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Cisco Umbrella vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 24, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

No sentiment score available
Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Umbrella improves ROI through enhanced security, operational efficiency, cost savings, and increased satisfaction, driving continued license renewals.
Sentiment score
7.7
Organizations save up to 60% and improve security by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps integrated with Microsoft 365.
The biggest return on investment so far has been visibility, knowing what we have in our environment.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.5
Iboss customer service is praised for responsiveness, knowledge, efficiency, excellent support, proactive problem-solving, and dedicated account management.
Sentiment score
8.0
Cisco Umbrella's customer service is praised for efficiency, professionalism, and excellent technical support, with some room for response improvement.
Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps support is knowledgeable but varies in response time and experience, with efficient chat praise.
They are very fast, responsive, and knowledgeable.
I would rate customer support ten out of ten due to the excellent assistance throughout the POC process.
Cisco's support is fantastic, providing assistance when needed, especially during the initial installation process.
Their customer service is pretty good, but it's frustrating to go through three or four channels before reaching the right person.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
iBoss provides scalable solutions for seamless bandwidth adjustment, supporting global expansion and efficient management of significant user loads.
Sentiment score
8.1
Cisco Umbrella offers seamless scalability and integration, supporting various organizational sizes and global user bases without infrastructure challenges.
Sentiment score
8.3
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps offers scalable security, seamless integration, and centralized management for enterprises, supporting complex environments effortlessly.
We have flexibility with our primary and backup nodes if there's a large amount of web traffic.
Cisco Umbrella is scalable for our company.
It is a scalable solution but requires improvement in specific areas.
For what I know about the log collector and how much data it can take in, it is super scalable and capable of handling high workloads.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
iboss is highly stable with minimal issues; cloud transition improves performance, earning high stability ratings from users.
Sentiment score
8.3
Cisco Umbrella is praised for strong stability, exceptional uptime, and minimal issues, earning high ratings from satisfied users.
Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is highly stable, with users generally reporting reliable performance and minimal downtime.
We've experienced zero downtime.
I have not experienced any major stability issues with Cisco Umbrella.
Like any other Microsoft product, the uptime is good.
 

Room For Improvement

IBoss users seek improved reporting, security features, cloud integration, higher network capacity, intuitive configurations, and more efficient customer support.
Users seek improvements for Cisco Umbrella in integration, analytics, security features, user interface, IPv6 support, licensing, and compatibility.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps needs improved integration, enhanced features, better support, competitive pricing, and more robust reporting and automation.
It is not as intuitive as the rest of the platform.
Making it more flexible and easy to deploy, particularly when integrating with other technologies like Active Directory and proxies, would be beneficial.
The product can only shield a small area, making it less effective for larger spaces or multiple users.
We are having trouble with our continuous reporting configuration and struggling with configuring the collector properly with our log parsing.
 

Setup Cost

Iboss offers competitive, transparent pricing with a per-user model, simplifying cost forecasting and enhancing budget predictability for enterprises.
Cisco Umbrella pricing is seen as mixed, offering flexible plans but sometimes considered costly compared to competitors.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps offers valuable integration and discounts, making it cost-effective for enterprises despite its perceived high pricing.
It offers the same features you would get from a vendor that charges 250,000 British pounds for a fraction of the price.
The only cost associated is the license cost unless additional solutions need to be integrated with Umbrella, which would incur extra costs.
 

Valuable Features

Iboss provides scalable cloud security with advanced features like content filtering, SSL inspection, and seamless integration, enhancing user protection.
Cisco Umbrella provides DNS-based network security, blocking threats, enhancing productivity, and offering seamless integration and comprehensive threat protection.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps offers efficient management, threat detection, integration with Microsoft tools, and comprehensive cloud security oversight.
The solution's mental health function can detect if someone needs help.
The DNS layer security provided by Cisco Umbrella is very effective for our security posture, offering us vast improvements in visibility over DNS queries and potential threats.
The firewall and integration capability with other security solutions are valuable for effective security management.
We have also locked down our consent apps, so users can no longer consent on their own behalf to create apps in our environment.
 

Categories and Ranking

iboss
Sponsored
Ranking in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (13th), Internet Security (4th), Web Content Filtering (4th), ZTNA as a Service (12th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (10th)
Cisco Umbrella
Ranking in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
111
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (1st), Internet Security (1st), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (3rd), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (1st), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd)
Microsoft Defender for Clou...
Ranking in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (13th), Microsoft Security Suite (11th)
 

Featured Reviews

Jack Hamm - PeerSpot reviewer
We experienced benefits immediately but the report generation is lagging
iboss excels on the networking side but lags slightly behind competitors like Zscaler and Netskope in terms of security feature parity. I'd like to see them accelerate development on the security side, particularly around data loss prevention. Using iboss for DLP instead of traditional endpoint solutions is preferable, but its current feature set requires some clunky workarounds. I'd also like to see better integration of DLP into the platform. Additionally, while it's improving, reporting can be slow at times. This is problematic when generating reports for executives who expect them immediately. I'd like to see further improvements in reporting speed and efficiency.
Rohan Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Protects endpoints wherever they are, always pushing people to the right locations to avoid malicious intent
The most valuable thing is how easy it is to deploy. We did it with 9,000 users at my last job, and it took a week to get to all the endpoints. Doing that without having to physically touch all those endpoints was very simple. The single pane of glass management makes it very easy to manage your rollout. We get a lot of "single panes of glass" and, eventually, you need a pane of panes of glass. But it's always good to have a clear and graphical view, and Umbrella's is nice and easy to read. Definitely, of the panes of glass that we do have, it's one of the easiest to use. The single pane of glass is good to group users together and separate people out. Some people need different types of security. Some people are more vulnerable. Some have more highly valuable assets, like C-suite people. It's really good to be able to have end-users defined inside of that. You don't have to jump around. You don't have to figure out who's who. It's all done through one pane of glass. What most people don't realize is that it's running in the background, which is a really nice aspect when it comes to security. Often, when you deploy a security tool, it takes up CPU performance. Everything slows to a grind. But Umbrella is so simple and easy and it doesn't affect the end-user experience. It's the best of all worlds. It's nice when people realize that they're being protected when they go to the wrong site. I think people are happy that they're protected, but it's nice that they rarely notice it. It's generally easy to maintain network connectivity, but with Umbrella, the nice part is that whichever connectivity you're on, you're always secure. With Umbrella, as long as you're online, you're going to be protected.
Anthony Alvarico - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
23%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

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...
Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Zscaler?
Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access are two broad-spectrum Internet security solutions that I have tried. Zs...
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 Cisco Umbrella?
Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy.
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.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Cloud App Security?
The product is very good so far, however, it would be better if it could include more up-to-date threat protection.
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
OpenDNS
MS Cloud App Security, Microsoft Cloud App Security
 

Overview

 

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.
Chart Industries, City of Aspen, Eastern Mountain Sports, FLEXcon, George Washington University, Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, Ohio Public Library Information Network, PTC, Richland Community College, Smart Motors, Tulane University, VeriClaim
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 Cisco Umbrella vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.