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Avanan vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (10th)
Avanan
Average Rating
9.2
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (7th), Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (7th)
Microsoft Defender for Clou...
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (4th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (12th), Microsoft Security Suite (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Email Security
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
 

Featured Reviews

Luis-Brown - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 8, 2023
Allows for easy reporting of problems, valuable anti-phishing, and anti-malware support
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 lacks proactivity in assisting us with preparing for potential threats before they occur. While they employ a substantial amount of threat intelligence to preemptively prevent incidents, their effectiveness diminishes when it comes to delivering proactive threat intelligence alerts from Microsoft. Their focus primarily revolves around managing the internal environment. On the other hand, my other vendor, Check Point, along with my membership in MS-ISAC, supplements me with this type of information. The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement. It is adequate, but it doesn't match the quality of Proofpoint or Mimecast. However, it comes close in effectiveness. Plus, if we're obtaining it for free, investing in the other products seems impractical.
Robert Melendez - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 21, 2024
Enhances email security and has a very simple and easy-to-use UI
Spam protection is the most valuable feature. We have implemented the tool to enhance our email security. It helps prevent phishing attacks. The anomaly detection capabilities are baked into the security platform. The product integrates wonderfully with Microsoft 365. It's built right on a cloud platform and works almost natively. The solution has a very simple and easy-to-use UI. The tool appears extremely powerful and has a good solid feature set. It catches things that are bad for my environment. The user interface is good the way it is. If the solution continues down that path, I see no problems with the way it is going. It feels like a mature product.
Anthony Alvarico - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 9, 2024
Provides discovery, data exfiltration, and sensitive data exposure at low cost
The deployment process is quick, taking two to three days. The implementation and customization require more time. We need to adjust the setup to fit the client's needs, which involves fine-tuning notifications and alerts to avoid overwhelming them. First, you need the appropriate licensing. Once you have that, go to security.microsoft.com and integrate with Defender for Endpoints to receive information. While you can ingest logs from different firewalls, such as Palo Alto or Cisco, we usually implement them with Defender for Endpoints. Once a laptop or desktop is set up in Defender for Endpoints, integrating Cloud Apps with the endpoints allows us to collect the data easily. I rate the initial setup a nine out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The email protection is excellent, especially in terms of anti-phishing policies."
"The two main features that prove most beneficial for us are URL scanning and attachment scanning."
"Does a thorough job of examining email and URLs for malicious content."
"The solution is very easy to use. All you have to do is to assign the license to the end-user and it's done. The customer will only have the feature activated, and the solution will monitor the emails to determine if they are a threat or not."
"Since we have started using the solution, there have been fewer compromises."
"The most valuable feature is the integration. It's a single console, so we don't have to switch around between multiple products. Another valuable feature is the ease of operations and maintenance."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 has improved my organization's security. It makes it easier to manage the infrastructure without the help of third-party applications."
"It’s easy to handle integrations, and we don't need a lot of people in our IT team."
"It can detect corrupted files and filters out documents with viruses."
"I like Avanan's SmartDLP module. It's seamless, and the administrative overhead is low. We aren't a very sophisticated operation. We just want to reduce our exposure, so we find ThreatCloud helpful. Avanan's acquisition by Check Point was beneficial for them."
"The program has reduced the dangers related to phishing, malware, ransomware, and other vulnerabilities."
"The integration with all our existing and new applications is great."
"Email Attachment Protection detects any insecure files and quickly blocks them to prevent the spread of viruses to other secure documents."
"The most valuable feature of Avanan is its Anti-Malware solution for Office 365, and box.com."
"It is simple to deploy this platform and interact with the set features."
"Avanan is a stable software. My company hasn't faced any issues, bugs, or problems with the performance of Avanan."
"Everything from Microsoft is integrated. You receive regular reports on them all. You can push your reports, logs, and security alerts, which are all integrated. It is crucial that these solutions work natively together to deliver coordinated detection and response across our environment."
"The solution does not affect a user's workflow."
"Defender helps us control which applications are being used and gain more security insight into remote and hybrid users based on user identity and log in location. You can also integrate Defender for Cloud Apps with Defender for Endpoint to extend its capabilities."
"Shadow IT discovery is the feature I like the most."
"It is very easy to use, which is what we look for in these types of solutions."
"The most valuable feature is the seamless integration across different clouds."
"The general usability of the solution is very straightforward."
"The ability to prevent users from using certain applications is one of the most valuable features. It doesn't require any configuration for implementation from the client perspective. It just works right away and gives you the information you need."
 

Cons

"We noticed that from time to time, Microsoft's stability does have problems. Sometimes the service goes up and down. Sometimes they change without prior notice."
"It would be better if it were more scalable. It depends on the architecture, but we would like to make it more scalable for both data centers."
"One area for improvement is support, in terms of being able to reach them and, especially, technical support for configuration."
"There is room for improvement with the UI."
"The certification training for Defender for 365 needs to be deeper and incorporate Sentinel. I took all the security courses except one, and Sentinel isn't included."
"In some situations, it has not been able to pick impersonated emails having no attachments. Technical support definitely has a scope for improvement."
"Configuring the default strategies and policies in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps generates a lot of noise and false positives."
"Microsoft wants its well-paying customers to finish testing some of its half-baked products, find bugs, and report bugs back to Microsoft's team, which is a little frustrating for those who have to manage it and roll it up to thousands of people across the organization."
"They should come up with a mobile application so that it can be more flexible."
"Being cloud first and because we are in the movie business, we use a lot of Macintoshes. So, there is absolutely no reason for us to have Active Directory whatsoever. However, if you are using Office 365, you must have Active Directory in order to reset passwords. Even though we have a single sign-on provider, we must have Azure Active Directory for Office 365, which is really stupid. As a cloud application, you would think that I don't need Active Directory, which I don't need for anything else except Office 365. We have one server inside that space to help us manage Active Directory just for Office 365. This is a very sore point, but it is what it is."
"There are times when we have false positives."
"When sending bulky emails, the system slows down and takes a long time before it responds effectively to our requests."
"It should also offer a quick backup in case any email is wrongly quarantined or deleted to ensure no data loss."
"Integration with various SaaS offerings, who are leading in the SaaS market."
"It is complicated for new users unfamiliar with the modern cloud networking infrastructure."
"The cost can be reviewed to enable SMEs to acquire it and enjoy great security features."
"This service would be better if it had a separate license, only for this service, that could be used to track usage."
"Sometimes the support is actually lacking."
"In the future, I would like to see more plug-and-play capabilities that use AI to tell you what needs to be done. It would be helpful if it scanned our devices and made security suggestions, on a configuration basis."
"The product is very good so far, however, it would be better if it could include more up-to-date threat protection."
"Generally, the pricing can always be improved along with the management system."
"The interface needs to be more user-friendly."
"The integration with macOS operating systems needs to be better."
"They should continue integration with all other Microsoft security-related products. The integration with all the other products is still ongoing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license is expensive because the cost is based on the number of users."
"Compared to other brands, Microsoft Defender for Office 365's pricing is competitive."
"From the pricing point of view, like any other product in the market, there is scope for negotiation."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is an add-on to the Office license. Many customers are purchasing this solution."
"The product is expensive."
"I know that the product is incredibly expensive."
"It's a user-base subscription."
"I was working in the government and it was too expensive for us to use our Microsoft products."
"Having the flexibility and modeling to do the pricing that best fits the needs of the organization is incredibly ideal. That is what Avanan does. They know exactly how many users are using it, etc. We can tune the invoicing associated with how we are using the product so we can charge it back to the shows appropriately."
"Good pricing arrangement as an SaaS offering."
"We have a monthly license that is $4 to $8 per user."
"The pricing of Avanan is reasonable."
"The product is not the cheapest in the market."
"Avanan’s price is comparable to Barracuda."
"We are an MST and we do not pay for the solution. However, the price of the solution could be better."
"Our clients normally use the Microsoft E1 licensing, which is renewed yearly."
"The pricing is in the middle. It isn't too cheap or expensive compared to other antivirus or security products. It is priced according to industry standards."
"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."
"It has fair pricing. You pay for what you get. As far as I know, there are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fee."
"Microsoft offers bundle discounts and a pay-as-you-go option."
"The price could be better and should be reconsidered."
"It has pretty good pricing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
48%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Government
4%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of variou...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
The pricing is reasonable since it comes integrated with our Office 365 license.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Sometimes, phishing emails manage to pass through the filter, so the system needs to enhance its phishing email detec...
What do you like most about Avanan?
Spam protection is the most valuable feature.
What needs improvement with Avanan?
Avanan doesn't cover certain tool segments. Barracuda provides backup and retention of emails and Microsoft 365’s bac...
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-nat...
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 notificatio...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Cloud App Security?
Honestly, it is expensive. I would rate the price as eight out of ten.
 

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
No data available
MS Cloud App Security, Microsoft Cloud App Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Bethel School District, ServiceSource, Capital Caring
Customers for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps include Accenture, St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and Nakilat.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Cisco, Fortinet and others in Email Security. Updated: November 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.