Microsoft Defender XDR Reviews

I'm managing the SIEM, but the SIEM is heavily integrated with 365 Defender and all the other components. Defender is a natural extension of Sentinel, and our entire SOC team leverages the solution. We utilize it daily for everything related to incident response from an advanced threat-hunting perspective.

We do some KQL-based threat hunting and have set up some custom detections built into the platform, so we can raise an alert about a threat when we see it. Right now, we're onboarding our server environment to push Defender for server agents to see what that looks like. 

Defender is used widely by our SOC for everyday investigations. Our attack surface reduction teams use it for vulnerability information. Other teams at the company use the telemetry data, but it's primarily our SOC using it for incident response. 

Defender XDR has simplified our security operations because we don't need to shift around various portals. If I respond to an initial access event involving phishing emails, I can go to the endpoint and the user's identity in one console instead of having four or five different tabs open for multiple products. 

Since adopting Defender XDR, we haven't consolidated anything because the corporate leadership purchased the E5 license with all of Microsoft's other security solutions. All of those are still in play, but some of Defender's features are creeping into other spaces where it could potentially replace some of their products. 

It allows things like indicator blocking. You can block file caches now. You can block URLs, domains, etc. We might have handled that somewhere else with DNS and stuff like that. We might be blocking domains or adding different intelligence to handle that from the endpoint perspective so the threats are stopped before they get to the network. There are certain functions that Defender might not necessarily take over, but it can augment the entire approach to that security design. It could replace those solutions, but I'm not one to have all my eggs in one basket. However, that's not my decision to make.

Having everything in a single pane of glass saves some time, but it's hard to quantify. It reduces the time needed to respond. It correlates the data in a certain way that probably decreases time spent on manual data aggregation by about 30 minutes per incident. We can aggregate the logs from third-party solutions in Sentinel, run KQL queries there, and look at them together to make some assumptions. That's a significant time saving, but I don't think we're tracking that. 

The way it gathers data is fundamentally different. It's all right here, and I don't need to do separate queries. I can look through the timeline and export the data to a CSV if I want to sift through the data. It likely reduces the time it takes to respond dramatically. One problem we have internally is that we can't deploy Defender for Endpoint on everything. I can't deploy it on a many legacy OS due to the compatibility. It's challenging to address those things when you get so used to having all of this telemetry. When working through that, the advantages of using the platform become clear. It incentivizes us to stop using some of those assets because we can't see anything on them the same way that it gets represented in the M365D. We don't have direct telemetry ingestion into the cloud portal where we can collect logs from all those assets.

The most valuable feature is probably the aggregation and correlation of the different telemetry points with Defender for Identity, Defender for Endpoint, and Defender for Cloud Apps. All of these various things are part of that portal. We've wanted that single pane of glass for years. 

We've become early adopters of almost all of the features that they offer through the portal, so we've become good at working through the leading-edge quality of the new features and deciding whether or not we want to implement something in production based on that. We have a close relationship with Microsoft's team, and they present us with opportunities to enable new features, but all of the training is done internally. We have a close-knit team structured between our level two, level three and engineering team. And so we'll come together and say, "Here's this new thing we can do with Defender for Identity. We can reset users' passwords on-prem through the portal." We'll discuss these things and whether to implement them, but it's just our team.  

Defender provides unified identity and access management. There's probably some more granularity that could happen within the existing access control model. You can apply default labels for security admin and this or that. It depends on how you design it. A lot of our security admins can do at-will actions. We want them to be able to do anything else requiring an elevated set of privileges that allow you to design roles or stuff related to assets or identities. 

You have an audit trail for who's doing what, which is great. I think they could make the roles more granular. That would be ideal. Integrated identity and access management capabilities are core to the solution because you don't want people to have too much access. You want to control it to a point. We need people to be able to do what they need to, but I don't want everyone to have domain privileges because they can log into a domain controller through the portal. 

These are the kinds of things the portal lets you do, like the interactive sessions with Defender for Endpoint. However, I would like to see a just-in-time access approach that allows me to do something, and once I'm done with the action, it shuts off that capability.

Defender feels restricted to Microsoft products, but if we augment its capabilities with Sentinel, you can pull all your third-party data sources and everything into the SIEM. That immediately adds a different value to the product. Having some level of normalization on the data helps, but the ability to take data from third-party sources and correlate it with Microsoft sources is beneficial.

The solution stops the lateral movement of advanced threats like ransomware if you set it up correctly and are willing to accept the possibility of false positives on automated isolation, app restriction, etc. It entirely depends on what your team can do with rule tuning and use case detection. 

Our team does customized detections entirely based on what's happening in our environment. We have direct tuning capabilities.  We don't have an automated isolation-based task applied to out-of-the-box rules. That would be scary. We do our best to ensure false positives don't happen. If they do, we can control the outcome and make sure it can tune out the false positives. 

Defender can stop attacks and evolving threats because it can correlate data and make assumptions based on it. If you feed it all of your data, it will do an incredible job. It's dependent on your environment, but I think it does an excellent job of detecting perceived threats. At the same time, you still need a human being to monitor and tune it. 

The advanced threat-hunting capabilities are phenomenal, and the security copilot enhances that, but some data elements could be better or have more context inside of the advanced tables themselves. The schemas feel a little limited to what they're building into the product. It's probably just a maturity thing. I imagine we'll see the features I want in the next year.

Once you've onboarded your servers to Defender, they're housed on Azure. When those things are brought into the 365 Defender portal, I can see clearly that some of those are Azure resources. There is a subscription and the resource group. That data doesn't exist in the tables. We don't want to run automated remediation against our domain controllers, but you can't exclude those using Azure resource tags. You can't tell it to exclude assets from this resource group. 

That data doesn't exist inside the tables you use to build your thresholds or custom protections. I could see where they could improve the data they present to you in the tables. I assume that it will come with time. There's so much happening. Every time I open the portal, there's a new feature. 

We have used Microsoft Defender XDR since earlier this year and prior to this the Microsoft 365 Defender solution. We were early adopters of the platform and changes to the different products being integrated.

I rate Microsoft support seven out of 10. Sometimes, the support teams are great. However, sometimes we know more about the tool in some cases than the people we're talking to. We use it so heavily that our internal team has a better understanding of the toolset than the average SME should. We use it every day, so we live in the portal. I can't comment negatively or positively on the support. It depends. Sometimes, you might get somebody who knows what's going on, but in other cases, we have to figure out the solution on our own. 

The worst thing I can think of is when we need to reclassify a domain that they've called incorrectly. In that situation, you send a request into the abyss. you never get a response, and it's like, okay. Do I have to keep checking back over and over again to see if this has been reclassified? 

We've experimented with other providers at this point, like Carbon Black. I think Defender meets the enterprise-grade criteria for our needs, but there are some nuanced differences between the solutions. 

I think it's hard to compare due to the sheer volume of the E5 ecosystem in one location. No other tools have that. If you bundle all the Microsoft solutions, it doesn't make sense to compare them to third-party solutions. Defender stands out in terms of gathering data and the way it presents everything in the incident timeline. The only thing it could do better is the filtering capabilities when you're pulling back the data from the timeline. 

Data is expensive if we want to leverage the telemetry that exists within the 365 ecosystem and bring that into Sentinel. I can't pipe that data in without paying an ingestion cost. I know how much data exists in each one of the tables that are there, and it would cost a significant amount of money to bring that in. 

I rate Microsoft Defender XDR 10 out of 10. I don't know of anybody else that's even remotely close to doing what they're doing. It's reduced my work in terms of identifying things. I might be in a position where I'm engineering, but I'm still technically on the response team. I'm using the tool the same way, and it has gotten better and better every time they add something new.

We use it for endpoint protection, monitoring network traffic, and enabling automation of issues, we utilize Microsoft Defender XDR. If we are specifically referring to Defender for Endpoint, it is a perfect solution to monitor user behavior and activities across all of our web portals. This provides an easy way to analyze and generate reports about user online activities.

Microsoft Defender XDR's security extends beyond Microsoft technologies and that is crucial for us.

Defender 365 stops the lateral movement of advanced attacks. An attack disruption would cause a lack of availability of our systems and corruption of data if there is a breach.

Microsoft Defender's ability to stop attacks includes an ability to adapt to evolving threats which is extremely important.

Microsoft Defender has enabled us to discontinue the use of a few different products. We consolidated our antivirus, web filtering, and EDR, and we had an endpoint monitoring tool that we now use Defender for.

Reducing the number of solutions we use has significantly impacted how our security team operates. This is because everything is now managed under one control and one tenant. This unified approach facilitates a natural integration with the various Microsoft products we rely on for collaboration, data storage, email communication, and other critical resources essential to our company's operations.

The discontinuation of many of our security products has reduced manual correlation.

Microsoft Defender has saved our security teams 20 percent of their time by providing a single console to manage everything. 

It helps prioritize threats across our company. It is a product that I use every day. I go into the portal all the time. It is very crucial to my security strategy.

We use additional Microsoft solutions. Most of them are available with E3 or E5 packages, including governance and DLP tools. We have integrated most of the ones we are using. Doing so was not that easy but not that complicated. It requires a lot of knowledge. They work natively together for coordinated detection and response, which is a critical component of my endpoint strategy for security and control. Without that, I would have a huge gap and I would have to find a different product.

One of the aspects I use it most for is as a basic antivirus installed on endpoints.

One of the biggest downsides of Microsoft products, in general, is that the menus are often difficult to find, as they tend to move from place to place between versions. It's unclear who makes these decisions, but simplicity would be a highly welcome change. A great way to achieve this simplicity would be to have built-in wizards within the products to help users accomplish tasks. This would eliminate the need to guess where to find the necessary options to enable or disable features.

The features I would like to see added to Defender are improved web filtering capabilities and a WAF service. However, I may be mistaken, and Microsoft may already offer a similar solution. I understand that our finance department rejected most of the Defender for Azure services due to their cost, but I lack the information to judge their expense myself. I believe that, as with the Azure environment itself, which was initially considered expensive but became increasingly popular over time, the Defender for Azure solution will also gain traction if its price becomes slightly more competitive.

When it comes to visibility into threats, 365 Defender is slightly complicated, and much more complicated than competitors like CloudStrike. That's just the "Microsoft way" where everything is usually slightly more complicated. The interface is not clear.

Also, it is not clear when the system is offering a recommendation or just a way to validate something. It is not clear what will be automatically done and what you will have to do yourself.

I have been using Microsoft Defender XDR for almost five years.

Microsoft Defender XDR is stable.

Scaling it is not easy and not complex. It's in between. With Microsoft, sometimes it feels like they hide the menus and you need to search for them with a magnifying glass.

The quality of technical support I receive varies depending on the country from which it originates. Sometimes, I feel I possess greater technical knowledge than the support representative and find it more productive to research solutions online, such as through Google. Conversely, I find that teams based in Europe or the United States typically provide more professional and informative responses.

Neutral

Previously, we used ESET, Cisco Umbrella, and JumpCloud for endpoint security, along with Cisco web filtering. I found Defender convenient due to its integration within our existing Office 365 environment. Since Office 365 is built on the Azure platform and integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft services like email, SharePoint, and others, it was more natural to use everything under the Office 365 umbrella rather than navigate to third-party solutions.

Implementing Microsoft solutions has proven more complex than initially anticipated. Due to ongoing changes, the project remains in progress. Migrating from our previous third-party solutions and establishing full functionality required several weeks, potentially extending to three months.

We hired One Pass, an American consulting firm, for our project. However, I am dissatisfied with the work they delivered. One Pass is a large company with too many people communicating with us simultaneously. We had difficulty speaking to the appropriate person because individuals either transferred us to other employees or were unavailable due to vacation.

My advice is to read up on best practices so that you know what the best way to deploy it is. Otherwise, it will be a mess.

It is very effective as long as you don't need real-time information. For me, that's okay. When there is a need for real data, on the spot, which is not available from Defender, it is available CrowdStrike. But for the way I run my business, it is okay.

In terms of a best-of-breed strategy rather than a single vendor’s security suite, I would go with a single suite.

I would rate Microsoft Defender XDR an eight out of ten.

Microsoft Defender XDR is deployed across our organization, encompassing multiple locations, departments, and continents. With approximately 200 international users, we rely on a team of four in-house administrators for security management. Additionally, we utilize the services of external companies for first-line support, who also handle specific tasks within our Microsoft 365 environment.

Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

We use Microsoft 365 Defender to protect our privacy.

Microsoft 365 Defender's XDR platform provides identity and access management which is important for our organization.

Microsoft 365 Defender's security extends beyond Microsoft technologies, which is important to our organization.

The multi-tenant management capabilities are easy and the support is 24/7.

It has helped save us approximately USD 1,000 per month.

Microsoft 365 Defender has helped save our security team time.

The most valuable feature is the network security.

Since all of our databases are updated and located in the cloud, I would like additional support for this.

I have been using Microsoft 365 Defender for almost four years.

Microsoft 365 Defender is stable. The only downtimes are scheduled by Microsoft and we are provided with advanced notification to prepare.

Microsoft 365 Defender is scalable.

Technical support is one of the reasons we chose Microsoft 365 Defender.

Positive

The initial deployment is easy. Microsoft 365 Defender is plug-and-play. The deployment takes a maximum of one day.

We also evaluated Kaspersky and Trellix XDR but found that Microsoft 365 Defender had additional features that met our needs and their support was better.

I would rate Microsoft 365 Defender nine out of ten.

Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

We are a security consulting company that assists clients with their Microsoft 365 and Azure security and workloads. We can help optimize the use of their purchased feature sets and licensing, ensuring they get the most out of their investment for security and other workloads and features within the 365 and Azure environments. As information flows between their 365 and Azure environments, we offer expertise to ensure clients are utilizing all available resources effectively.

The majority of our deployments follow a hybrid model, which is currently the norm. Although there have been instances where organizations have fully migrated to the cloud, many larger enterprise solutions in the industry are still in the process of transitioning from on-premise to cloud-based infrastructure. Consequently, most of these solutions are currently in a hybrid state.

The visibility provided by Azure is multi-dimensional, and one aspect that I appreciate is the Microsoft 365 Defender portal. It not only offers Azure security but also a single-pane-of-glass experience where we can view our SaaS applications, email hygiene, and threats and alerts, all on the same page. The monitoring is exceptional, and the quality and depth of the telemetry are impressive. Clients appreciate the fact that we can access incident or alert details, including the affected entities and the timeline of events. For instance, we can identify where an email was opened, a link was clicked, and how malware or viruses spread across the network, causing damage. Additionally, the portal's ability to provide automated responses is second to none, and we can see how Microsoft's AI technology can isolate or stop these instances from further propagation. In summary, Microsoft 365 Defender is a powerful tool.

Microsoft 365 Defender assists in prioritizing threats within our enterprise by utilizing CVE security, a standard security prioritization method. This means that the product has incorporated industry standards into the Microsoft tenant, providing prioritized threats and best practice remediation. With the help of Defender, we gain insights on how to remediate and prevent future threats from similar malware or incidents.

We utilize several security products to ensure the protection of our data and identity. Our product offerings include Defender for Identity, Defender for Cloud, built-in tools for data governance and data protection, as well as compliance and monitoring through the compliance portal. Typically, clients with E5 or A5 licenses can benefit from these products, which cover a wide range of features for protecting data, and identity, and detecting risky behavior such as risky sign-ins and user behavior analytics. The behavior analytics feature, which is a part of our Defender product, has been particularly crucial for federal governments and other organizations with highly sensitive data. While all of our products are valuable and important, we believe that identity is the most crucial foundation to start with since it feeds into everything else.

The integration of Microsoft products is almost seamless, as long as we have the licensing piece. To enable sharing or maintaining telemetry across different solutions, we turn on Connect and switches for products like SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, and Exchange. Setting up connectors for SharePoint on-premise or Exchange online may be necessary, but Microsoft provides setup wizards and good documentation on their website, making it easy to implement solutions. Any difficulties usually arise from user error or trying to integrate insecure legacy third-party software. However, most modern authentication and protocol software integrate seamlessly within the Microsoft environment. The Microsoft documentation site is excellent, with built-in training and links to assist with implementation.

The security solutions work together seamlessly to provide coordinated detection and response across our environment. One of the things I appreciate about these products is that the Defender products share telemetry across the board. For instance, if we set up Defender for Identity on our domain controllers, we need to grant permissions for that telemetry to be accessible from Microsoft 365 Defender in the cloud. This means we may have to give permissions to our on-premise domain controllers. While the integration is simple, it is essential to follow the documentation to ensure a seamless and easy-to-maintain setup, monitoring, and management of our Microsoft 365 and Azure ecosystems.

Microsoft covers all current threats that have been identified by various security organizations and standards. These threats are typically integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem, including zero-day detections. Microsoft is plugged into world-class cybersecurity organizations, ensuring that all vulnerabilities and updates are current and available in the Microsoft portals. The comprehensiveness of Microsoft's security coverage is top-notch, with seamless integration with other clouds and on-premise products. While there are other products competing in this space, Microsoft 365 users and organizations should not rely on third parties when Microsoft already has integrated solutions available.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud's bi-directional sync capability is crucial as it enables the transmission of telemetry data regarding SaaS application usage from client systems, on-premise devices, and any other systems that access the Microsoft 365 cloud. This feature ensures that real-time data is accessible for managed systems, providing immediate access to any detection of sanctioned or unsanctioned applications. The bi-directional sync capability offers immediate data feedback, which is essential for prompt action.

Microsoft Sentinel enables us to gather data from our entire ecosystem. However, it is important to note that using Sentinel requires a Microsoft subscription and a storage account. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the cost of data ingestion and aggregation. It is crucial to only ingest data that is relevant and beneficial for our security monitoring and data log aggregation. Simply collecting data without a specific purpose is not advisable. I advise our clients to focus on maintaining a lean monitoring and data log aggregation approach that yields security benefits. We can detect and query threats using the crystal query language that is integrated with Sentinel, making it a key component of our Microsoft security journey with our clients. Sentinel connects with everything and has native connectors and third-party options available. Additionally, Sentinel can be set up as a provider of security operations center capability by connecting it to another cloud.

Microsoft Sentinel allows us to investigate threats and respond to them in a comprehensive manner, all from one platform. What I find particularly impressive about Sentinel is its ability to provide both reporting and analysis through workbooks, and actionable response strategies through playbooks. In addition, Sentinel includes UEBA and threat intelligence capabilities. This raises the question of how we can evaluate the effectiveness of Sentinel's security protection. One advantage of Sentinel is that it not only detects threats but also responds to them using advanced DAI and intelligence technology. This allows us to take proactive measures and set up playbooks and other capabilities that integrate seamlessly with Sentinel. By taking telemetry from different products and environments, Sentinel provides a three-dimensional perspective that other products may lack. This helps us take the right steps toward risk mitigation or remediation by giving us current, broad coverage. With telemetry, we can take a holistic approach to secure entities affected by any type of alert or environmental compromise. Sentinel's ability to bring together reporting, analysis, and actionable response strategies makes it a superior product in terms of security protection.

The cost of Sentinel depends on the amount of data being processed. This is likely true for other similar products as well. Typically, the cost of using these products is associated with ingesting and aggregating data logs. However, I believe Sentinel's cost is competitive and provides an advantage, as it offers more than just a SIEM or SOAR solution. Sentinel includes response capabilities, which is where it excels. Therefore, I believe the cost is reasonable considering the benefits it provides.

After implementing Microsoft 365 Defender, our organization has observed a significant improvement in our security measures. We have noticed a substantial decrease in compromised accounts, access issues, and entry problems resulting from phishing attempts, emails, and other security threats. This improvement can be attributed to the robust exchange of online protection capabilities. The impact has been remarkable and has made a noticeable difference in our overall security. Additionally, addressing insecure applications operating within our environment and managing data governance has been a challenge. Data governance, in particular, can be time-consuming since data is ubiquitous and it takes time to establish the appropriate tools, labels, and policies to protect it. It requires a marathon-like approach rather than a sprint and Microsoft 365 Defender has helped reduce the time.

Our Microsoft security solutions automate routine tasks and aid in detecting high-value alerts. The ranking of these alerts is customizable, allowing us to adjust their priority based on our industry or organization's specific needs. While the default settings are effective, we appreciate the ability to modify them to better suit our purposes. This customization feature is particularly valuable as it allows us to tailor the alerts and detections to our particular use case.

The solution has helped our clients by eliminating the need for multiple dashboards and providing one comprehensive XDR dashboard. This has been the most significant feedback from our clients who prefer to have all information in one place instead of having to navigate through multiple portals. With the integration of Microsoft tools like Power BI, our telemetry can be displayed in different views and graphics, making it easily understandable for all stakeholders and users. Power BI can also import Sentinel queries, allowing for customized dashboards with a unique look and feel. I appreciate the flexibility and versatility of Power BI in creating informative and visually appealing dashboards.

The solution's threat intelligence helps us prepare for potential threats before they strike, allowing us to take proactive measures. I have witnessed some excellent updates that are posted on the Microsoft Defender portal. These updates have enabled us to stay ahead of any potential threats. When there is an attack, Microsoft is quick to disable affected services, such as service principals or services, across many servers and other devices, taking affirmative action ahead of time. I have observed many proactive notifications, including day-one or zero-day notifications, that are promptly released on the Defender side. This approach allows us to get ahead of the potential issues and prevent any significant impact.

The amount of time saved by using automation tools is significant and exceeds our expectations. While we sleep, these tools perform tasks such as deleting phishing and malicious emails and conducting automated investigations. This has resulted in a substantial reduction in the number of man-hours needed for Microsoft security and Defender product tasks, which has more than justified their cost.

Microsoft 365 Defender has saved our organization money.

Microsoft 365 Defender has significantly reduced our detection and response times. The proactive nature of the software alerts us to suspicious activity, such as a user logging in from an unknown location, allowing us to trigger conditional access responses accordingly.

In Microsoft 365 vendor products, monitoring and connectivity across all Microsoft and third-party connectors enable viewing of all activity within those environments. This is a key advantage for maintaining and monitoring usage, implementing security guardrails, and protecting data integrity and privacy from oversharing. Many clients face challenges in managing guest account access, SharePoint links, and access control. Thus, we recommend starting with access and entry as a foundational principle of security, using tools such as the identity secure score to assess the security journey progress. 

Microsoft 365 security portals cover four pillars: identity, applications, devices, and data, with Defender products geared towards identity protection being the most useful. These products help set up conditional access controls, privilege identity management, and risk mitigation strategies for legacy authentication and protocols. Defender products also provide visibility across third-party services such as AWS cloud, Box, Workforce, and other enterprise tools. Microsoft Sentinel, another useful product, provides a great solution for infrastructure visibility across Azure and on-premise infrastructure, albeit with associated costs for storage and subscriptions.

At times, there may be delays in the execution of certain actions and their effects. These delays are often related to Microsoft tasks that run in the background. For instance, when we perform an improvement action such as improving the secure score, it may take a few days before we see any changes. This delay can be frustrating, but it is still beneficial. We have also encountered issues with the secure score feedback when we set it up to work with third-party tools. We have reported these issues to Microsoft. To improve the situation, we need to fix this aspect of the solution so that we can receive secure score feedback closer to real-time or more promptly. This would be a significant improvement.

I have been using the solution for five years.

Stability has been good overall, but there was a recent incident where some of the most searched URLs were incorrectly tagged. This included URLs for services like Zoom, which caused concern among many of our clients. However, Microsoft has since corrected the issue.

Our licensing for Microsoft 365 Defender enables automatic scaling based on our needs. This means that the software's capacity will increase or decrease depending on our licensed usage.

The technical support we receive is of high quality. They effectively address specific incidents that arise, and their overall response time is satisfactory. We usually receive a response on the same day. In the rare event that an issue requires advanced technical escalation, they are able to provide us with a specialist within a day or two.

Positive

We have previously used CrowdStrike, McAfee, and Norton products but Microsoft 365 Defender is already included in the license we have with Microsoft so there is no need to pay for additional licenses.

The initial setup is usually straightforward, but it can become more complicated when we are dealing with scenarios such as bringing your own device or managed devices. In these cases, deploying can be a bit more challenging. However, I still believe that the process is generally straightforward.

Before deploying we typically do a pilot with the IT organization and once that goes well, we continue with the rest of the organization and their devices. We usually require between 10 and 20 staff for deployment.

The implementation was completed in-house.

The return on investment is significant. We have observed Microsoft 365 Defender's value in terms of saving man-hours that would have been spent sifting through logs and connecting information during investigations. The Microsoft tool provides us with an advantage by performing this task automatically, allowing us to take action on the information it has already gathered during the investigation. 

The cost of the solution appears to be appropriate, and we get what we pay for. Although I am aware that Microsoft has recently introduced licensing adjustments with plan one and plan two options, I have observed that they offer a higher level of benefits and value compared to our current solution. Nevertheless, we are taking steps to make our solution more accessible to various organizations, including educational institutions, by utilizing the licenses we have and pursuing certification for federal cloud services, despite the additional obstacles. Overall, I believe that the pricing of the licensing is fair.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

We have a cloud environment, and for Microsoft 365 cloud services, our remote workforce is currently working from various locations. However, some resources and applications are still located on-premise and need to be accessed. To accommodate these hybrid environments, we usually use Azure AD sync to synchronize on-premise AD. This process can add some complexity.

Microsoft 365 Defender needs to be fine-tuned for optimal performance. In order to achieve this, adjustments need to be made based on the specific needs of the user. For instance, when tuning for phishing email security, there are different levels of aggressiveness available for the products. Fortunately, maintenance is quite minimal as Microsoft handles virus signatures, updates, and other related tasks. However, tuning is necessary for individual use cases, such as adding specific emails to an exception or whitelist.

Determining the best-of-breed in a given space can be subjective due to varying perceptions. While a best-of-breed strategy is effective in certain cases, it has limitations when compared to integration. For instance, when trying to identify the best tool for different security areas, having disparate solutions that don't communicate with each other can be problematic. Therefore, integration becomes a critical component in this context. Although having the best-of-breed approach is a great strategy, we also need to consider the benefits of integration and having a single pane of glass that provides an overview of all security aspects. This will help us avoid having to navigate multiple best-of-breed solutions in a sporadic manner.

My suggestion is for people to carefully review the documentation provided by Microsoft to gain an understanding of how the product works and how it fits with their particular use case and solution scenario. Negative feedback is often the result of a lack of knowledge or understanding. By taking the time to conduct a proper POC, engaging with the appropriate Microsoft representatives or consulting organizations, and being inquisitive, we can evaluate our current tenant and solution, and conduct a security assessment. This will enable us to make an informed decision about Microsoft products.

Hybrid Cloud

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Defender XDR is our primary solution for security. We have a number of use cases across different environments, allowing us to secure all our use cases comprehensively.

One of the most valuable features of Microsoft Defender XDR is its ability to provide preemptive reports regarding excessive privileged access. This allows us to secure our systems in advance and proactively improve security, rather than waiting for incidents to occur. Additionally, it ensures that we are fully compliant before any audits are conducted, which has potentially saved our reputation. Furthermore, its integration across different environments allows central visibility for different workloads.

There is nothing I can think of at the moment that needs improvement. I am a contractor and finishing up soon, so I haven't encountered any issues requiring enhancements.

I have been working with Microsoft Defender XDR for a few years now, about one and a half to two years.

I was involved in the deployment, and it was very easy to set up and configure. I did not encounter any problem—it took half a day to a full day at most.

There are no complaints regarding the stability of the solution. It seems to do the job well.

The customer service is good, and they supported us well. Although it took some time, we got the required support in the end.

Neutral

The initial setup was straightforward, and I did not have any issues with it.

We used Teams for the deployment, but I could be wrong on that.

Overall, I would rate Microsoft Defender XDR a seven out of ten. It is a useful tool and not necessarily the best solution I've seen, but it is good and I wouldn't object to using it.

Other

We use the entire 365 security package. Defender XDR is primarily used for real-time malware scanning. Our company has about 1,500 endpoints. 

Before Defender, we used a different tool but were unhappy with its performance and frustrated with the deployment. Defender offers real-time scanning and alert notifications.

By adopting the Microsoft stack, we have eliminated other security solutions. Defender XDR reduces manual work. Our organization manages more than 1,500 systems, and manual intervention on all these systems would be a huge workload. Cloud solutions are easier to manage and monitor. 

We are a massive Microsoft shop. We see significant savings by getting all of our security from one vendor. There is a considerable drop compared to buying from other vendors. 

Defender XDR enables you to scan a system remotely and get a complete inventory of its assets. You can gather more information from the asset inventory and apply threat intelligence using Office 365 or something. It's a user-friendly, cost-effective, and feature-rich solution. The XDR features offer considerable value because you get more insights from your user systems.

Microsoft Defender XDR stops the movement of advanced attacks by working with the complete 365 package. For example, you can create rules for email filtering to block phishing emails. I can create rules for email filtering. If there are any suspicious links in an email or its attachments, we can quarantine that email. It notifies the admin or the user.  The user can ask the admin to remove the email from the quarantine. We can investigate the email before it reaches the endpoint. Defender also has web content filtering and all the other EDR file features.

Defender's ability to adapt to evolving threats is critical today. The number of attacks today is multiplying, and Defender's adaptability and awareness are amazing.

The initial time spent setting up and configuring Defender XDR is a bit longer than the other solutions. If everything were on one portal, the platforms for managing policies or alerts would be simpler. We must automate and manage policies on Intune rather than the same portal.

I have used Microsoft Defender XDR for nearly 14 months.

I am very satisfied with Defender's stability. It's a reliable solution that improves our confidence in our security.

I rate Microsoft support seven out of 10. I would like Microsoft's support to be a little more robust and technical.

Neutral

Deploying Defender XDR is pretty straightforward. We deployed it in phases with deadlines. It took a couple of months. We met all our deadlines, and it wasn't a very complex solution to implement. 

We prepared and configured the tenant. Next, we created XDR policies and groups and orchestrated our requirements. We tried pushing the policies to see if the endpoints received them and sent the required information back to the admin portal. There was a testing period before we went live. Deployment only required two people. 

Defender doesn't require much maintenance after deployment because it's a cloud-based solution. We only need to tweak and update the policies, then push them out. 

Defender XDR is reasonably priced based on the licenses we need and the solution's capabilities. At the same time, Defender is a little pricier than some of the other solutions. 

We also considered CrowdStrike and Trend Micro. Trend Micro came the closest to meeting our expectations. Ultimately, we decided to use Defender XDR because we already used most of the Microsoft products, so it was a little more cost-effective. 

I rate Microsoft Defender XDR nine out of 10. Before deploying Defender XDR, potential users should be informed about the pricing, support, and the labor required to manage, maintain, and deploy the solutions. 

I am a consultant responsible for deploying and providing customer support for Microsoft products. We use Defender XDR for endpoint protection. It helps them secure endpoints with an advanced XDR solution that conducts behavior analysis and things like that.

Defender XDR provides more visibility into all the connected services, including the security stack and all the productivity software. They're all integrated. It's much less maintenance and has fewer headaches during integration and setup. Implementing the solution and getting the customer fully protected takes very little time. According to Gartner, it's one of the best solutions on the market,  and it requires a limited amount of time and resources to get it fully operational.

By adopting Defender XDR, our customers have discontinued other security products. The solution can replace products like Kaspersky, McAfee, Trend Micro, and even CrowdStrike. 

It has affected customers' security operations by simplifying permissions and reducing the total cost ownership if we discontinue all the security products that the customers used before. Customers usually save around 20 percent, but it's more than simply replacing one component with another. It replaces several security solutions like email and cloud application protection. If you compare the total cost of ownership of on-prem solutions versus Microsoft, it is better to go with Microsoft. You also get lifetime upgrades for the systems and features that you implement.

Microsoft XDR's system of analysis and investigation is super convenient for our customers. It integrates with other Microsoft solutions like Defender for 365 to protect email traffic from malicious external web links and phishing. Customers like that the platform provides a single pane of glass for all the security services. Many of them do not have the capacity to support complex systems, so it's better for them to have most of the tools integrated into one platform. 

You can integrate XDR with Microsoft's identity solution Entra ID if you have a premium license. Those tools are fully integrated, but you need to purchase a separate solution called Defender for Identity to get tools to protect identities and connect the Enterprise Data Center with Defender.

Defender XDR's coverage isn't limited to Microsoft products. You can use almost any solution and achieve the same single point of control. For example, you can integrate Microsoft Defender for Cloud Applications, which covers all the cloud service providers. It isn't limited to only Microsoft infrastructure.

Customers say they want absolutely seamless integration between other Microsoft solutions and Defender XDR, including the ability to change device settings within the Defender portal. They need to contact the IT team responsible for the device management tools to change some settings. They would prefer that those changes be initiated directly from the Defender portal or applied from Intune without involving the IT operations team.

I have used Microsoft Defender XDR for five years. 

Defender XDR is almost 100 percent stable.

Defender XDR is infinitely scalable. 

I rate Microsoft standard support six out of 10 and premium support eight out of 10. The response times for basic Microsoft support leave much to be desired. It can take up to two weeks to resolve issues if you don't have a support contract. 

Neutral

Deploying Defender XDR is relatively straightforward, but it depends on whether the customer has already integrated its on-premise infrastructure with the Microsoft cloud.

Deployment requires one or two engineers on our side. We determine the scope of the work and the deployment before rolling out the clients to the endpoints. The biggest question is whether the customer already has the network infrastructure prepared for that service based on the Microsoft documentation. For example, we must determine if the endpoints connect directly to the Microsoft cloud or through a proxy server, firewalls, etc.

Defender includes four or five products different products. The most useful is Defender for Endpoint, which typically takes up to two weeks to deploy, while Defender for Office and Defender for Identity take one week to deploy. Defender for Cloud Applications can be deployed in a few days. It also depends on how the customer will use it. If it's being used for compliance, the customer's requirements may be totally different. 

The number of maintenance and administrative personnel depends on the organization's size and the number of solutions deployed. It's hard to calculate how people would be necessary for that particular part of the security ecosystem. However, Defender XDR takes up to three people to manage. 

Defender XDR is expensive, but the cost is justified. Defender is included in an E3 or E5 license. If you don't have a premium Microsoft license and you purchase Defender separately, the whole model will be different. You can also pay extra for premium support. 

I rate Microsoft Defender XDR nine out of 10. I recommend starting it as soon as possible, but you must also plan for any future on-premise solutions that you might bring into the system. Consider any prerequisites you need if you decide to go with the product. The biggest issue is that your network infrastructure needs to be set up according to the Microsoft documentation.

Public Cloud

My company operates as a service provider, so we use Microsoft Defender XDR in our office to provide our customers with security services.

I won't say that the product helped improve how my organization operates, but there is a need to build trust between the user and the product. Microsoft Defender XDR has been used in my organization since we purchased Windows 10 or 11, after which a user does not need to install any products from Microsoft separately. Some of my company's customers insist they want to install antivirus software separately in their environment due to trust issues.

The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that Microsoft Defender XDR is easy to integrate with other Microsoft platforms or products. Some other vendors of security products provide great features or capabilities of detection, but the best feature of Microsoft is its integration capability.

One important point about the solution that is an area of concern where improvements are required is related to the control center it provides. Generally, antivirus products provide a central control to manage every device in terms of who is installing it or who is trying to disable it, but Microsoft doesn't have such a control center for the antivirus product it provides.

I have been using Microsoft Defender XDR for three years. My company has a partnership with Microsoft. My company is also a reseller of Microsoft products.

As a part of Microsoft's attempt to reduce costs, there has been a direct cut down of the local technical support team. Sometimes, you have to use the technical support offered by Microsoft from other countries, but at times, we speak different languages, just like how people speak in Chinese or Mandarin, but there are still some differences between them. The front-line support from Microsoft has only limited technical abilities or access to their internal system. Sometimes, my company cannot even escalate an issue to Microsoft's senior team members.

The support team of Microsoft is nice as they attempt to solve the problems together with you, but I believe that due to some cost-related issues, they don't have enough permissions. Sometimes, users might feel blocked when trying to connect with the support team.

I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

My company started with Microsoft Defender XDR when we partnered with Microsoft. Some of our company's customers prefer CrowdStrike, Fortinet, and FortiSIEM.

You don't need to indulge in troubleshooting, making the initial setup phase an easy process because you could just use a GPO on your server to deploy everything. When there comes a problem to onboard some specific devices, and you need to indulge in troubleshooting, sometimes Microsoft Defender XDR's team says it is a problem with the devices a user is trying to onboard, and it's really hard for our company as service providers since we cannot always ask customers to reinstall their server.

Microsoft purposely makes its license combinations complex and includes combinations like Microsoft 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E5, Office 365 E3, Office 365 E5, and Office 365 E1, so you get confused. Microsoft tries to sell you a bundle of a lot of things together. The licensing model of the product should be made more understandable.

There are other good products in the market, and it is difficult to state which one is better since all of them have micro differences in terms of pricing. There may be components like the user interface or maybe some other elements to judge other products, but when it comes to Microsoft, the most important factor stems from the fact that most people use Windows, so it's all integrated.

The product provides unified identity and access management as long as I use all of the products offered by Microsoft.

It is important for me that identity and access management are included within Microsoft Defender XDR because everything is controlled by your identity in the digital world, making it look like a user's government ID in the digital world. My company has tried a lot to talk to and educate our customers since some try not to use a complex password or MFA, which is the most important thing to protect your identity.

Some integration functions in Azure portal allow users to integrate their third-party applications. With the solution, it is not easy to track third-party applications. For transactions recognized by your credentials, it is not easy to track as they would stop, after which we are informed there is a problem. In my organization, we only know how some third-party applications ask to check the credentials, but we don't know what Microsoft Defender XDR does with it, so the product's security doesn't extend beyond just Microsoft technologies.

The product does stop lateral movement and advanced attacks like ransomware or business email compromise. The product blocks a lot of ransomware, which is good. It is considered to be a strict product, so if some of our customers use some local mail service, they have been blocked because Microsoft considers it to be not secure. Microsoft puts a lot of effort into security.

Microsoft Defender XDR's ability to stop attacks covers the product's ability to adapt to evolving threats. It is better to use it as a cloud-based solution that keeps adapting to changes and providing new features.

The product must adapt and evolve to manage threats since there is a new zero-day vulnerability every day, and there is no way to get protection from it. You cannot rely on the users or the admin to upgrade the features daily, so it's better to adopt it automatically with a cloud-based solution like Microsoft Defender XDR.

There were some problems when my organization tried to discontinue other products during the implementation phase of Microsoft Defender XDR since Microsoft tried to integrate all the products in our organization's environment together. If you have used Microsoft Defender XDR, you have to use an antivirus from Microsoft along with Microsoft Identity Platform Endpoint to get the best results. Sometimes, some customers may try to install some third-party antivirus in their environment other than the one provided by Microsoft, which gets blocked. Sometimes, antivirus software from a vendor goes into passive mode. When an antivirus software is in passive mode, some of its advanced features are not usable, causing some problems the user needs to deal with when using it.

The product's ability to save costs depends on how a user looks at a problem while using the solution. I worked as a part of the security team, and we always used to talk to our company's customers. The solution is sometimes like insurance, especially if you want to avoid some bigger problems and you need to spend some money to protect your environment. In some other IT teams or from some other client's point of view, Microsoft Defender XDR costs a lot of money, and they don't see anything. In the security world, no news is good news. You don't want to have to see everything happen and get plenty of alerts trying to prove the product's worth. The product has to control the attack surface so that you won't be attacked that much, or if there are any attacks, it can reduce the impact.

The product definitely saves time for my organization and our company's client teams, especially considering that it is not possible to manually go through the logs every day. The product did help pop up the abnormal activities so that my organization could just review the important things or abnormal activities.

It is hard to say how much time the product saves since it depends on factors like whether you are using some other products or using Microsoft Defender XDR alone. I guess that the product can save over 60 percent of my organization's time. When you use Microsoft Defender XDR in your IT infrastructure, and it works for you, then you just put it in there, and you will come to know when there are some abnormal activities or when you are attacked. With Microsoft Defender XDR, you can get some signs if you are being attacked.

Microsoft Defender XDR is a nice solution and can be combined with other solutions from Microsoft, but they offer limited flexibility. I want the product to be a high surveillance solution for me and not just an information-oriented tool, but nowadays, Microsoft doesn't provide any options to help choose the users' preferences.

I rate the overall product a seven out of ten.

It addresses various use cases, including monitoring and securing file storage like OneDrive and SharePoint. It has recently incorporated Teams integration to safeguard against malware. Additionally, it serves as a replacement for on-premises Advanced Threat Protection, offering enhanced capabilities. It has proven valuable in highlighting critical scenarios related to credential use and legacy Active Directory, providing substantial assistance in these areas.

When transitioning to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint from our previous use of ATP, we observed significant improvements. Legacy ATP involved numerous signals and a substantial learning curve, but Microsoft Defender for Endpoint establishes a more effective baseline. In comparison to Cylance, which generated a considerable amount of background noise, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint enables us to concentrate on the more critical alerts that demand our attention. Our team is actively phasing out disparate security tools in favor of a streamlined approach. The efficiency gained from having a single pane of glass is a powerful asset for our team.

One of the most valuable aspects is the comprehensive insights it provides into on-premises identities, particularly within Legacy Active Directory. This allows for the examination of use cases related to identities, ensuring there is no misuse of accounts or computers. A crucial aspect for our team is the inclusion of identity and access management tools from the vendor. Despite being a sizable global company, our team is relatively small, considering our global reach. Therefore, minimizing overhead is a top priority for us, and integrating these tools from the vendor becomes crucial in achieving that goal.

My suggestion would be for Microsoft to continue aligning all components within this ecosystem. This consolidation is beneficial as we strive for a more unified and comprehensive view, essentially a single pane of glass, which is highly valued. In the future, I hope for increased third-party integration. While Microsoft plays a role, it's equally important for third-party providers to step up. In our organization, the information security team has endorsed a specific set of products. Integrating the telemetry from these approved products into our systems would be immensely beneficial, providing a more comprehensive view and enhancing our overall security posture. Extending security coverage is of paramount importance. Integrating telemetry could bridge these gaps, fostering greater cooperation among individual teams within the organization. Having teams collectively examine the same information might contribute to advancing collaboration and overall security efforts. The capability to not only thwart attacks but also to adapt to evolving threats is crucial.

I have been using it for the last three years.

It is exceptionally stable, without encountering any notable issues or complaints. Microsoft seems proactive in communication through the message center, keeping users informed about any ongoing issues, and we appreciate the clarity provided through multiple channels.

It has the capability to scale seamlessly, especially with Microsoft's expertise in the cloud. We have over six thousand end users globally distributed across various facilities, with some on-premises deployments due to specific requirements. However, our overarching strategy is cloud-first, and the majority of our infrastructure operates in Azure. In terms of endpoints, the number is substantial, likely exceeding seven thousand when considering both servers and clients.

We haven't had the need to contact them so far. In general, our experience with Microsoft support has been variable—it can be both beneficial and challenging. While they offer a wealth of resources, there are instances where the response may not align with our expectations. I would rate it eight out of ten.

Positive

I made the switch from Bitdefender to Defender primarily due to cost considerations. In my professional assessment, Bitdefender appears adequate from a client perspective, but when it comes to enterprise deployment, I don't view it as fully enterprise-ready. We encountered numerous challenges, particularly with installing Bitdefender's agent on Server 2022, which proved to be a significant hurdle for my team, consuming valuable time and resources. The advantage of Defender lies in its ability to seamlessly bring together threat telemetry from servers across various cloud providers, including Azure, and extend this protection to our Windows endpoints, offering a robust and integrated security solution.

The initial setup was straightforward.

Our implementation strategy was relatively gradual and soft. We enabled the features, allowed it to ingest the data, and then began assessing the generated alerts. Taking a somewhat silent approach, we deferred more to the expertise of our information security team, considering their role as the cornerstone in this aspect. As we moved forward, we aimed to identify areas for improvement and address the specific queries and needs that our team raised during the process. Our ongoing maintenance primarily involves fine-tuning our alerts to align with our specific use cases.

In terms of return on investment, the potential for cost reduction is a key consideration and Defender does provide it. The time saved is substantial, especially if we can navigate through our internal processes efficiently. Specifically for my infrastructure team, using Defender for Endpoint has significantly reduced the time spent delving into emerging issues. As a rough estimate, I would say it saves us approximately six hours a week that would otherwise be spent navigating through the complexities of individual components within Microsoft 365.

I find the pricing to be quite competitive, especially considering its inclusion in our E5 subscription, which provides a comprehensive set of functionalities. Initially, when I evaluated the pricing for add-ons with our E3 subscription, it seemed reasonable. However, we opted for the E5 subscription, absorbing the additional features seamlessly.

I'd recommend exploring Microsoft's Learn documentation, a resource that is sometimes overlooked but provides valuable insights into the capabilities of Defender. It's a good starting point to understand its features. For large enterprises with tools like Visual Studio subscriptions (formerly MSDN), Microsoft offers the option to set up an E5 tenant for testing. This can be deployed freely for up to twenty-five licenses, excluding the Windows license. I suggest diving into hands-on experimentation in a lab environment, combining practical experience with informational reading for a comprehensive understanding. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

Hybrid Cloud

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft 365 Defender works together with Exchange Online is my area of specialty.

Microsoft 365 Defender incorporates a capability to identify potentially malicious emails or emails originating from suspicious senders.

Previously, we encountered a significant number of spam emails and suspicious emails, and users were inadvertently interacting with them. However, we have made progress in addressing this issue. We have conducted attack awareness training to educate users on identifying suspicious emails, and Microsoft Defender has played an important role in preventing such emails from reaching our inboxes. As a result, we have noticed a reduction in the volume of spam emails and an increase in the delivery of trustworthy emails. Considering these improvements, I can confidently state that we are in a better position now in terms of email security compared to the past before the implementation of Microsoft 365 Defender.

Within Microsoft 365 Defender, specifically using Advanced Threat Protection, you have the ability to define rules and actions for high-value alerts. 

By using Advanced Threat Protection, you have the capability to conduct thorough investigations and delve deeper into the search for specific threats that you suspect may be present within your organization. 

Within the Microsoft 365 Defender suite, you have access to numerous features that enable you to effectively track and investigate potential threats within your organization.

Automation significantly impacts our security operations in a highly beneficial way. It revolutionizes our approach by providing a centralized IT vendor admin center where we can execute all our search queries and obtain the desired information from a single interface. This unified platform streamlines the entire process by consolidating various components and their respective search processes into one, eliminating the need to navigate through multiple individual interfaces. With Microsoft 365 Defender, we have the convenience of accessing and investigating different areas of interest from a single standpoint. This not only saves us substantial time but also reduces effort and enhances overall efficiency in our security operations.

The consolidation of security operations has had a significant impact on our effectiveness and efficiency. It has resulted in improved response times, enabling us to swiftly pinpoint the potential sources of threats. We have observed a reduction in incident response time, allowing us to address security incidents more promptly. Additionally, the consolidation has enhanced the efficiency of our deployment processes, streamlining our overall security operations. These notable impacts have greatly contributed to our organization's ability to proactively identify and mitigate threats, ultimately bolstering our security posture.

Threat intelligence is an essential component in proactively preparing for potential threats and implementing proactive measures. While I have not personally engaged with this particular feature, it is widely acknowledged that staying informed about current threat intelligence is essential.

Although preventive measures are in place to minimize maintenance issues, there can be instances where threats successfully circumvent those safeguards. However, the capability to detect and identify threats before they cause harm to the system remains a valuable advantage. Anticipating the effects of this specific feature in Microsoft Defender is something I am eager to experience, as it appears to be a fascinating addition to the security measures.

Another noteworthy feature that I find appealing in Microsoft Defender is the credit-backed simulation. This feature enables organizations to train their users on effectively responding to phishing emails through a simulated training environment. 

Indeed, the credit-backed simulation feature in Microsoft Defender operates by sending simulated phishing emails to users within the organization based on the configured settings. When a user interacts with the email by clicking on a link or taking any action, they receive a notification informing them that it was a simulated phishing attempt. This simulation serves as a valuable training tool, helping users learn how to detect and respond to phishing emails effectively. By experiencing these simulations, users can enhance their awareness and develop the skills necessary to prevent falling victim to real phishing scenarios in the future. This feature is highly valuable in improving the overall security awareness and resilience of the organization's users.

In terms of visibility, Microsoft 365 Defender offers a comprehensive and detailed overview of threats and potential traces identified within your organization. 

Within Microsoft 365 Defender, you have the ability to configure specific criteria and assign high-risk values to certain indicators. This allows you to align with compliance regulations and establish your organization's threat determination framework. By leveraging Microsoft 365 Defender, you can implement and enforce these criteria to analyze and assess potential threats in your environment. 

I believe that Microsoft has the potential to greatly enhance the efficiency of the application by incorporating advanced capabilities into this feature. By providing users with the ability to customize and tailor threat detection according to their specific needs, Microsoft could significantly improve the overall effectiveness of the application. The addition of advanced capabilities would be a valuable enhancement, complementing the existing features and further strengthening the overall functionality of Microsoft 365 Defender. This would undoubtedly be a welcome and highly beneficial addition to the platform.

Microsoft 365 Defender demonstrates a commendable level of comprehensiveness in its threat protection capabilities. However, it is important to acknowledge that false positives and false negatives can be potential challenges in any security solution.

I primarily focus on using two key features within Microsoft Defender: the attack training simulation and the threat policies integrated with Azure Guard Protection.

The dashboard is one of the features of this application.

Implementing this solution has proven to be time-saving as it enables us to effectively track down suspicious and malicious attachments that may accompany emails. Even if users tend to click on attachments without much thought, we have successfully prevented and significantly reduced security breaches that were prevalent in our past security architecture. The ability to identify and mitigate potential threats has greatly improved our overall security posture, providing us with enhanced protection against breaches and unauthorized access to our systems. By leveraging this solution, we have experienced tangible benefits in terms of minimizing security incidents and safeguarding our organization's sensitive data and resources.

There was a specific incident where an email was received containing an executable file, and unfortunately, like many other users, this particular user was unaware of the potential risks and clicked on it without hesitation. Consequently, the consequences of this action became evident. 

Microsoft 365 Defender has provided us with the capability to pinpoint the specific machine where the application is currently present, as well as track the actions and steps that the application has already taken on that machine. This is just one example of the numerous areas where Microsoft 365 Defender has proven invaluable in our security operations. 

While providing an exact numerical comparison may be challenging, I can confidently say that the improvement in our response capabilities with Microsoft 365 Defender compared to our previous security architecture is indeed significant.

It is fair to acknowledge that Microsoft 365 Defender, like any software product, is not without its imperfections. There are instances where it may incorrectly flag legitimate emails from trusted senders as spam or exhibit inadequate performance in accurately classifying certain emails.

Aside from that, it's a pretty good solution, and that is for the emails.

However, the main point I want to convey is that for someone who is new to it, using Microsoft 365 Defender will demand a significant amount of effort and a willingness to learn about the product in order to maximize its benefits. It deals with technical aspects and encompasses a broad range of features beyond just the mentioned warranty, such as online exchanges. To effectively utilize Microsoft 365 Defender, it is important to have a thorough understanding of its functionalities.

It may be too complex for beginners to grasp.

In the future, it would be beneficial for Microsoft to consider making the product more user-friendly or simplified for those who are interested in using it. Currently, it requires a high level of technical expertise, making it challenging for beginners or less experienced individuals. 

Breaking it down into smaller components or enhancing its comprehensibility for end users would serve as a valuable advantage. In fact, it would not only impress others but also motivate them to understand the significance of utilizing I Defender in their specific situations.

At the moment, I have limited knowledge about TripAdvisor and its offerings, so I'm unable to provide comprehensive information. However, based on my current understanding, I believe it would greatly benefit from being more user-friendly and simplifying its features. This would enable users to easily navigate the platform and maximize their experience with it.

I have been working with Microsoft 365 Defender for a year.

To the best of my knowledge, I have never encountered a situation where Microsoft 365 Defender experienced significant crashes or unresponsiveness, aside from occasional instances of false positives and false negatives. I have found the platform to be reliable and self-service oriented, with prompt responses from the provider whenever assistance was needed.

We currently have around a hundred users with Office 365 licenses; however, not everyone has the same plan that includes Microsoft 365 Defender. I was hoping to access the admin dashboard to have a closer look at the settings and configurations, but it seems that access is limited to approximately fifty users.

This is managed by Microsoft you don't have to do anything.  All you have to do is understand how to use it to make it work for you.

Similar to other cloud applications, I believe Microsoft 365 Defender demonstrates excellent scalability by seamlessly accommodating an increasing number of users. It effortlessly scales across these users, eliminating the need for extensive efforts to extend security measures to them. The scalability of Microsoft 365 Defender is highly commendable.

In situations where an email that appears to have properties indicative of spam gets delivered instead of being flagged, it is advisable to contact the technical support team directly. 

Engaging with customer support allows you to understand why such potentially harmful content was allowed into your organization. While Microsoft 365 Defender is an advanced solution, there is always room for improvement, and feedback can help drive future enhancements to make it more effective.

By reaching out to customer support, you can address specific concerns and gain insights into how to optimize the system's performance for better security outcomes in the future.

I would rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

I use Exchange Online Protection in conjunction with exchange mailboxes.

They collaborate closely. Collaborating with one is nearly identical to collaborating with the other due to the overlapping features between Microsoft 365 Defender and Exchange Online. Essentially, I consider them to be synonymous since their primary objective is ensuring security.

They lack native integration and instead exhibit interdependence. I believe their collaboration is essential in order to fully utilize their capabilities and optimize the user experience. It is crucial for them to function together in order to achieve maximum benefits and enhance overall performance.

The main differentiating factor is the expanded scope of Microsoft 365 Defender, which is evident as the primary distinction. Our utilization includes Microsoft 365 for cloud applications and Microsoft 365 for Office Microsoft 365 applications. However, when it comes to Exchange Online Protection, its functionality is exclusively focused on email boxes.

Microsoft 365 Defender provides a broader and more extensive coverage compared to Exchange Online Protection, offering a wider reach in terms of wireless accessibility.

In the past, we used Mimecast for email filtering, and before that, we employed Trendmicro as our spam filtering and email filtering solutions.

I was not involved in the deployment process.

Previously, organizations had to invest in separate third-party filtering solutions to effectively address potential threats and breaches. However, the situation has now improved significantly as Microsoft 365 Defender consolidates all these necessary security measures into the comprehensive Microsoft 365 license. This consolidation brings numerous benefits, making it a win-win scenario for organizations. They no longer need to make additional purchases or manage multiple security solutions, as everything is conveniently available with the Microsoft 365 license.

With an eligible and dependable license like Microsoft 365, there is no need to concern yourself with the purchase of an additional third-party solution, which often comes at a higher cost. 

All these functionalities have been consolidated into a single license, eliminating the need to incur additional costs for third-party solutions such as Google Security for email features and similar functionalities.

The time it takes for us to respond has been significantly reduced. Additionally, the time it takes to detect potential threats has also seen significant improvements.

In situations where Microsoft 365 Defender did not successfully mitigate a potential threat or error, it highlights the need to initiate a new process to address the specific scenario. However, with the current setup, we are now able to detect and prevent such incidents in a timely manner. This proactive approach has saved us from potential future issues and the associated costs that may have arisen. Without Microsoft 365 Defender, it would have been challenging to identify and contain these threats, which could have caused widespread problems throughout the environment. The implementation of Microsoft 365 has effectively stopped such incidents from occurring, mitigating the need for extensive investments to resolve the issues. This positive outcome demonstrates a favorable return on investment, provided we fully understand and leverage the capabilities of the product to its maximum potential.

I believe the pricing is fair and acceptable. I consider it to be reasonable and satisfactory.

If you prioritize security, considering the cost should not be a determining factor. If you truly understand the level of protection offered, you wouldn't be concerned about the price. Instead, you would focus on the value provided. From our perspective, the pricing is reasonable considering the significant benefits and value we currently receive.

We recently transitioned away from those solutions and successfully migrated everyone to Microsoft 365 Defender. Since then, we have been exclusively using Microsoft 365 Defender without any changes up to the present time.

We have no motivation or desire to switch to or explore other products, as we are already satisfied with the quality and value we receive from our current investment.

Optimally managing a combination of various security solutions can be time-consuming and overwhelming. Instead, having a single dashboard where you can consolidate and run all your queries proves to be more efficient. While the intention might be to extract the maximum benefits from multiple solutions, dividing your attention among them hinders the ability to fully leverage each one. Therefore, it is advisable to identify a comprehensive solution that meets your requirements and focus on understanding how to maximize its potential and utilization.

Furthermore, using multiple solutions in an environment can lead to compatibility issues and conflicts. When you have multiple applications performing similar functions, it can complicate matters and potentially cause problems in the future. To avoid such complications and maintain a streamlined setup, it is advisable to stick with a single solution and focus on understanding and optimizing its usage. By doing so, you can ensure better control and avoid potential disruptions that may arise from using multiple conflicting applications.

To truly grasp the value of a service like Defender, it may be challenging for someone who hasn't experienced the need for its intervention firsthand. It is essential to engage individuals who have encountered scenarios where Defender played an important role in saving the day. When evaluating the effectiveness of the solution, it is important to involve those with hands-on experience, who have witnessed the capabilities of the product and understand how to maximize its utilization. The hands-on experience becomes paramount when screening and assessing the proficiency of individuals in dealing with this specific solution.

I would give Microsoft 365 Defender a rating of nine out of ten. The only reason I'm not giving it a perfect score of ten is that it can be quite technical for someone who is just starting out. Additionally, there may be occasional false positives and negatives, which is not unique to Defender but is a common occurrence in various software and security applications. However, apart from these minor aspects, I consider Microsoft 365 Defender to be an excellent solution overall.

Private Cloud

Microsoft Azure