Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Reviews

It's an XDR (Extended Detection and Response) system.

It's an enterprise solution that provides a centralized console and it supports all the platforms that we use, including Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, and Android. Microsoft Defender is embedded in Windows and is a basic anti-virus, but Defender for Endpoint is an enterprise-grade XDR system.

Microsoft should improve support for third-party platforms, because not all functionality is available for all of them. It's a good product, but they should just extend the functionality for all platforms.

I have been using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for about three months.

It's quite stable. Sometimes it can overload the CPU of endpoints, but Microsoft provides ways to solve this problem.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is scalable. It's the ground-level service for other Microsoft security services. Microsoft provides a full range of security services and you have the ability to extend it anytime and in a simple way. You can scale the range of security services by just buying the license and implementing some extra service.

We have close to 200 users in our organization, but we plan to deploy this product to the whole company, with a total of nearly 800 people.

We have not had to contact Microsoft's technical support because we get support from our partner.

When it comes to the initial setup, Microsoft is very strong in that area and it is very simple. That's why we use it in our company. Some products are hard to deploy. Another solution was declined because it was not possible to roll it out in a bigger company.

We don't have a dedicated person to maintain the solution. Two people share the role. One is a Layer-1 specialist who maintains a daily routine, and the other is a Layer-2 engineer.

We started to install this product for ourselves, but Microsoft proposed some different kinds of programs in which an integrator helps key customers deploy services and products. We accepted the proposition and we are happy we did so because the partner was very professional with very deep experience with the product.

Microsoft has different plans for buying this product. The price depends on the configuration of the full set of products that you buy and on the licensing program in your contract. Microsoft provides a flexible licensing program and you can choose what you want.

The pros of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint are that it's simple to deploy and has all the required functionality. The drawback is that it lacks some functionality for other platforms, such as Linux.

I would recommend implementing this solution together with a certified partner. That will help to avoid a lot of mistakes and save you money, because licensing is a big part of the project.

I lead a delivery team. I have a team of about 20 technology specialists and we do the deployment for Microsoft Defender.

Instead of having a third-party antivirus, then you can have a Microsoft ecosystem for your entire endpoint protection. 

This solution has its own sensors, which is its best feature. It senses the behavior of your endpoints, whether it is logged in from a particular location or external of that location. 

It captures data through machine learning, which is built-in on the back-end. It also provides built-in analytics and a threat intelligence feature. It is a one-stop solution that doesn't require an antivirus because it comes prebuilt into Windows 10.

Sometimes, there are different skews. In a basic skew, they should have basic log analysis without the need to integrate with any third-party or SIEM solutions, like Sentinel. This would make it so much easier for users who don't have log collection or log analysis.

We have been using it for a year.

This solution is very much stable.

This solution is scalable. It is a cloud solution.

If you have the Microsoft Azure ecosystem, you can collect logs and view them through Sentinel. You can also onboard your devices within Intune. 

You can integrate Microsoft Defender for Endpoint with different Microsoft solutions, e.g., Defender for Cloud, Sentinel, Endpoint Manager for onboarding of Intune, and Defender for Office 365.

We have a large number of customers.

Premium support is okay. Professional support is not as good because it is free. You must wait because you are not paying.

The initial setup was straightforward. There was nothing rocket science to it. It didn't take much time as we just enrolled the device and assigned the licenses, then it was done.

You just prepare it, doing a license evaluation licensing and some network configuration, then you can onboard your device.

We do the implementation ourselves. We find it easy to deploy. We help customers adopt the solution and get better ROI.

They have to pay for the Defender license. There are different licenses and skews, such as Plan 1, Plan 2, or the trial.

You do not need to pay any additional costs for antivirus and anti-malware solutions for endpoint protection. 

Anyone on Windows 10 Enterprise should choose this solution.

It really depends on the volume. You need one senior architect who can just define the entire thing: the device, network configuration, etc. You will also need some Level 1 engineers who need to keep on monitoring the devices and do onboarding. If they are using the latest version of Windows 10, then you can do the onboarding via Intune, Endpoint, etc. 

My rating for this solution is an eight out of 10.

We call the solution MDATP - Microsoft Defender Advanced Persistent Threat Protection. At the same time, we're using it more from an EDR point of view, as an Endpoint Detection Response. It can detect any threats, malware, or processor, which are illegitimate and being executed by the end-users or malicious actors. When it sees this, it detects and reports to us. 

Not only that, at the same time, it's detection, prevention, and response. Mostly what we were working on is detection. When I refer to detection, I mean that it can, with pinpoint accuracy, detect something and expose the threat. It can also map those threats with a MITRE, which is one of the great things that I love about it, on top of the accuracy and the threat description it provides.

There are a few different use cases. We return with a query language, which is provided by Microsoft. We are able to create some threat hunting queries. We can pinpoint, accurately detect, and run pain testing. When there’s a threat or issue, I am able to find it and track it with great accuracy in MDATP. MDATP is able to tell me that, for example, in my organization, if there was a guy who was doing pain testing, which is black listed, and if there was an attempt to exploit something or install some malicious code or try to hack into the system. I am able to find this and pinpoint its occurrence. Not only that, I’m able to map them onto a MITRE framework and tell which stage of the attack it was, where the attacker came from, et cetera. I can see if it was something that was planned in the organization. 

I can both detect internally and externally. I have full faith that the MDATP will detect behaviors and warn us of issues.

When you go to do a deep-dive or investigation as a SOC analyst or any security analyst, it gives three structures or processes, as well as the execution that it performs. I am able to perform a very deep-level investigation with MDATP - more than I can with any other tool.

It did increase our security posture. While we had an antivirus before, it would only detect or prevent certain types of attacks. However, based on that capability, you cannot respond to the threat directly. For example, if there was ransomware on a system, the antivirus will be able to identify, detect, and mitigate it. However, at the same time, even if the antivirus detects that and tries to prevent it, you need to contain that machine, or you need to isolate that machine from the network. You don't want that machine to be talking to anybody in the network. Antivirus solutions can’t exactly do that.

With respect to prevention, it has an auto-remediation feature, which is a good feature that I love with respect to prevention. It does auto-remediation as well as manual remediation, which is pretty good.

With respect to response, we were able to contain, block, and respond to threats faster with MDATP. When we analyze the incidents or the threats it gives us a very good view of everything.

With this product, before containing or responding, we get the information and can see what exactly is happening and when that malicious file was installed. After that, we have an event timeline. The visibility is not that much when you only have an antivirus. Now, we see the full picture. When we adopted this tool, we got the detect, prevent, and response functionalities. Overall, our security posture looks much better and our attack surfaces are limited. Endpoints are also most vulnerable today and we can efficiently protect them now. Since we have reduced the attack surface our security posture has improved dramatically. On top of that, we have the capability to respond and to go deeper on a forensic level.

The product doesn’t affect our end-users. I do not see any major issues. There are exceptions where approvals may be necessary. However, the user acceptance is good. This is something that organizations pre-plan and there is nothing the user really has to worry about or act on.

Defender’s GUI can be optimized. The console needs to be more refined. After you have been using it for some time, you get used to it, and it is manageable. However, it should be a little bit more refined.

They should come up with pre-built inner workflows. I would really like to see this. There need to be workflows with respect to notifications, remediations, or any actions that people want to take. They should come up with predefined or prebuilt hunting capabilities. Right now, we have to manually write queries. I would prefer if they could come up with something more automated.

This is with respect to a SOC analyst perspective. Other users, other administrators, other different roles might have different issues. For me, there are no major concerns. It is a good tool, out of the box.

I've used the solution for about a year and a half, and have also done training on it.

The stability is good. It's a stable platform. I don't see any issues right now. However, I did see something in the past. I can't quite remember the exact situation. It's resolved and right now there are no issues. 

The solution is highly scalable.

You can onboard as many end systems as you want. If you bring more, for example, 100 users or 100 endpoints, you can integrate them with no issue. It's not a problem with MDATP.

We have somewhere around 2,000 to 3,000 users who are using it. We have an endpoint team and they manage the antiviruses and security tools and all those things. We manage the product partially from a policies perspective, and the endpoint team manages the platform and maintenance of it, including any upgrades, as necessary.

I've dealt with technical support in the past. It's good, not excellent. That said, it's okay.

Before using this solution, the company mostly dealt with antivirus solutions.

We moved to this solution to strengthen and report, detect and prevent, et cetera, which antivirus solutions don't offer. We wanted forensics and capabilities that were missing. Antiviruses simply cannot protect you from advanced persistent threats, and they cannot protect you from ransomware and they don't respond to things faster. Response capabilities were something that was missing. Basically, we just needed more.

I'm usually not part of the entire setup, however, I do manage it. We have to do certain policies within our organization. However, from what I've seen, it's not a complex setup. It is pretty straightforward.

In terms of how long the deployment takes, I don't remember the length of time. If you have a CCM centralized, you can push the policies within hours. 

The licensing is something that management decides on. I don't deal with the pricing or licensing.

We didn't really evaluate other options. We provided support for one of our clients, and it was a decision they made. 

We're a consulting company. We are not partners with Microsoft.

We use the solution as a SaaS.

I'd advise other companies to use this solution. It's an ideal choice, however, I'm not sure about the pricing. Maybe it's on the higher end of other competitors' pricing. That said, if you have an opportunity to use it, it will solve a lot of problems with respect to pain point detecting and doing investigations. At the same time, with Microsoft, if 80% of your organization is using Windows systems, it's going to be compatible. Specifically, with its platform, Microsoft understands what is right and what is wrong. Therefore, if the money is not a concern, or the budget is not a concern, opt for this. At the same time, as a generic statement, if not this solution, go for an EDR tool that suits your organization's needs best.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten simply due to the fact that I have not fully optimized it. 

I use it mostly to detect threats or viruses. I am using its latest version.

It is stable and easy to use. Everything is okay, and there are no performance issues.

Its detection is not as quick. There should also be more frequent updates.

I have been using this solution for maybe five years.

It is stable.

We have about 20 users.

I have not contacted Microsoft's technical support.

I didn't use or evaluate other solutions.

Its installation is very easy. It came with Windows.

I can install it myself. We have three teams for deployment and maintenance.

It came with Windows.

I would recommend this solution. I would rate it a seven out of 10.

We use it at home on some personal machines at home, and there are a few machines inside of the Enterprise that has it.

We use this solution for general antivirus protection.

We like that it has a free version available.

The frequency of the patching, and the frequency of the updates, are not included with the free version. 

The platform I used in the past would check every hour and deploy every two hours down to the client, every patch that came through. 

It was actively looking for updates, the latest threats, which is something that the Microsoft Defender product did not have in the free version.

The Enterprise version that we had, didn't have visibility. If somebody were to uninstall it or turn it off, I'd have trouble seeing that easily. There are tools that I can install, but from a reporting standpoint who has it on and off is included with the Enterprise package that you pay for, or it comes included with Office 365 Enterprise, but not in the free version.

We have been using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for two and a half years.

We are using the latest version. It is always up-to-date.

We had absolutely no issues with the stability of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. We did not experience any bugs or glitches.

It is pretty easy to scale. it was basically one click to agree that you wanted to use it.

We did not contact technical support.

Previously, we were using another solution and were forced to uninstall it to patch Windows. It was an annoyance to reinstall it.

The initial setup was straightforward. It was extremely simple.

We are using the free version.

When you are centrally managing it, you can't get there without a much more expensive Microsoft solution to control the rollout and to make sure that it is up-to-date.

We didn't research that, it was a stop-gap measure until we figured out what we're going to do in the long term.

We are looking into a product that gets into the EDR, XDR, the fully managed patching, and everything else, versus just the anti-virus that package includes.

I would rate Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and eight out of ten.

The area that I focus on the most is Endpoint Protection. We use Intune to build custom devices and configurations, to push out group policies, and do quite a bit with Azure Log Analytics.  

I'm writing a script from a multi-home deployment of the MMA Agent. The use case varies a lot, depending on the clients' needs. Our clients tend to be pretty big companies. The smallest client I have is about 600 people. Our biggest client is about 50,000.

DFE organizational security posture has been a positive experience. We're a Microsoft house. It works. Once it's deployed and once it's configured, it works and our clients tend to be happy with it. I haven't really experienced anyone who has been so unsatisfied with the platform that they wanted to go a couple of different directions, that has never happened to me.

It's Microsoft native. Microsoft is the corporate default, so it makes sense to use security platforms that are baked into the Microsoft platform. That's probably the most valuable aspect of it.

It has specific features that improve our customer's security posture. It makes the monitoring a lot easier and minimizes on-prem administration. A lot of the administrative stuff is all folded into Azure. It makes things easier.

The platform just makes things easier compared to on-prem or hybrid solutions because if you start working in an on-prem solution, most of the time it's going to be a battlefield. 

DFE affects the end-user experience when it's deployed. The more freedom a user has on the device, the more they're used to doing things their own way. By locking things down, by having device configurations, you disrupt the workflow. You need a lot of user education where you have to explain why you're doing these things. I'm a part of security. It's twofold, in that users have to get used to the new configurations. And the reason why we might take a little bit longer with pilot phases is that we have to identify how it'll affect the users and how the differences of different business units will be affected. Developers need a more open environment than other solutions.

Everything can always be improved. Improvements would depend on the client. 

Monitoring can always be better, onboarding can be a little bit faster, log collection could be easier, they could streamline the dashboard. They could maybe split it up into different workspaces and have the ability to segment groups a little bit more.

I have been using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on and off for about three or four years. 

It's only the last two and a half years that it's been a big part of my job.

Microsoft has some creative accounting when they promise an SLA of 99.99%. But it is generally good. There's always going to be a problem with the cloud. If it works 99% of the time, that's great.

The frustrating thing is, you're not sure if there's a problem with your configuration or if the service itself is down because Microsoft tends to only report that the service is down much later than when you started experiencing things. So sometimes I have to jump onto a private forum or a Slack channel and ask other consultants if they experienced something similar. But when it works, it works. There's never going to be a cloud solution that has 100% uptime.

Scalability is fine. I mainly work with implementation, so I haven't really had to mess around with the scalability. I'm responsible for setting up security policies, and then if they want to do scalability, that's another team. I sit in security.

I haven't worked with support. I generally don't use Microsoft Support.

We were Microsoft partners last year. We're gold partners where we won security partners of the year, so we have an account manager. If it really hits the fan, then I would just talk to him. 

I've been an IaaS specialist since I began my career. I've done Apple MDM solutions and I've done Google Workspace, but when it comes to actual IaaS, I can't really compare. Because we're a Microsoft house, we generally don't use third parties or competitors.

The complexity of the setup depends on the environment. If it's Greenfield, it's super easy. I've been doing this for two to three years now. Most of the time it's easy. The larger companies have more complex networks and systems. The smaller the company, the easier it is to deploy.

The beginning of the project, like scoping, implementation, the entire process, or just the actual deployment depends on the size of the company. For smaller companies, we'll push some policies out. We'll do a week or two of a pilot phase where we identify different stakeholders and different business units. We collect feedback from them, keep an eye out on the audit logs and if that goes well, then we go into phase two, which takes another week or two where we slowly push out, if it's an accounting department with 60 people, then we'll do batches of 20. We'll have a pilot group of five and then we'll push it out to 20 people at a time.

The project managers worry about the licenses. I get my scope, I know the limitations I have to work with, and then I just make a solution based on that. I'm a very technical consultant and I don't really care about licenses, that doesn't really have anything to do with me.

My advice would be to start small, don't start a project thinking that it's the best solution, and bowl it out straight away. Take your time. Don't think that you'll be able to incorporate the platform within a month, although that would depend on the size of your business. Take your time, there's no rush, be patient. Because there will always be some problems.

I would rate it an eight out of ten. 

Our clients use it for antivirus and anti-malware purposes.

It depends on the licensing. Most of the customers have got at least a 365 E3 license, and they can use most of the features of Windows 10 Defender. So, anyone who has got an enterprise license can start using those features. Some of the customers have got E5 licenses, and they can use all advanced features. Customers with E5 licenses use the advanced site protection (ATP) features and web content filtering without going via a proxy, which gives the benefit of replacing the proxy. They can get the benefit of MCAS and integration with Intune and the endpoint manager. It is a kind of single platform for all 365 technologies. It helps customers in managing everything through a unified portal.

Normally, we implement the attack surface reduction (ASR) rules and exploit protections. We also use Microsoft Defender Application Guard and ad blocker. Instead of using the application control list, we use the ad blocker at most of the places.

What I've heard from the customers is that the anti-malware engine is not up to date. So, sometimes, it may not detect such threats. I, however, haven't got any data to show for this.

Its licensing can be better. Currently, customers with the E3 license cannot use many features, and they would like those features to be available. With Windows 10 E5, Microsoft is phasing out all the functionality. They have also made a lot of changes recently where you can also buy add-ons for Defender ATP, but for Office 365, ADT, and other stuff, you still require E5 licensing. If they can improve its licensing, it would definitely be helpful in implementing the features from the security point of view. E5 definitely has more features from the security point of view.

I would like Microsoft to have some kind of direct integration for USB controls. They have GPO and other controls to control the access of the USB drives on devices, but if there is something that can be directly implemented into the portal, it would be good. There should be a way to control via a cloud portal or something like that in a dynamic way. USB control for data exfiltration would be a good feature to implement. Currently, there are ways to do it, but it involves too many different things. You have to implement it via GPOs and other stuff, and then you move or copy those big files via Defender ATP. If there is a simple way of implementing those features, it would be great.

We have been recommending Defender to customers for Windows 10 and helping them in implementing it for two years.

It is okay in terms of stability. I haven't seen any issues. Even if you go for a third-party vendor as your primary anti-malware software, you can get the benefit of Defender in a passive mode. 

I am an Azure engineer, and I work with an architect to design the solutions. I'm not a security person, and I don't know whether it catches all the new malware that comes into the IT world, and how quickly it gets updated because it is not my area of work as I'm not an SEC OP admin. I have read a few articles mentioning that the engine might only be 80% or 90% up to date. Obviously, no engine is 100% up to date, but it is still a little bit behind some of the third-party vendors. 

We haven't used their support much, but one of my colleagues has had some problems, and I think he didn't get good support from Microsoft. So, obviously, it depends on what kind of support engineer you have been assigned. Sometimes, it can be difficult. It is not only applicable to Defender; it could be with any of the products.

While implementing the ASR rules and other things, if you don't put it in the audit mode and don't do proper discovery, then it can definitely break lots of applications. You need to adhere to the implementation guidelines for ASR rules. So, proper analysis definitely needs to be done before implementing those rules because it can affect the business functionality.

Its deployment can take from few weeks to months depending on the size of the organization. In terms of the implementation strategy, we start with the pilot key users, and we deploy those policies. We also deploy ASR rules and other exploit protection rules in the audit mode, instead of directly enabling them. We then monitor the resources in terms of what can be blocked or what can get impacted by those rules. After that, we work with the users to implement it and see whether it breaks anything. If it breaks, then we look at the solutions. After we are happy with all those solutions and we know that enabling it won't break anything on a business side, we just roll it out.

Our clients are definitely seeing an ROI. Some of the clients have already got the licenses, and they can use lots of features of their Defender ATP. They are basically saving the cost of not going with a third-party solution.

Some of the clients who already had another third-party solution are also moving to Defender ATP because they already have the licenses, and they can save the cost on those. One of our clients is using ESET. They have the ESET standard version, so they are not getting any of the other features. They already have an E5 license to use all Defender ATP features. So, obviously, it would be beneficial for them to go with Defender ATP.

We did a little bit of comparison with Sophos. Sophos also offers cloud and network protection, but it would be an extra cost to buy it if you already have a license of Defender ATP. With Sophos, the USB features are a part of the cloud solution. So, you can configure USB restrictions and other things in the Sophos portal. With Defender, you will have to implement the USB security features via GPO or something else.

I would definitely recommend others to go with Defender ATP if they have got the licenses because it can give them a wide range of security controls. It is integrated with Office portals and Microsoft monitoring systems, so they get the sensors from different places. We haven't come across any security threats yet. From the point of view of its theory, implementation, and architecture, Defender ATP and other ATP integrations would definitely help customers in controlling their organization and implementing the best security rules and policies.

It hasn't affected the user experience much for our customers. Customers only see the notification pop up saying that Defender hasn't found anything and things like that.

I would rate Microsoft Defender for Endpoint a seven out of 10.

We are using this product as part of our EDR solution, and we use it in conjunction with CrowdStrike. We are a solution provider and this is one of the products that we deploy for our clients.

This product has features that improve our security posture including good vulnerability detection, maintaining endpoint devices, and unified management. The management feature allows us to manage all of our devices from a single location.

The advanced techniques used by Microsoft Defender are improving our user experience. Our users used to complain that they didn't need certain features, but this was because the legacy antivirus and other EDR solutions were hampering their usage. Nowadays, vulnerability detection is very effective and they are comfortable with the security, as well as the administration, giving them a better overall experience.

The most valuable feature is threat detection. We have been notified of viruses and threats of problems such as ransomware attacks.

The Cloud App Security features are useful.

We apply the DLP policies across a range of endpoints and it is very accurate when reporting vulnerabilities, including those in email attachments.

Microsoft Defender integrates well with Office 365.

Especially these days, with the COVID situation, this product helps us to better reach our users and solve problems. For example, we no longer need to ask them to bring in their laptop to check for and address issues. We can apply policy, automatically define rules, and remedy problems using the central management features. 

It would be helpful if they included XDR features, on top of the EDR functionality. It would improve the capabilities, as XDR solutions are doing better.

I have been working with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for almost a year, with the E5 licenses.

Stability-wise, it is responsive and I don't see any drawbacks. They have additional features that make it a little more robust.

Scalability-wise, considering the integration that they have, it's good. For example, it can be integrated with Azure Sentinel. We have two or three people who work with managing and deploying this product.

We deploy across Qatar and currently have about 68,000 endpoints protected with Defender. Our usage will increase based on the number of clients we have that buy the product. Ultimately, it depends on the licensing model.

Prior to working with Microsoft Defender, we used CrowdStrike and SentinelOne. We switched because these other products are standalone, and require that we install and maintain them manually. Microsoft Defender is unified and comes as part of Microsoft 365, which makes it easier to set up and manage.

The advantage that these other products have is the XDR features.

The initial setup is straightforward. We deploy this product using Microsoft Intune, which is very helpful. It took us one month to deploy approximately 5,000 users. We had a specific plan that we followed for the implementation. 

I completed the deployment.

This product offers cost-effective threat protection, which integrates with Office 365 and has unified endpoint management features.

We currently use the enterprise-level, E5 licensing scheme. It is a complete bundle that includes the Microsoft 365 products, the Zero Trust solution, and Microsoft Defender.

The E5 license is the one that I recommend because it comes with Cloud App Security, which is a good thing to have on top of Microsoft Defender. It means that you can monitor any threats, sign-in attempts, and other resources whether on the cloud or on-premises.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.