Find out in this report how the two Microsoft Security Suite solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Bastion vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Report (Updated: May 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Bastion vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

May 2024

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Helped 787,061 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Azure Bastion

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

17th

Average Rating

8.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (32nd), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (9th)

Microsoft Defender for Clou...

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

10th

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (2nd), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (12th)

Market share comparison

As of June 2024, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the market share of Azure Bastion is 1.7% and it increased by 21.3% compared to the previous year. The market share of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is 1.3% and it decreased by 24.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsoft Security Suite

Unique Categories:

Network Monitoring Software

0.1%

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)

0.7%

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)

14.5%

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

1.1%

Featured Reviews

Aladin Steiner

Head of Value Stream Azure at SmartIT Services AG

Nov 28, 2023

Has good scalability and provides secure access to the virtual machines

Our customers use the product to connect to Azure virtual machines. It is a perfect solution that they can easily connect to the browser and experience the VM services Azure Bastion makes it easy to provide quick virtual machine access to our customers. We don’t have to build complex SSL VPN…

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Edward-Walton

Security Principal at Trifecta Cloud Security Solutions

Apr 7, 2023

It helps us control which applications are used and gain more security insight into remote and hybrid users based on user identity and login location

Defender integrates with MDE, and there's no agent, so everything happening on the endpoint is reported back to Defender. Defender for Cloud Apps is tightly integrated with Defender for Identity. The solution provides excellent visibility into threats. I rate Defender for Cloud Apps an eight and a half out of ten for visibility. I use all of Microsoft's security products, and they work together natively to deliver coordinated detection and response. Each solution is outstanding by itself, and I can coordinate between them by pumping the alerts and incidents into my SIEM. Bidirectional sync is crucial because I'm a consultant, and I have yet to find a customer who uses only one cloud. We use Defender with Microsoft Sentinel, which ingests data from our entire ecosystem. This functionality is essential because I can investigate threats and respond from one place. I can respond directly from Sentinel about 50-60 percent of the time using its SOAR capabilities. Sentinel's built-in UEBA and threat intelligence are excellent and getting better every day. In terms of cost and ease of use, Sentinel is the best cloud SIEM and better than 90 percent of on-premise solutions. Even Google products can't compete.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The interface is available in the edit portal."

"As an Azure consultant, for me, it is the best way to give the administrator access as you can manage the permission - including who can access Bastion."

"Azure Bastion makes it easy to provide quick virtual machine access to our customers."

"The product's setup is easy."

"The ability to operate the product with scripting is excellent."

"It provides all the security to us. Without getting on the internet, we can access our servers. We can access our desktop through our web browser. We don't need to run the mstsc command and login to the VM. All those things are not required."

"The connection to virtual machines is very useful."

"The most significant advantage lies in its runbook features, particularly beneficial for our infrastructure team."

"Shadow IT discovery is the feature I like the most."

"The product helps us with privileged identity management to control who has access to what and for how long."

"It's very easy to install and it includes the Intune portal from Microsoft where I can control all the devices from one place."

"The most valuable feature is the ease of management. It's important."

"I like the web GUI/the management interface. I also like the security of Microsoft. As compared to other manufacturers, it's less complex and easy to understand and work with."

"I like the alert policies because they are quite robust. It has some built-in templates that we can easily pick up. One of them is the alert for mass downloads, when a particular user is running a massive download on your SharePoint site."

"The most valuable feature is the alerting system."

"The solution does not affect a user's workflow."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pros

Cons

"When you have a boot issue on Windows, you cannot use Azure Bastion to fix it. You have to use the Azure console or the VM console, and it is very limited."

"We are not able to copy and paste files directly into the server over the patch host. We have to transfer files over to Azure Storage."

"The solution breaks down sometimes."

"There are some challenges because Bastion is more compatible with Edge but not with the other browsers. As an organization, it doesn't make sense that we have to use only Edge. We should be able to access Bastion over Chrome, Mozilla, or Opera. It should be our choice."

"While general support is valuable, having a detailed breakdown of the specific issues would contribute to a more streamlined and efficient resolution process."

"The protocol speed could be faster."

"You are charged for retrieving your own data."

"Generally, the pricing can always be improved along with the management system."

"Defender could integrate better with multi-cloud and hybrid environments. It requires some additional configuration to ingest data from non-Azure environments and integrate it with Sentinel."

"Currently, reporting is not very straightforward and it needs to be enhanced. Specific reports are not included and you need to run a query, drill down, and then export it and share it. I would love to have reports with more fine-tuning or granularity, and more predefined reports."

"The integration with macOS operating systems needs to be better."

"I would like to see them include more features in the older licenses. There are some features that are not available, such as preventing or analyzing cloud attacks."

"We sometimes get errors when we create policies, which is somewhat annoying because some policies stop working due to misconfigurations. We find this challenging because it limits our options for troubleshooting an issue."

"There are challenges with detection and there are challenges with false-positive rates."

"We would like to get more information from the endpoint. I don't get enough detailed information right now on why something failed. There is not enough visibility."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is a lower decision point than high-quality security for our organization. Better security comes at a cost, but it's worth it, and that's what we tell our customers."

"It does not save money for us."

"Azure Bastion's pricing is good."

"It has pretty good pricing."

"Our clients normally use the Microsoft E1 licensing, which is renewed yearly."

"The product's pricing seems fair."

"I'm not totally involved in the pricing part, but I think its pricing is quite aggressive, and its price is quite similar to Netskope. Netskope has separate licensing fees or additional charges if you want to monitor certain SaaS services, whereas, with MCAS, you get 5,000 applications with their Office 365. It is all bundled, and there's no cost for using that. You only have the operational costs. In the country I am in, it is a bit difficult to get people with the required skill sets."

"Its pricing is on the higher side. Its price is definitely very high for a small-scale company. As an enterprise client, we do get benefits from Microsoft. We get a discounted price because of the number of users we have in our company. We have a premier package, and with that, we do get a lot of discounts. There are no additional costs. It only comes in the top-tier packages. Generally, the top-tier license is the best license that you can get for your organization. If you want, you can buy it separately, but that's not a good idea."

"We are an MST and we do not pay for the solution. However, the price of the solution could be better."

"It is a little bit expensive. When you want to have the complete package with Office 365, Defender, and everything else, it is expensive."

"The price could be better and should be reconsidered."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Microsoft Security Suite solutions are best for your needs.

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787,061 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Azure Bastion?

Azure Bastion makes it easy to provide quick virtual machine access to our customers.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Bastion?

The product costs around $150 per month. It does not save money for us.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Bastion?

We are not able to copy and paste files directly into the server over the patch host. We have to transfer files over to Azure Storage.

See all answers

Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Microsoft Cloud App Security?

Cisco Umbrella is an integral component of the Cisco SASE architecture. It integrates security in a single, cloud-native solution, unifying multiple features like DNS-layer security, threat intelli...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Cloud App Security?

It does a great job of monitoring and maintaining a security baseline. For us, that is a key element. The notifications are pretty good.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Cloud App Security?

Where we are right now, this is an acceptable pricing. I would like to see more transparency given to the end user. The end user given to us is via the cloud service provider. There are different p...

See all answers

Comparisons

Azure Firewall vs Azure Bastion

Compared 34% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Azure Bastion

Compared 25% of the time

TeamViewer Remote Management vs Azure Bastion

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Sentinel vs Azure Bastion

Compared 8% of the time

Azure Web Application Firewall vs Azure Bastion

Compared 5% of the time

More Azure Bastion Competitors

Zscaler Internet Access vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 23% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 20% of the time

Netskope vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 11% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 8% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 6% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Bastion

June 2024

Download Azure Bastion product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

May 2024

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps report

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps product report

Also Known As

No data available

MS Cloud App Security, Microsoft Cloud App Security

Learn More

Microsoft

Overview

Azure Bastion is a service you deploy that lets you connect to a virtual machine using your browser and the Azure portal. The Azure Bastion service is a fully platform-managed PaaS service that you provision inside your virtual network. It provides secure and seamless RDP/SSH connectivity to your virtual machines directly from the Azure portal over TLS. When you connect via Azure Bastion, your virtual machines do not need a public IP address, agent, or special client software.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is a comprehensive security solution that provides protection for cloud-based applications and services. It offers real-time threat detection and response, as well as advanced analytics and reporting capabilities. With Defender for Cloud Apps, organizations can ensure the security of their cloud environments and safeguard against cyber threats. Whether you're running SaaS applications, IaaS workloads, or PaaS services, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps can help you secure your cloud environment and protect your business from cyber threats.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Benefits:

Provides comprehensive security for cloud applications
Integrates with other Microsoft security tools
Easy to use and deploy
Provides real-time threat detection and response
Strong protection against phishing attacks and other common threats
Highly customizable to meet specific needs of different organizations

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Use Cases:

Governance, authentication, security, and compliance.
Detects shadow IT and anomalous user behavior
Controls access to applications
Provides auditing and filtering setups
Used for end-user compute devices, file monitoring, user investigation, and activity
Used for data governance, threat detection, and getting visibility over cloud applications
Used to identify information about applications beyond organizational boundaries
Prevent exfiltration and data filtration of corporate data
Used to deal with spam emails and detect shadow IT

Reviews from Real Users

Ram-Krish, Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm, says that Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps "Integrates well and helps us in protecting sensitive information, but takes time to scan and apply the policies and cannot detect everything we need".

PeerSpot user, Senior Cloud & Security Consultant at a tech services, writes that Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps "Great for monitoring user activity and protecting data while integrating well with other applications".

Simon Burgess,Infrastructure Engineer at SBITSC, states that Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is "A fluid, intelligent product for great visibility, centralized management, and increased uptime".

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Customers for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps include Accenture, St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and Nakilat.

Buyer's Guide

Azure Bastion vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

May 2024

Free Report: Azure Bastion vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Bastion vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.

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