Azure Bastion vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps comparison

Azure Bastion and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps are both solutions in the Microsoft Security Suite category. Azure Bastion is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.9, while Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.6. Azure Bastion holds a 1.6% mindshare in Microsoft Security Suite, compared to Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Azure Bastion users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps users who would recommend it.

Azure Bastion

Read 9 Azure Bastion reviews

1,819 Views
872 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender for Clou...

Read 33 Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps reviews

1,374 Views
1,121 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Azure Bastion

Microsoft Defender for Clou...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Azure Bastion and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Bastion vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Azure Bastion

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

17th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (28th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (7th)

Microsoft Defender for Clou...

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

11th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (4th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (13th)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Azure Bastion is 1.6%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is 2.2%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsoft Security Suite

Featured Reviews

Aladin Steiner

Head of Value Stream Azure at SmartIT Services AG

Has good scalability and provides secure access to the virtual machines

The product improved the security posture of our organization. We don’t have open ports and connect them to servers using it. We can carry out two-factor authentication to protect the devices with conditional access features. It would be nice to have a feature to copy and paste the files into servers. I rate the product a nine out of ten.

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Anthony Alvarico

Deliver Practice Director at DynTek

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.

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

"The solution's most valuable feature is that it is easy to use...It is modernized, so I can create complex infrastructures."

"The product's setup is easy."

"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 interface is available in the edit portal."

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

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

"The connection to virtual machines is very useful."

More Azure Bastion pros

"There are a lot of features with benefits, including discovery, investigation, and putting controls around things. You can't say that you like the investigation part but not the discovery. Everything is correlated; that's how the tool works."

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

"All of the features are valuable because all of the features are related."

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

"The most valuable feature is its policy implementation."

"It is very easy to use, which is what we look for in these types of solutions."

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

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its monitoring."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pros

Cons

"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 protocol speed could be faster."

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

"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."

"Speaking of AI, having Microsoft Copilot in Azure Bastion would be good."

"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."

"The solution breaks down sometimes."

"You are charged for retrieving your own data."

"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."

"I want them to enhance in-session policy."

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

"Defender for Cloud apps is primarily useful for Azure apps. It has limited capabilities for applications based on other cloud platforms."

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

"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."

"They need to improve the attack surface reduction (ASR) rules. In the latest version, you can implement ASR rules, which are quite useful, but you have to enable those because if they're not enabled, they flag false positives. In the Defender portal, it logs a block for WMI processes and PowerShell. Apparently, it's because ASR rules are not configured. So, you generally have to enable them to exclude, for example, WMI queries or PowerShell because they have a habit of blocking your security scanners. It's a bit weird that they have to be enabled to be configured, and it's not the other way around."

"This service would be better if it had a separate license, only for this service, that could be used to track usage."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is cheaply priced. I would say that the product is free to use."

"It does not save money for us."

"Azure Bastion's pricing is good."

"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."

"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."

"The pricing is a little bit high but right now, we are okay with it because of the compatibility with Office 365, Teams, and Azure AD."

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

"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 have an educational licensing agreement. It's a customer agreement for multiple years."

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

"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."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pricing and cost advice

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824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

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 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 tool is cheaply priced. I would say that the product is free to use.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Bastion?

I think the tool is pretty good. It is like having a tool that just works. If there are better tools that Azure comes up with, then that is a separate thing. In the current scenario, Azure Bastion ...

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?

Honestly, it is expensive. I would rate the price as eight out of ten.

See all answers

Comparisons

Azure Firewall vs Azure Bastion

Compared 29% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Azure Bastion

Compared 22% of the time

TeamViewer Remote Management vs Azure Bastion

Compared 10% of the time

Azure Web Application Firewall vs Azure Bastion

Compared 10% of the time

Zabbix vs Azure Bastion

Compared 4% 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 18% of the time

Netskope vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 12% of the time

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

Compared 7% of the time

Skyhigh Security vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Bastion

December 2024

Download Azure Bastion product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

December 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

December 2024

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

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