Axis Security vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps comparison

Axis Security vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

iboss

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) category, the mindshare of iboss is 1.8%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Axis Security is 2.7%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is 10.2%, down from 13.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford

Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water

It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless

One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured

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Robert Oglesbee

Solution Architect at Visionworks of America

Easy to deploy, improved reliability and performance of our connectivity, and greatly reduced costs

Atmos is good for securing infrastructure from end to end, detection and remediation of threats, but there may be a few features that could be added to make it a little easier for networking and security folks to analyze the traffic. There are bad actors out there and they may or may not show up through the tool. That's something they can add. They need to improve the networking and security tools a little in the troubleshooting and "bad-actor" areas to help us analyze security threats a little better. They have some things built in, but I would like to see more advanced tools. There are major vendors out there, and if you use their VPN connection that's not going to help you without buying one of their other products. So that's a similar type of situation. However, they do give you a little more bang for the buck when it comes to monitoring. So I can see an improvement there, in Atmos, in the future.

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Jagadeesh Gunasekaran

Cyber security engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Saves us time, has good visibility, and a single dashboard

The solution is user-friendly and provides great visibility into threats. There are easy options available for specific workflow inspections. We can also get support by going through the Microsoft documentation, which is straightforward. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps helps us prioritize threats across our enterprise. It covers us from a compliance perspective and protects our organization's data. Data protection is a very important aspect of any new organization, as we need to protect our data from both external attacks and insider threats. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps helps us monitor for abnormal activity by insiders, which is one of the most important access points for attackers today. Additionally, the different cloud apps that Defender for Cloud Apps supports provide us with much more visibility into potential threats and activities on the internet. We have integrated Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps alerts with Sentinel. The integration is straightforward. We can find the configuration details on Microsoft's official documentation website. If we are familiar with how Microsoft products work, we will be able to follow the instructions clearly. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps and Sentinel work natively together to deliver coordinated detection and response across our environment. Our integrated Microsoft solutions provide comprehensive threat protection, covering most of the tactics and techniques relevant to the MITRE ATT&CK framework. Sentinel allows us to ingest data from our entire ecosystem. When implementing an SIEM solution, there are always prerequisites such as Active Directory logs, security logs, firewall logs, and DNS logs. These are important logs that need to be ingested into the environment. Sentinel has many third-party connectors available that make integrations straightforward. Microsoft provides the configuration details in the Sentinel platform. It is important to integrate all relevant log sources into the SIEM solution so that we can detect and be alerted to any type of threat factor, whether it is from an internal or external source. Integrating third-party solutions into the platform requires a separate configuration, but Microsoft provides the necessary information. However, we need to have the appropriate permissions to execute these setups. Sentinel provides a centralized dashboard that covers threat management and configuration. It gives us complete insight into what entities are accessing, as well as full details for investigation. We can see how the alerts and threats are relevant to suspicious activities, whether they are related to malicious IP addresses, suspicious ASHAs, or any other indicators of compromise. All of this relevant data can be seen in a single pane. Recently, Microsoft introduced a new investigation experience in a single pane. This means that we can now get a lot of details in a single pane, without having to go there and execute a query. There are a lot of new insights being developed in the Sentinel platform these days. It has software intelligence. They recently introduced Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence, which covers almost all IOCs. This protects organizational assets from threats and suspicious traffic associated with IOCs. If a match is found, alerts are generated. This is a very interesting feature. Another great feature is automation and logic apps. We can create a number of operations, such as posting in a team's channel if a severe incident occurs or sending an email notification. There are many operations available, so we can automate a lot of tasks. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps helps us stay compliant. It has predefined mechanisms in place to prevent attacks. For example, if an external user tries to access our SharePoint folders or files, an attack will be blocked. This is why it is important to give appropriate access to guest users. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps has many features and benefits. It provides a number of policies that can be configured to meet the specific needs of our security team. These policies can be used to customize cloud applications so that only authorized users can access them and perform operations that benefit the organization. In terms of safety and security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is top-notch. Using the solution's automation features, we can suppress false positive alerts. We can also close alerts, lower their severity from "high" to "low" or "informational," or close them immediately with the appropriate commands. This will depend on the configuration automation rule and the perspective from which we are testing. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps provides a single console. We are also provided with Microsoft templates to enable workbooks instantly. Alternatively, we can build our own customized workbooks to provide better insights and improve our SOC efficiency and overall performance. Consolidating all of our security data into one dashboard has saved our security operations team a significant amount of time. From an analyst's perspective, it is now much easier to correlate events, investigate alerts, and visualize specific entities. For example, an analyst can quickly see all of the alerts associated with a particular IP address, or they can view all of the activity for a specific entity over the past 24 hours or 7 days. This level of detail and insight would not be possible if our data were siloed in multiple dashboards. The single dashboard saves our operations approximately 20 hours per week by eliminating the need to access multiple consoles and tabs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps threat intelligence can help us prepare for potential threats before they happen. However, it depends on how we develop the policies for the database to block or ignore things in our environment.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Its initial setup was straightforward."

"I would definitely recommend iboss for web filtering purposes to other organizations or individuals."

"Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss."

"iboss is pretty scalable. They provide good support. The case managers you work with to coordinate what you need are pretty good."

"Because of iboss, I did not have to assign web filtering tasks to my techs on a daily basis."

"From a use-case scenario, what I like the most is the plug-in. I like the fact that we can do the filtering of these devices offsite independent of the network they are connected to, and we do not have to have traffic coming back inside our network."

"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device. It operates on the network side and is not device-based. This feature was one of the main reasons why we stayed with them for so long."

"The iboss system is highly reliable. The false positive rates are small compared to some other systems we've experienced through other partner agencies who use competing solutions."

More iboss pros

"The most valuable part so far has been Axis Security's ability to create identity connections to various servers, allowing users to access them. By doing so, we've managed to replace any old or existing VPN access with Axis Security. We are slowly but surely getting rid of our traditional VPN."

"The most valuable aspect is its ability to restrict unauthorized access, ensuring that only approved devices can connect to the network. T"

"I rate Axis Security ten out of ten."

"The way the access connectors work is valuable."

"I would give it an A-plus for securing access to our applications, devices, and network. It does an extremely good job. Our security folks have analyzed it and tried to find loopholes, but they found none."

"The entire suite and the entire ZTNA process are very valuable."

"The ability to sanction unsanctioned apps using Secure Score benchmarking, included in Cloud, is also beneficial."

"On-demand scanning is the most valuable feature. In addition, it's a fairly fluid product. It syncs back to the cloud and provides metrics. It's pretty intelligent."

"Defender for Cloud Apps has given us good visibility regarding what we've allowed into our environment until now."

"We have become more aware of what services our users are using, how often they are using them, and what data is being sent out of the organization and to which services. So, it is really a lot about visibility and helping us make decisions based on that. It drives some of our policy decisions for adding extra security controls."

"The most valuable feature is the seamless integration across different clouds."

"The general usability of the solution is very straightforward."

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

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

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pros

Cons

"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."

"To scale up, a new iboss Node Blade Chassis must be purchased."

"I am currently doing a PoC of the zero trust aspect of it. Compared to other similar solutions, it is hard to get around each feature. It takes a while to get used to it."

"Iboss is growing so fast that it is often hard for them to keep up with the challenges."

"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."

"Sometimes when you call in support, you get someone who is just following a sheet. It feels like a runaround. You feel that you are running into that support wall."

"The reporting feature needs improvement. It doesn't give you the expected results. It is quite difficult to get the specific reports needed, and it is not as intuitive as the rest of the platform."

"Their on-premise hardware's network interface is capped at one gigabit, which is sort of a problem. If you stand a filter up where all traffic flows through that, according to them, in order to go above a gigabit, you have to have multiple devices, which in today's IT seems a little bit silly. They could easily put in an SFP port into their device that could accommodate 10 gigs or at least offer a box."

More iboss cons

"I would appreciate more automated learning capabilities or increased integration with other security tools, allowing us to establish automation."

"I would like more statistics about what's going on in terms of usage. There is little-to-no usage reporting. That's one thing we've requested, and I think they're working on it."

"I would like more detailed logging in the Axis Security interface."

"The support team should be more skilled in offering assistance."

"They need to improve the networking and security tools a little in the troubleshooting and 'bad-actor' areas to help us analyze security threats a little better. They have some things built-in, but I would like to see more advanced tools."

"There should be a notification alarm with geofencing."

"The documentation could be improved as it is not updated immediately when Microsoft makes changes. Users must wait a few weeks for the changes to be reflected in the documentation."

"Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps' initial setup was quite technical but we were prepared. The time of the implementation depends on the job and how many users are being set up."

"The insights could be improved, especially in reporting. While it is possible for me to see the usage from different cloud apps, determining if critical data has been uploaded or if it is just normal transport data is difficult."

"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."

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

"We are having trouble with our continuous reporting configuration and struggling with configuring the collector properly with our log parsing."

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

"It doesn't actually decrease the time to respond. This has been an issue with Microsoft recently. Sometimes, there is a delay when it comes to getting an alert policy email... Sometimes it takes two or three hours for that email to be sent."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"The pricing is very competitive from what I've seen."

"The pricing is quite fair. It's better than what we gave up, which was Cisco AnyConnect."

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

"The product's pricing seems fair."

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

"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."

"It has pretty good pricing."

"Microsoft offers bundle discounts and a pay-as-you-go option."

"We utilize the Microsoft E5 licensing, which encompasses the entire Microsoft suite; however, it is costly."

"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 programs and license models. Some include this, and some include that. It is all over the place. There can be a little more consistency or simplification in the pricing so that your parts list is not ten pages long, and you are not trying to determine, "If I have an E3, does this cover that?", or "Do I need to pay separately for the license?" Simplification would probably be better."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pricing and cost advice

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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) solutions are best for your needs.

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845,849 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Educational Organization

14%

Retailer

University

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about iboss?

Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss.

What needs improvement with iboss?

I have the same complaint about them that I have about other software companies. Sometimes when you call in support, ...

What is your primary use case for iboss?

We are a PreK-12 public school district, and we use iboss to filter internet content for our students at home and sta...

What do you like most about Axis Security?

The most valuable aspect is its ability to restrict unauthorized access, ensuring that only approved devices can conn...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Axis Security?

The pricing is very competitive from what I've seen.

What needs improvement with Axis Security?

The support team should be more skilled in offering assistance.

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?

The pricing for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is acceptable. If a product is of high quality, it justifies the ex...

Zscaler Internet Access vs iboss

Comparisons

Compared 18% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 15% of the time

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 13% of the time

Cloudflare One vs iboss

Compared 12% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 9% of the time

More iboss Competitors

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs Axis Security

Compared 35% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Axis Security

Compared 15% of the time

Netskope vs Axis Security

Compared 13% of the time

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs Axis Security

Compared 7% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate SWG vs Axis Security

Compared 6% of the time

More Axis Security Competitors

Zscaler Internet Access vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 22% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 16% of the time

Netskope vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 13% of the time

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

Compared 6% of the time

Skyhigh Security vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 6% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Competitors

Product Reports

iboss

Download iboss product report

Download Axis Security product report

Axis Security

April 2025

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps product report

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

No data available

MS Cloud App Security, Microsoft Cloud App Security

Overview

iboss offers a comprehensive security platform designed for diverse use cases such as web filtering, data loss protection, corporate proxy services, and URL filtering.

iboss integrates advanced features to address dynamic security needs, leveraging its strength in SASE, ZTNA, AI initiatives, and cloud integration, while ensuring seamless operations for remote work. It excels in historical forensics, malware protection, and flexible cloud deployments. Users benefit from comprehensive traffic scanning, robust malware detection, and PaaS capabilities that reduce hardware management. An intuitive admin console ensures efficient management with content filtering and low false positives. SSL decryption enhances security, while DLP protects data in AI conversations. Deployment is rapid and scalable, allowing effortless integration with emerging technologies.

What features does iboss offer?

Granular Web Filtering: Provides precise control over web content access.
Traffic Scanning: Monitors data through multiple ports for security breaches.
Malware Detection: Ensures superior protection against malware threats.
PaaS Capabilities: Eliminates need for hardware management.
SSL Decryption: Enhances data protection by decrypting secure connections.
DLP Capabilities: Safeguards data during AI interactions.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Scalability: Adapts quickly to growing demands and emerging tech integration.
Rapid Deployment: Reduces time to implement security measures.
User-Friendly Admin Console: Facilitates efficient operations management.
Low False Positives: Increases accuracy of threat detection systems.

iboss finds significant application in sectors such as education, where web filtering for K-12 is crucial, and in corporate environments requiring robust proxy services and URL filtering for network security. Its adaptability is essential in scenarios demanding flexible, decentralized security frameworks, particularly for remote work setups.

iboss

Axis Security is a prominent enterprise security solution, specializing in Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). The Axis Security Application Access Cloud platform is designed to secure remote access to applications and services hosted in the cloud or on-premises. It aims to simplify and enhance access controls while maintaining strong security measures.

Axis Security's platform stands out by offering a comprehensive, cloud-native solution designed to enable secure access to private applications. Their Application Access Cloud simplifies network security, eliminating the need for traditional VPNs, and provides a more secure and efficient way to connect users to private applications, regardless of where the users or the applications are located.

Axis Security users on PeerSpot have highlighted the ease of deployment and the non-intrusive nature of Axis Security's solution as major advantages. One IT Director noted, "The implementation was straightforward and didn’t disrupt our existing operations, which was a major plus." Another user, a Security Manager, praised the platform's robust security features, saying, "Axis Security has significantly enhanced our ability to control and monitor application access, giving us peace of mind in our security operations."

Axis Security follows the principles of zero-trust architecture, which means it treats every access request as potentially untrusted, regardless of the user's location or network. It applies rigorous authentication and authorization controls to ensure only authorized users can access specific applications and resources. Axis Security enables secure remote access to applications and services without requiring a VPN (Virtual Private Network). It establishes a secure connection between users and applications, protecting against potential threats and reducing the attack surface.

With Axis Security, organizations can granularly control user access to specific applications or services. This ensures that users only have access to the resources they need, reducing the risk of unauthorized access or data breaches. The platform simplifies access management by providing a centralized control point for managing user access policies. IT administrators can define access rules based on user roles, groups, or other criteria, making it easier to enforce security policies and maintain compliance.

Axis Security continuously monitors user activity and application access, detecting potential threats and anomalies in real-time. It provides insights into user behavior, allowing organizations to identify and mitigate security risks promptly.

Axis Security is built on a cloud-native architecture, allowing it to scale and adapt to dynamic cloud environments. It can seamlessly integrate with various cloud services and supports hybrid deployments, making it suitable for organizations with diverse infrastructure setups.

Axis Security aims to provide secure and simplified remote access to applications while adhering to the principles of zero trust. By implementing granular access controls and continuous monitoring, it helps organizations protect their critical resources and reduce the risk of unauthorized access or data breaches.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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".

Microsoft

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

Cardenas Markets, Armis, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Visionworks

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

Axis Security vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps