10,001+ employees
Working with a Sentinel engineer helped us tune settings effectively.
Systems Emgineer at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Sentinel is highly scalable, cloud-native, and integrates easily, but users should consider data ingestion costs.
Sentiment score
7.5
USM Anywhere is scalable for small to medium businesses, but enterprise-scale deployments face data volume and speed challenges.
There is no need to add hardware or redesign infrastructure because it is cloud-native.
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
As our organization uses Microsoft Azure and Defender, everything grows together, and we can integrate various features seamlessly.
Systems Emgineer at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
Being a SaaS solution, the scalability of Microsoft Sentinel is robust.
senior cyber security at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
USM Anywhere faces scalability issues because of a 60 TB limit.
Co-Founder/Director at Bangkok MSP Company Limited
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Sentinel is reliable with high uptime, minor outages, and strong security, despite some customization challenges.
Sentiment score
7.2
USM Anywhere receives mixed stability reviews, with some users praising its reliability and others reporting issues during updates or large data handling.
I have never experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues with Microsoft Sentinel because it is SOC as a Service, so it maintains 100% uptime and scaling.
Infosec at a government with 10,001+ employees
In the past two years, our team hasn't encountered any issues with the stability of Microsoft Sentinel from an operations perspective.
Project Executive at synergyc
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.
senior cyber security at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Sentinel needs enhancements in integration, usability, performance, automation, and cost management to better serve users and organizations.
USM Anywhere needs improved performance, user interface, integration, and support, with better updates and less disruptive software changes.
Log ingestion and retention costs can grow quickly, and understanding which data source is driving cost is not always straightforward.
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
We have some tools, such as our off-site Meraki firewalls, that have not fully integrated with Sentinel.
Systems Emgineer at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
There are complexities in calculating the right pricing tier for different customers, which makes it difficult for me as a consultant during upfront pricing.
senior cyber security at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
There are scalability issues due to a 60 TB limit, which restricts its use for large customers like banks.
Co-Founder/Director at Bangkok MSP Company Limited
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Sentinel's flexible pricing can be costly, but cost-effective within the Microsoft ecosystem with optimization strategies in place.
USM Anywhere offers scalable, affordable SIEM solutions ideal for SMBs, recommended for budget-conscious enterprises over costly competitors.
It has been beneficial that Microsoft Sentinel is included as part of the Microsoft package, making it more cost-effective.
Senior System Administrator at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
Microsoft Sentinel is not a low-cost SIEM.
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
Microsoft Sentinel is provided at no cost, so we didn't have any issues with the cost.
Vice President, Sales, Cybersecurity at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The pricing is amazing and really cheap.
Co-Founder/Director at Bangkok MSP Company Limited
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Sentinel enhances security with AI-driven threat detection, automated responses, seamless integration, and efficient threat management through playbooks and analytics.
USM Anywhere offers event correlation, vulnerability scanning, and centralized logging with customizable, user-friendly security monitoring for small teams.
Microsoft Sentinel's ability to correlate data from multiple sources and its detection capabilities are essential.
Cost Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
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.
Chief Commercial Officer at defend
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.
Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
The 365-day block query is a major feature.
Co-Founder/Director at Bangkok MSP Company Limited
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Sentinel
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
109
Ranking in other categories
Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (6th), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (6th)
USM Anywhere
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
28th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
115
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (33rd), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (41st), Compliance Management (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Sentinel is 4.0%, down from 7.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of USM Anywhere is 1.3%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Sentinel4.0%
USM Anywhere1.3%
Other94.7%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

Kallamuddin Ansari - PeerSpot reviewer
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
Centralized monitoring has improved threat response but cost control still needs refinement
Based on real operations used in our corporate IT environment, the key features include log correlation and incident view. Microsoft Sentinel's biggest strength is how it correlates multiple related alerts into a single incident. This significantly reduces alert noise and helps the SOC focus on real threats instead of isolated events. Another valuable feature is KQL-based threat hunting with Kusto Query Language. The flexibility of this language allows us to build custom hunting queries based on our environment's behavior. This is extremely useful for detecting low and slow threats or hidden threats that default rules may miss. Cloud-native scalability and stability is another important feature. Being cloud-native, Microsoft Sentinel scales well for medium to large corporate environments without infrastructure management. Stability has been solid in day-to-day production. SOAR automation using playbooks is a feature we highly recommend. Microsoft Sentinel's SOAR functionality helps automate repetitive SOC tasks like alert enrichment and notification. This saves analyst time and improves response consistency.
Kris Nawani - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder/Director at Bangkok MSP Company Limited
Offers complete coverage without the need to install additional software
USM Anywhere is used for threat detection and investigation. It provides a solution with built-in threat intelligence and various other investigation tools The solution offers complete coverage without the need to install additional software, as it is maintained by the vendor. It helps in saving…
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions are best for your needs.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Construction Company
21%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise46
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business65
Midsize Enterprise29
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

Is there a common threat intelligence tool that aggregates multiple threat intelligence sources?
Yes, Azure Sentinel is a SIEM on the Cloud. Multiple data sources can be uploaded and analyzed with Azure Sentinel and its Threat Hunting functionality with AI available as templates or customized ...
What is a better choice, Splunk or Azure Sentinel?
It would really depend on (1) which logs you need to ingest and (2) what are your use cases Splunk is easy for ingestion of anything, but the charge per GB/Day Indexed and it gets expensive as log ...
Which is better - Azure Sentinel or AWS Security Hub?
We like that Azure Sentinel does not require as much maintenance as legacy SIEMs that are on-premises. Azure Sentinel is auto-scaling - you will not have to worry about performance impact, you will...
What needs improvement with AT&T AlienVault USM?
There are scalability issues due to a 60 TB limit, which restricts its use for large customers like banks. It is also limited when used with bigger products and has complex password requirements.
What is your primary use case for AT&T AlienVault USM?
USM Anywhere is used for threat detection and investigation. It provides a solution with built-in threat intelligence and various other investigation tools.
 

Also Known As

Azure Sentinel
AT&T AlienVault USM, AlienVault, AlienVault USM, Alienvault Cybersecurity
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Sentinel is trusted by companies of all sizes including ABM, ASOS, Uniper, First West Credit Union, Avanade, and more.
Abel & Cole, Bank of Ireland, Bluegrass Cellular, CareerBuilder, Claire's, Hays Medical Center, Hope International, McCurrach, McKinsey & Company, Party Delights, Pepco Holdings, Richland School District, Ricoh, SaveMart, Shake Shack, Steelcase, TaxAct, Taylor Morrison, Vonage and Zoom
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Sentinel vs. USM Anywhere and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.