Microsoft Sentinel Reviews

Our organization is an SSP, a service provider for manual threat detection and hunting. We use Microsoft Sentinel for threat detection. We have a few clients using Microsoft Sentinel, and we provide SOAR services to them.

Having the ability to respond holistically from one place with Microsoft Sentinel is very useful. We don't need to log into different security consoles. It is less hectic and reduces our time to respond and resolve the issue.

The solution has helped improve our organization by detecting and hunting threats. The solution also correlates alerts from other solutions, such as Defender, Office 365, and other Endpoint solutions. Microsoft Sentinel has automated responses that help us reduce the number of analysts required for example, from ten to six because most of the tasks are done automatically.

The solution's automation of routine tasks helps us automate the finding of high-value alerts by reducing the manual work from 30 minutes down to three. 90 percent of the work is done by Sentinel which runs the playbook and provides us with all the data required to make a decision quickly.

The solution has helped eliminate the need to use multiple dashboards by incorporating SIEM plus SOAR into one convenient location. We don't need to log into each of the solutions individually. We can directly correlate the alerts and incidents from our Sentinel console. Sentinel reduces our time because we don't need to check multiple tabs for multiple solutions. All the information required to investigate and make a decision can be found in the solution's panel view.

We don't have any out-of-the-box threat intelligence from Microsoft, but with the integration of some open-source solutions and premium sources, Microsoft Sentinel helps us take proactive steps before threats enter our environment.

We have custom rules created to check IPs or domains for potential threats. Whenever an IP or domain is visible in our logs, the solution will automatically correlate with the threat intelligence feed and create an alert. If we skip the correlation portion and an alert has been created for a malicious IP or a malicious domain, the solution can check the reputation in different reputation sources such as a virus portal, or threat recorded future, and it will auto-populate the information for the analyst which helps us prepare for potential threats.

The solution has definitely saved us 90 percent of our time. Microsoft Sentinel reduces our time to detect, respond, and resolve incidents. Most of the incidents are detected automatically and we just need the data to make a decision. We don't have to go look for different clues or reputations over the internet or use other solutions.

Microsoft Sentinel has saved us from incurring costs related to a breach by protecting us.

The solution detects incidents and alerts us in real-time based on custom rules that we create or the out-of-the-box rules that are part of Sentinel. The information that auto-populates when we run the playbook reduces our response time in most cases because all the relevant data required for our investigation is provided on the incident details page.

Logic apps, playbooks, and dashboarding are all valuable features of this solution. 

Microsoft Sentinel prioritizes threats across our organization because the solution allows us to correlate using multiple solutions including Defender.

Integrating Microsoft solutions with each other is very easy. The integrated solutions work together to deliver coordinated detection and response in our environment.

The solution enables us to investigate threats and respond holistically from one place. We can write AQL queries and also create rules to detect the alerts. In the event that we don't have rules, we can proactively hunt through KQL queries.

The workbook based on KQL queries, which is the query language is very extensive compared to other solutions such as QRada and Splunk.

The solution requires no in-house maintenance because it is all handled by Microsoft. We only need to monitor the updates.

The playbook development environment is not as rich as it should be. There are multiple occasions when we face problems while creating the playbook. 

The cost is not straightforward and would benefit from a single charge model. 

The UI is not impressive, we need to train our analysts to conduct the investigation. Unlike IBM QRadar which has a different UI for searching, there is no UI where we can conduct searches with Sentinel. With Sentinel, all our searches require a KQL query, and if our analysts are not familiar with KQL queries, we have to train them. 

The data ingestion can use improvement. There are a few scenarios where we have experienced a delay in data ingestion.

I have been using the solution for one and a half years.

Sentinel is quite stable because it's a SaaS-based offering, so we don't have to worry about our stability. The solution is available 99.99999 percent of the time. The only time we have an issue is if there is a problem with the Azure portal. Microsoft handles the stability well.

We can scale the solution as much as we want, and with a few clicks, we can increase or decrease capacity.

We currently have four engineering teams that handle the deployments and use case development as well as a SOAR team that consists of ten technical people who all use the solution.

Microsoft Sentinel support is really good. They respond quickly to our requests and they try to resolve our issues as soon as possible. From my experience, Microsoft has the best support.

Positive

For SIEM, we previously used IBM QRadar and Splunk Enterprise Security. For SOAR, We have used IBM Resilient, Palo Alto XSOAR, and D3 SOAR, which is a new tool. D3 SOAR is a startup based in Canada and we used it for POC, but we have not used it in production. Sentinel is a SaaS-based solution. There is less administration required and with a few clicks, we can deploy Microsoft Sentinel, whereas, with other solutions, we have to build everything from scratch. There are other SaaS-based solutions but Sentinel is one of the most popular and because a lot of organizations are already using Microsoft and Azure products, Sentinel is the best compatible solution.

The initial setup for Sentinel is straightforward and the best I have worked with to date. We are able to deploy within half an hour and we only require one person to complete the implementation. 

The implementation was completed in-house.

From a cost perspective, there are some additional charges in addition to the licensing. Initially, the cost appears expensive, but over time, the solution justifies that cost. The cost is not straightforward, but instead really complex. We are charged for data ingestion as well as data leaving the environment. We are also charged for running playbooks and for logic apps. Compared with SIEM solutions, whose cost is simply based on EPS or data storage, Microsoft Sentinel's cost is complex. Over time we can predict what the cost of using the solution will be. Other standalone SOAR tools have fixed licensing and their cost is simple. We don't need to pay for each command we run or each integration we have or each automation we do. With Microsoft Sentinel, there is a cost associated with each of the connectors that we use in our playbook. Every time we run that playbook, there will be charges, but the charges are minimal unless we run the playbook repeatedly, then over time the cost shoots up.

We occasionally test POC and we are still evaluating other solutions.

I give the solution nine out of ten.

My impression of the visibility into threats that Microsoft Sentinel provides is that the solution is not perfect, but since it is part of Microsoft Workspace, Microsoft already provides so many services to clients, and Microsoft Sentinel is one of them. If we are already using Azure and other services from Microsoft, then Sentinel is easy to implement and use compared to other similar solutions. If I was not using Microsoft Solutions, then I can use other solutions, such as IBM QRadar or Splunk, and when it comes to XSOAR, Palo Alto XSOAR is a much better solution.

We use multiple solutions from Microsoft within our organization including Defender and Endpoint. We have integrated Endpoint with Defender and Microsoft Security Center to receive alerts.

Microsoft Sentinel has out-of-the-box support for up to 90 percent of solutions where we can find a connector to ingest the data directly, but for the remaining 10 percent, we need to write custom tables.

The ability to ingest data is the backbone of our security. If we don't ingest the data, we won't be able to perform anything at all in SIEM. SIEM is based on data ingestion. Once the data is ingested, then on top of that data, we can monitor and detect or hunt, whatever we want. We can create a reporting dashboard, but the data needs to be there.

Microsoft Sentinel's UEBA is quite capable. For SIEM, Splunk and IBM QRadar are slightly better than Sentinel, but Sentinel is catching up fast. The solution has only been in the market for two or three years and has already captured a large share with increasing popularity. For SOAR, Palo Alto XSOAR is much better than Microsoft Sentinel because Sentinel is a SIEM plus SOAR solution whereas Palo Alto XSOAR is a SOAR-focused solution only. What Microsoft Sentinel provides is one solution for SIEM plus SOAR, where we can detect and also respond in one place.

Currently, we have one environment based in a US data center, but we have the ability for multiple solutions in multiple regions within Azure, and we can integrate them using a master and slave configuration that will allow us to run all the queries from the master console.

Using a best-of-breed strategy rather than a single vendor suite is fine if we have a SIEM solution, a SOAR solution, or an Endpoint detection solution until a time when they are no longer compatible with each other and we can not integrate them. If we can not integrate the solutions it becomes difficult for our teams to log into and monitor multiple solutions separately.

I definitely recommend Microsoft Sentinel, but I suggest basing the decision on proof of concept by gathering the requirements, security solutions, and additional log source devices an organization has before using the solution. There are multiple solutions available that may be more suitable in some cases.

We have multiple use cases based on the data sources we have onboarded, like Sophos UTM or Firewall.

We also use Microsoft Defender for cloud and Microsoft Office.

We have integrated MD with Sentinel to receive alerts. If there are any suspicious activities in any of our resources, MD will create an alert. Once an alert comes through MDC, it is converted to Sentinel.

It was easy to integrate the solutions. It took about two or three clicks. The solutions work natively together, specifically to give us coordinated detection and response across our environment.

There is a correlation with the mail-based algorithm. We have an AML model algorithm in Sentinel. It has the capability to catch the pattern of attacks and shows that to us in the Sentinel app.

We mostly have cloud-based solutions, so Sentinel gives us better security. There's a feature that allows us to capture all the data in a single console, which we can analyze from the cloud itself.

We don't have to use third-party services to check these activities. If we see that one of our accounts is compromised or anything has happened, we can remove that person from other groups.

There's a feature that allows us to see what is in a secure state and what is in a critical state.

Sentinel helps automate routine tasks and find high-value alerts. We can have a custom playbook and create automation rules through that. If there is a false positive address, we can do the automation from there. If we want an email notification based on high-activated rules, we can provide the automation rules that will notify us on Outlook or through Teams.

It minimizes our analyst's workload. Once a high activity comes up, we'll get a notification on Teams. As analysts, they will validate and send us the email or notification within 10 to 15 minutes with more valid data. If there's a playbook with the top 10 critical rules, we can create multiple playbooks and attach them with the data that we want to protect.

Once that incentive is triggered, we'll get notifications with the full details of that incentive. If high severity comes up, that email is sent to the client, and we do more analysis on that rather than wasting time on the first analysis. We can directly get into the deeper version of the automation.

If an incident comes up, we have to validate the load and find out the correlation of the users. We can focus on the advanced test rather than wasting time on the previous one. This saves five to ten minutes.

On a monthly basis, the analyst team saves at least three to four hours with automation. We have multiple rules based on our more critical test. From that perspective, analysts don't want to work more on low priorities because we'll be automatically notified of low and high priorities. We focus more on critical users where the threat is high. By focusing on what is a high priority, our analysts save five to six hours per week.

We have multiple dashboard views that allow us to see logs coming from different solutions and users who were involved in the previous incident.

The best feature is that onboarding to the SIM solution is quite easy. If you use cloud-based solutions, it's just a few clicks to migrate it.

The console is user-friendly. We have almost 120 different types of data, so the solution helps us to onboard different types of third-party services to the SIM solution. We have UB features, and the SOAR capability in the Sentinel server is also a good feature.

Sentinel's visibility into threats is very good. We have an investigation graph that allows us to see the correlation between the incident and the users. We can see if there are multiple incidents with the same IP address and if there are multiple breaches. We can correlate with the rules and check if any inside threat activities are going on with the malicious site or the malicious URL link that we have onboarded. The threat view provides good visibility.

We can prioritize threats based on our investigation assets. It's very fast. We're able to see the rest of the threat activities and how impactful they are. Based on the AML algorithm, we can get all the stages of the attack as well.

Sentinel enables us to ingest data from our entire ecosystem.

The importance of this ingestion of data to our security operations depends on the data and the type of solutions we have to onboard. We onboard our critical servers and assets to the same solution so we'll have good visibility.

We're able to investigate threats and respond holistically from one place.

We can validate the logs from where the logs have been received. By doing the log analysis, we'll be able to find them. It's a straightforward function and isn't very hard.

There's an incident pane in Sentinel. We have a query package, and we can have a deep dive alert through that, or we can have a deep look into the log. From the console itself, we have a great view of our threats and the current phase we're in.

We have multiple source features. There are between 20 to 30 in addition to data. Microsoft provides custom features through which we can connect with third-party solutions and correlate the incident. For example, if we have multiple incidents, we can use the SOAR capabilities and correlate them with multiple third-party threats. It's an easier way of understanding whether or not we have a malicious bug.

We can see how much time our analysts have taken to raise the ticket and how much time they have taken to resolve the issue assets. We can create a dashboard for that. They're able to notify us within five or ten minutes for high priorities. For the medium priorities, it is 10 to 12 minutes. Our detection time for low priorities is within three hours, but our team still performs under 15 to 18 minutes.

If we want to use more features, we have to pay more. There are multiple solutions on the cloud itself, but the pricing model package isn't consistent, which is confusing to clients.

We have been using this solution for almost two years.

The stability is very good.

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

I would rate technical support a six out of ten. Technical support doesn't understand the features well enough. They will give us links to reference, so we go through those links as a team or Google the solution. We reach out to them if we can't find the solution, but they provide us with the same links and URLs that we've already referred to. It's a hassle because it wastes a week and a half of our time. Their solutions and response time aren't very good.

Neutral

The setup is based on our data sources. We have a segregated timeframe of two payments. It depends on the client or who is doing the operation. Onboarding on the cloud is pretty easy. It takes just a few clicks from migrating the data sources to getting the logs.

For an on-premises or third-party software servicer, it will take more time and troubleshooting to do the setup. It won't be hard if you have a good team for the onboarding process. It can be complicated initially, but the rest of the timeframe will involve fine-tuning the logs and creating the custom rules based on your requirement.

It doesn't require a lot of maintenance. It's pretty simple. We just had to play with it for a couple of months.

We haven't seen any financial ROI.

Sentinel is the best solution that we use. It's a pay-as-you-go model. We can fine-tune the features we want and choose if we want to remove logs. We can also segregate logs, which helps us minimize costs. Sentinel provides free Office 365 and Azure-based logs without pricing assets. When it comes to the third-party solution or our server logs, we just have to do the fine-tuning of the logs.

The pricing isn't very high. It depends on the number of logs you have. If you're expecting to ingest 50 to 60G in a day, but you're only ingesting 20 to 25G per day at first and you have a good team to analyze the logs, then you can segregate the ingestion at under 15G.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

It's very user-friendly. The only issue is that Microsoft's technical support isn't very good. If you have a good team who can onboard the resources to the solution, then you'll be happy with the solution itself.

For us, it's better to go for multiple solutions rather than a single suite because we cannot strictly trust one client. If you only have one cloud-based solution, it's better to use Sentinel to secure it. It's helpful to have a good team that can do the monitoring and onboarding smoothly. You can go with one solution if you have a trusted partner. If you don't, then I would use multiple solutions.

You should purchase the features that Microsoft provides. It's a configured network, so they will correlate with the end resources, RMD, and receiver identity. The fusion-based algorithm rule will detect advanced multistage attacks to stop the attack.

Microsoft Sentinel serves as a centralized hub for collecting and analyzing logs from various Microsoft tools and other sources. It eliminates the need to develop custom toolsets for detecting malicious activities across different Microsoft tools. Instead, Microsoft Sentinel provides standardized rules and playbooks to streamline the process of identifying and responding to potential threats.

For instance, consider a scenario where an employee clicks on a phishing link in an email, leading to the installation of malware on their system. While the endpoint detection and response tool on the endpoint might not detect malicious activity, Microsoft Sentinel, acting as a central log collector, receives the EDR logs and triggers an event based on pre-defined rules.

Upon detecting the suspicious activity, Microsoft Sentinel automatically executes a playbook, which may involve actions such as killing the malicious process or isolating the affected endpoint. This automated response helps expedite threat containment and reduces the burden on security analysts.

It is crucial that Sentinel empowers us to safeguard our hybrid, cloud, and multi-cloud environments. We employ a hybrid cloud setup, and securing our environment using Sentinel is significantly simpler than manual methods. We can gather events in the Central Point and develop playbooks and scripts to automate responses. This streamlines the process and enhances our overall security posture. Additionally, if an alert is triggered, we receive an incident notification via email, prompting us to take action and resolve the issue.

Sentinel provides a library of customizable content to address our company's needs.

Microsoft Sentinel has helped our organization with alerts. We'll receive alerts from Sentinel indicating that we're at risk. It's important to address these alerts promptly. We first need to review the information in the email, and then work on the issue in the office. After that, we'll contact the team members on the relevant shift. There's nothing particularly difficult about this process. It's based on our access privileges, which are determined by our role in the company. If we have a high-level role, we'll have access to all the necessary tools and resources. We'll even be able to receive alerts at home if there's a security issue. The company that provides this technology grants work-from-home access based on security considerations. If someone has a critical role, they'll also be equipped with the tools they need to work remotely and connect with their team members. So, the company that provided the technology can resolve the issue first, and then we can address it. Once we've taken care of the issue, everything will be much easier.

By leveraging Sentinel's AI in conjunction with our playbooks for automation, we can enhance the effectiveness of our security team, subject to the specific rules and policies we implement.

The logs provided by Sentinel have helped improve our visibility into our user's network behavior.

Sentinel has helped us save 60 percent of our time by prioritizing the severity of the alerts we receive. When we receive an alert with a high-risk level, we immediately address it to mitigate the potential security threat. Additionally, we have configured our anti-ransomware software, to further protect our systems from cyberattacks. In the event of a ransomware attack, our Halcyon system will generate an encryption key that can be used to unlock our system. This key is securely stored by Halcyon.

Sentinel has helped reduce our investigation times by enabling us to review an alert, generate a ticket, and resolve the issue simultaneously upon receiving the alert.

The most valuable feature is the alert notifications, which are categorized by severity levels: informational, low, medium, and high. This allows us to prioritize and address alerts based on their urgency. For instance, we would immediately address high-severity alerts. This feature, along with the ability to create playbooks, significantly enhances our workflow.

I would like Microsoft to add more connectors for Sentinel.

Microsoft Sentinel should provide an alternative query language to KQL for users who lack KQL expertise. 

I have been using Microsoft Sentinel for one and a half years.

Microsoft Sentinel is a stable solution. 

Microsoft Sentinel is scalable.

We have to write playbooks to resolve our issues.

Neutral

The configuration of Microsoft Sentinel involved a complex process that required thorough familiarity with the available connectors and the policies to be implemented.

We have seen a 30 percent return on investment.

Sentinel is costly.

I would rate Microsoft Sentinel seven out of ten.

We have five people in our organization who utilize Sentinel.

No maintenance is required from our end.

We use Sentinel to manage data based on data connectors and log sources. We have to build the use cases. I create policies and periodically fine-tune them. There are a lot of cloud applications for that, like Microsoft Active Directory, Office 365, and Microsoft Identity Protection.

For instance, when a privileged account's password is changed frequently, it should trigger an alert and will create an incident. Another use case is the ability to summarize all DB activity.

We also use Defender for Endpoint, and I have experience with Defender for Cloud and Microsoft Identity Protection.

The cloud-native solution covers an entire IT organization. It could be located in China, Russia, Pakistan, or India. It doesn't matter.

This solution is mostly deployed on the cloud. The solution is used across our entire organization. There are more than 1,000 end users.

The solution increases security. It also reduces complexity because we can monitor everything from a single solution. We can manage a firewall, servers,  connected DOS, etc. Even if it's a third-party application, we can manage it.

The solution helps automate routine tasks and find high-value alerts. For example, we can create analytical rules and build the use cases so that any suspicious incoming traffic is blocked.

The solution has eliminated the need to look at multiple dashboards. Everything is accessible from a single dashboard.

Our team is currently being trained on how to use threat intelligence to help prepare and take proactive steps for potential threats before they hit. If there are any zero-day vulnerabilities, Microsoft will update the platform, so that all of the organizations that use Sentinel will have coverage. 

I like the KQL. It simplifies getting data from the table and seeing the logs. All you need to know are the table names. It's quite easy to build use cases by using KQL.

Sentinel provides visibility into threats. It provides anonymous IP and URL detection in our environment. We can easily get the logs.

It helps prioritize threats in the organization. We can build analytic rules. Microsoft Sentinel provides a lot of alternative use cases, but we have to prepare them.

Sentinel enables us to ingest data from our entire ecosystem because it's a cloud-native SIEM. We can integrate everything into Sentinel. In any organization, log management is an important aspect. For auditing and compliance, an organization has to validate the logs.

Sentinel enables us to investigate threats and respond holistically from one place. There's an incident option that allows us to view information about a specific instance, an anomaly, and activities that have happened in the last 24 hours. It will show the specific incident, the host, the time, and what the user is accessing. It shows everything in a single pane, which is very useful.

There's a lot of technical documentation for automation. It's easy to understand. You can build it according to your needs. You can automate playbooks. You can integrate a number of digital platforms into your environment.

The performance could be improved. If I create 15 to 20 lines for a single-use case in KQL, sometimes it takes more time to execute. If I create use cases within a certain timeline, the result will show in .01 seconds. A complex query takes more time to get results.

I have used this solution for two years.

The solution is very stable. We haven't experienced any outages so far. There is a failover function. If a region has an outage, there is backup support, which is advertised in the software on SIEM.

The solution is scalable.

I would rate technical support as nine out of ten. 

We previously used Splunk. We switched because of the cost.

I wasn't involved in deployment. Maintenance isn't needed often.

Sentinel saves us time. KQL is fast. The response of the query output is quick compared to other products. We can create a lot of automation in that particular environment, which reduces the workload for a lot of false positives. 

Logic App allows us to create mini-automations. XOR plays a huge role in Microsoft Sentinel. It automates soft operations workloads.

The solution saves us time by 75%. By using automation instead of working on a specific incident for 30 minutes, it takes a maximum of five minutes. 

This solution saves us money. Microsoft offers discounts if you purchase GB per day.

Sentinel decreases the time it takes to detect and the time it takes to respond by 70%.

In a protected cloud, Microsoft is quite manageable. It allows you to pay as you go. If you're replacing cloud resources, you'll eventually have thousands of virtual machines, but you'll be able to pay for only 500 virtual machines.

The pay-as-you-go model is beneficial to customers.

My organization tried an open-source platform, but it didn't give a proper output, so we compiled some other solutions. We prefer Microsoft products, so we went with Sentinel. 

I would rate this solution as nine out of ten. 

To a security colleague who says it's better to go with a best-of-breed strategy rather than a single-vendor security suite, I would say that if you have a single-bundle security solution, you can cover all of your security needs in an IT organization. It's beneficial for support, makes data visibility clearer, and improves security. I would recommend a single-bundle security solution as a better way to go for deployment.

We are developing our security signals for Microsoft Sentinel, so we are making a connector for Microsoft Sentinel. We try to use several features.

When using mobile devices, if there is an attacker or malware, the signal goes to the Microsoft Sentinel console from there. Our IT admin looks at those incidents.

The importance of that for our organization is because we are using our mobile devices for work. Mobile devices are not safe enough.

I focus on mobile devices while using Microsoft Sentinel. Mainly we want to expand our Identity performers. 

The signal correlation and dashboards features of Microsoft Sentinel are fantastic because it correlates the signal logs with other products. The customizable dashboards are also valuable.

Microsoft Sentinel's ability to correlate data from multiple sources and its detection capabilities are essential.

Microsoft Sentinel can be improved in terms of automation or connecting with security products so that it is easier to use for general IT admins.

I started using Microsoft Sentinel last June, so it has been about a year.

I was not using any other solutions for this specific task before Microsoft Sentinel. We ultimately chose Microsoft Sentinel because we have partnerships.

We have not yet seen a return on investment with Microsoft Sentinel. We expect to see a return on investment this year. 

We try to use the security incidents feature in Microsoft Sentinel, but I have not seen the actual incident yet. I could not find good use cases. My experience with the collaboration capabilities of Microsoft Sentinel is limited, as I am still getting used to it.

I would rate Microsoft Sentinel a seven out of ten. 

I use the solution to ensure proper security analytics and threat intelligence across the enterprise. The tool helps me to know the type of attack detection that happens and the kind of visibility, proactive hunting, and threat response we have.

We use the tool because we want a solution that can quickly analyze large volumes of data across the enterprise. Microsoft Sentinel is a one-stop solution for all our security needs. It gives threat visibility, enables proactive hunting, and provides investigation reports.

The product can integrate with any device. It has connectors. So, we do not have big issues in building connectors. Microsoft Sentinel gives us a unified set of tools to detect, investigate, and respond to incidents. It also helps us recover things. It is very important to our organization. It centralizes our total threat collection and detection and generates investigation reports.

The AI capabilities must be improved. The product must efficiently leverage the AI capabilities for threat detection and response. The product does not provide auto-configuration features. So, we need to do configuration, policy changes, and group policies ourselves. If AI can do these functions, it will be easier for the customers.

I have been using the solution for three years.

The product is stable.

We have around 1500 users. We have only one administrator. The product is easily scalable. As long as the enterprise grows, we will continue using Microsoft Sentinel.

The technical support team is very good.

Positive

We were using Splunk before. We decided to switch to Microsoft Sentinel because we were unable to work on large data using Splunk. Splunk did not have AI capabilities and was not user-friendly.

The product is deployed on the cloud. It is a SaaS solution. The initial deployment was easy. We ensured that all the devices and the APIs were configured well. We needed two engineers from our team for the deployment. We have deployed the tool in a single location. The solution does not need any maintenance.

We took help from an integrator to deploy the tool. It was a user-friendly experience.

The solution is efficient. We could see the returns on investment immediately. It doesn’t take much time.

The product is costly compared to Splunk. When we pay for the product, we also have Azure Monitor Log Analytics as part of the package. It is economical for us.

We use the tool to help secure our cloud-native security solutions. By enabling us to secure our cloud environments, it acts as a single solution for attack detection and threat visibility for proactive hunting. The solution gives us a library of customizable content that helps us address our unique needs. It also gives regular patch updates. It helps us to be updated with the latest threats happening across the world.

We use the Microsoft Sentinel Content hub. Integration with Active Directory is also helpful for us. The content hub enables us to see the latest features. We have Extended Detection and Response in SentinelOne. It provides effective protection for the platform. It provides more cybersecurity by providing more visibility and protects our enterprise.

The content hub helps us centralize out-of-the-box security information and event management content. It discovers and manages the built-in content. It provides an end-to-end security for us.

Microsoft Sentinel correlates signals from first and third-party sources into a single high-confidence incident. It can extract the information through the respective APIs of the third parties. It has increased our threat intelligence, monitoring, and incident analysis efficiency.

We use Microsoft Sentinel's AI in automation. The generative AI features enable real-time threat hunting and detection. The solution has helped improve our visibility into user and network behavior. The generative AI provides better detection and response capabilities and faster response times with actionable intelligence.

The product has saved us time. It helps us get various log files. When there’s an incident, it enables us to do investigations faster. The tool saves us three days in a week. It reduces the work involved in our event investigation by streamlining the processes and making automation effective. Event investigation is much faster.

If someone is looking for a comprehensive solution, Microsoft Sentinel is a good choice. It will fulfill all our needs, including attack detection, threat visibility, and response.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Sentinel is used to cover cloud-native customers for security monitoring. It includes UEBA, threat intelligence, behavioral analytics, etcetera. We also use it to automate incidents into tickets.

The solution improved our organization in a few ways. The key one is the cloud layer of integrations. When we were on-premises with SAP monitoring we faced a few issues in the integration of cloud infrastructure logs. Once we moved into the Sentinel Cloud the integration was pretty easy. Monitoring the cloud infrastructure and their respective applications and their cloud cloud-native products became pretty easy in terms of integration with monitored areas.

Also, the cost of infrastructure is no longer an issue.

The detection layer has also been improved with analytics. Plus, it keeps on getting better in Sentinel. Since 2020, I've seen Sentinel has made a lot more changes in feature improvements and performance. They’re fine-tuning detection and analysis layers.

The analytics rules are excellent. It's pretty easy to create them. It’s all about SQL queries that we need to deploy at the back end.

The search of the logs is easy. Before, there were no archival logs. Now, in recent versions, it’s easy to bring back the logs from the archives. We can research and query the archive of logs very easily.

The visibility is great. It gives good alerts. The way an analyst can go and drill down into more details is simple, The ability to threat hunt has been useful.

Sentinel helps us prioritize threats across the enterprise. With it, we have a single pane for monitoring security logs. As an MSP, they just ingest all the logs into the system, and this actually leads to a hierarchy for our integrations. It’s easy to review the logs for auditing purposes.

We use more than one Microsoft security product. Other team members use Intune, Microsoft CASB, and Microsoft Defender as well. It’s easy to integrate everything. You just need to enable the connector in the back end. It takes one minute. These solutions work natively together to deliver coordinated detection responses across our environment. We just integrated the Microsoft Defender logs into Sentinel. It already has the prebuilt use cases in Sentinel, including threat-hunting playbooks, and automation playbooks. It's pretty easy and ready to use out of the box.

Sentinel enables us to ingest data from our entire ecosystem. That's really the high point for us. The coverage needs to be expanded. The threat landscape is getting wider and wider and so we need to monitor each and every ecosystem in our customer organization's endpoints, including the endpoints or applications for systems or on the servers or network level. It needs to be integrated on all levels, whether it’s on-premises or cloud. It is really important to have a single point of security monitoring, to have everything coordinated.

Sentinel enables us to investigate threats and respond holistically from one place. For that analyst team, the Sentinel page is like a single point of investigation layer for them. Whenever an incident is created, they can just come in and get deeper into a particular investigation incident. They are able to get more information, figure out the indicators, and make recommendations to customers or internal teams to help them take action.

Given its built-in UEBA and threat intelligence capabilities, the comprehensiveness of Sentinel's security protection is really nice. The UEBA can be integrated with only the AD logs. And, since they need to get integrated with the networks and the VPN layers as well, it’s useful to have comprehensive security. It can be integrated into other Microsoft security products as well.

Sentinel pricing is good. The customer doesn't want to worry about the enterprise infrastructure cost in the system. They worry about the enterprise cost and the management, and operation, CAPEX, et cetera. However, in general, the customer simply needs to worry only about the usage, for example, how much data is getting sent into the system. We can still refine the data ingestion layer as well and decide what needs to be monitored and whatnot. That way, we can pay only for what we are monitoring.

Our Microsoft security solution helps automate routine tasks and help automate the finding of high-value alerts. By leveraging Sentinel's automation playbook, we have automated the integrations and triage as well. This has simplified the initial investigation triage, to the point where we do not need to do any initial investigations. It will directly go on into layer two or it directly goes to the customer status.

Our Microsoft security solution helped eliminate having to look at multiple dashboards and gave us one XDR dashboard. The dashboard is pretty cool. We now have a single pane of glass. A lot of customization needs to be done, however, there are predefined dashboards and a content hub. We still leverage those dashboards to get the single view into multiple days, including the log volumes or types of security monitoring or in the operation monitoring system.

Sentinel saves us time. Even just the deployment, it only takes ten minutes for the could. When you have on-premises tasks that are manual, it can take hours or a day to deploy the entire setup. Integrating the log sources used also takes time. By enabling out-of-the-box tools, we can save a lot of time here and there. Also, once you leverage automation, by simply leveraging logic apps in a local kind of environment, you don’t need to know much coding. You just need knowledge of logic at the back end.

The solution has saved us money. While I’m not sure of the exact commercial price, it’s likely saved about 20% to 30%.

The solution decreased our time to detect and your time to respond. For time to detect, by leveraging analytic rules, we’ve been able to cut down on time. Everything is happening within minutes. We can begin remediation quickly instead of in hours.

The UEBA part needs improvement. They need to bring other log sources to UEBA. 

The reporting could be more structured. There are no reporting modules or anything. It's only the dashboard. Therefore, when a customer requests a report, you need to manually pull the dashboard and send it to the customer for the reporting. However, if there was a report or template there, it would be easier to schedule and send the weekly reports or monthly executive reports.

The log ingestion could be improved on the connector layer.

I've been using the solution since November of 2020. 

The solution is stable. We had some issues with an automation component. There might have been outages on the back end, however, it's mostly fine.

We have about 25 people using the solution in our organization, including analysts. 

You only need to pay for what you are ingesting and monitoring. It scales well. There are no issues with it. 

Support is okay. We don't have many issues on the platform layers. We might reach out to support for integration questions. Largely, the engineering team would handle support cases. 

Neutral

We do use other solutions. We added this solution as we needed to support cloud-native customers. 

We also use LogRhythm among other solutions.

Each solution has its own pros and cons. There isn't a direct contrast to each. Some have better reporting. However, Sentinel has very good analytical rules and automation. LogRhythm, however, requires more backend work. 

The deployment of the Microsoft bundle is pretty easy. It's fast and saves time. In ten minutes, we can deploy Sentinel to the customer and start monitoring data with the existing rules. You'll have dashboards in thirty minutes. One person can do the deployment. To manage the solution, one can manage the injections, and one can manage the detection layers.

The solution does not require any maintenance. You just have to make sure it's up to date.

We're using it in the automotive and energy industries. 

When we calculated the pricing, we thought it was 10% to 20% less, however, it depends on how much data is being collected. It's not overly expensive. It's fairly priced. 

Security vendors are chosen based on use cases. Those gaps are met by the respective solution. The benefit of a single vendor is that everything is on a single-layer stack. It helps you see everything in one single pane. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. 

We are a Microsoft partner, an MSP. 

We utilize Microsoft Sentinel primarily to monitor our data storage software. Through the implementation of distinct connectors, we can accommodate multiple use cases for Sentinel. This solution also enables us to thwart failover attempts and prevent brute-force attacks. Moreover, we leverage the EDR tools to establish groups. For instance, if an unauthorized individual attempts to access a critical server from outside the designated group, we can promptly identify them by analyzing the event ID.

Using the Microsoft Sentinel Investigation tab, we can observe all activities related to access and unauthorized attempts taking place in our environment.

Sentinel assists us in prioritizing threats across our entire enterprise. When we receive high-priority alerts, we engage with the client to investigate whether they are conducting any testing first. If not, we identify the unknown activity and collaborate with them to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

We also utilize Office 365. We have seamlessly integrated Office 365 with Sentinel, which is made easy through the provided connectors, especially when our API keys are associated with a cloud machine. All that is needed are the workspace ID, subscription ID, and API key.

The effectiveness of the protection offered by the integrated solutions is substantial. We are capable of preventing spam, tracking the complete trajectory of data transmitted by the end user, including its source, especially when originating from unauthorized URLs. Additionally, we can identify instances of unauthorized mail redirection. Furthermore, we can utilize SPF authentication to safeguard our domain against spoofing.

Microsoft Sentinel allows us to gather data from our entire ecosystem. We also have the capability to exclude non-suspicious or non-malicious data, such as daily reminders, from the daily logs in order to prevent system slowdown.

Sentinel allows us to investigate threats and respond promptly from a central location. We can gather all the necessary information for an investigation with a single click, which will provide us with a comprehensive overview of the actions taken by the suspicious user by reviewing the Event ID.

The built-in SOAR, UEBA, and threat intelligence capabilities of Sentinel are commendable. The UEBA can furnish a summary of all entities and discern unfamiliar ones that are not commonly associated with our system, subsequently tagging them for our review.

It aids in the automation of routine tasks and the identification of high-value alerts. For instance, if we need to compile a list of our administrative or high-profile users, we can establish rules based on high and medium security criteria, or any other specifications we might have. The entries will then correspond to the information aligned with our requirements. Furthermore, we have generated a watchlist of blacklisted users, which assists us in conveniently tracking activities originating from them. 

It provides the ability to create personalized dashboards that offer all the necessary information in a single location. It is important to mention that this feature comes with an extra cost, as is the case with all aspects of Sentinel.

Sentinel's threat intelligence helps prepare us for potential threats before they hit. By utilizing the event summary, we can proactively prepare for unauthorized entries and directly block IPs at the firewall level.

As a partner of Microsoft, they pay us for any POCs we create.

Sentinel has contributed to a reduction in our time for detecting and responding to incidents. As Sentinel operates in the cloud, it offers user-friendly accessibility, enabling us to swiftly access crucial information for responding to potential threats.

The automation rules that enable us to create playbooks for each individual are valuable.

The Identity Behavior tab furnishes us with the entire history linked to each IP or domain that has either accessed or attempted to access our system. By utilizing the data supplied by Sentinel, we can ascertain whether there are any attempts to breach our system. Numerous pre-defined queries are at our disposal, and we also have the option to craft custom queries as needed.

We are invoiced according to the amount of data generated within each log. For example, if I neglect to specify the time period in a search, Sentinel will retrieve all the logs, leading to charges for both pertinent and irrelevant data. This could potentially cause a substantial increase in costs. We incur lower charges for data under 100 GB, but anything surpassing that threshold becomes more expensive.

When setting up EDR for multiple endpoints, we need to create distinct rules for each one to monitor the devices effectively. 

I am currently using Microsoft Sentinel.

Microsoft Sentinel is stable. It is extremely rare that the solution is down.

Microsoft Sentinel is highly scalable. We can create any random custom playbooks. We can create any custom rules over there As per our requirements. We can enable and disable policies also as per our requirements. We can combine both policies accordingly.

The technical support is good.

Positive

Compared to IBM Security QRadar and Securonix, Microsoft Sentinel is more user-friendly. QRadar is quicker to respond but it has stability issues.

We are charged based on the amount of data used, which can become expensive.

I rate Microsoft Sentinel nine out of ten.

Maintenance is overseen by Microsoft. They announce periods of system downtime for maintenance. If we have anything critical that we require while the system is down, we can request it from Microsoft, and they promptly provide it to us.

Microsoft Sentinel offers us query update suggestions every three months. If we find a suggestion we like, we can simply click on it to automatically update our policy.

I believe it is better to choose a single-vendor security suite over a best-of-breed strategy.