Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection comparison

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs. Microsoft Purview Information Protection

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Helped 814,649 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Clou...

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

11th

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (4th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (12th)

Microsoft Purview Informati...

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

21st

Average Rating

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Governance (9th), Data Privacy Management Software (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is 2.0%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Information Protection is 1.2%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsoft Security Suite

Featured Reviews

Anthony Alvarico

Deliver Practice Director at DynTek

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.

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Nagendra Nekkala.

Senior Manager ICT & at Bangalore International Airport Limited

Dec 15, 2023

Effectively controls and classifies sensitive information, providing robust protection for our documents and emails

When implementing Microsoft Purview Information Protection, I aimed to automatically classify sensitive data and ensure its protection. The goal was to streamline the process of identifying and securing sensitive information to enhance overall data security measures. Microsoft Purview Information Protection has significantly improved our company by ensuring data security across all locations. I no longer worry about the safety of my data, especially sensitive information. Whether it is critical or not, the system reliably protects our information without any concerns. It has saved us time overall. We are looking at a time savings of around two to three hours a day. It also helped us save money, especially considering the high cost associated with data. Ensuring that our data is secure and not at risk has translated into significant internal cost savings.

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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

"One of the most valuable features is auditing. Some of the other protection services have issues with auditing. Microsoft Defender for Cloud has an excellent auditing technique that helps us avoid the risk of filtering or information loss. You can use different tools to guarantee these things. It allows you to conduct an in-depth exploration of applications, users, and files that are harmful or suspicious. You can also enhance your security setup by creating personalized rules or policies that help you better control traffic in the cloud."

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

"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."

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

"The most valuable feature is its policy implementation."

"Threat detection is its key feature, and that's why we use this tool. It gives an alert if a PC is attacked or there is any kind of anomaly, such as there is a spike in sending emails or we see an unauthorized website being accessed. So, it keeps us on our toes. We get to know that there is something wrong, and we can isolate the user and find any issues with it. So, threat detection is very robust in this tool."

"The product’s most valuable feature is SQL database."

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

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pros

"I created training materials for end users on applying different labels, explaining their purposes, and providing examples. This was crucial since end users would apply the labels in different protection scenarios. The implementation helped the organization in several ways."

"Before using it, we had a lot of unlabeled data, and the tool helped us quickly and accurately label a large number of documents."

"It ensures that sensitive data is automatically safeguarded, even for email attachments, regardless of the user or device."

"Incorporating data loss prevention capabilities built into the Microsoft platform to endpoints, such as Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers, can also help prevent data loss and is highly advantageous."

"We use the solution for our customers' services. It helps identify and protect sensitive data in documents, PDFs, emails, and Teams chats to prevent data leakage. It can detect and block emails containing credit card information sent outside the organization."

"The UI is user-friendly, and I have observed that it improves further each year."

"We can restrict access or specify who can see sensitivity labels, which can be based on the classification level. We can encrypt restricted content and limit who can see that from an internal view, too, so Purview is a powerful tool."

Cons

"The interface needs to be more user-friendly."

"I would like more customization of notifications. Currently, you either get everything or you get limited information. I would like to have something in between where we can customize the data that is included in notifications."

"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."

"Defender for Cloud Apps could come with more configured policies out of the box. Also, integration could be easier. Integration is moderately difficult because Microsoft hasn't developed a solution that unifies device onboarding and management. You have to use Intune to manage devices and Defender for Endpoint to enforce policies. They need to fix their integration, but I believe they will straighten it out by the end of the year."

"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."

"Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps’s technical support services needs improvement."

"Sometimes, we'll get false positive alarms. For example, when a SharePoint path has no file sharing, but there is an external user, it will trigger an alarm that the file has been shared with an external user... the alerting mechanism should be more precise when giving you an alert about what activity has been done with the file..."

"The response time could be better. It will be helpful if the alerts are even more proactive and we can see more data. Currently, the data is a little bit weak. It is not complete. I can't just see it and completely know which user or which device it is. It takes some effort and time on my part to investigate and isolate a user. It would be great if it is more user-friendly or easy for people to understand."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps cons

"There is room for improvement with the policy tips feature."

"Microsoft Purview Information Protection can improve in terms of scan concurrency and scan processing time."

"Microsoft can improve the affordability of Purview Information Protection by offering it at a lower cost."

"There is potential for more integration in the use of AI."

"I wouldn't recommend Microsoft Purview Information Protection for petabytes of documents as performance might be affected."

"Our primary concern is third-party application visibility. Many people choose other DLP tools, as they can search the Office 365 suite and detect sensitive information across thousands of other apps. The product is weak compared to the competitors on the DLP front, but the classification is good; the tool needs a bit more maturation."

"I had experience with previous versions of Microsoft Purview Information Protection as well. The new version doesn't have all the features that were present in the previous native clients and functionalities. For example, the ability to track documents - knowing where your document is, who is accessing it, when and where. You could even revoke access to a particular document if needed, which was a cool feature. These aren't available right now, although Microsoft is working on bringing them back, which might take some time."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

"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 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."

"The product's pricing seems fair."

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

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

"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."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pricing and cost advice

"The product is affordable, and our clients agree. Sensitivity labels come with the MIP license at an additional $2 a month per user, an excellent deal for auto-labeling capabilities."

"The price is determined by the enterprise licensing, either the E3 or E5 licensing or the EMS plus security and other feature licensing."

"The tool's pricing is fairly low, less than 100,000 for a year."

"The tool's pricing is not a problem for customers because they often purchase it as part of a bundle. With an E5 license, for example, users get access to the entire functionality. This is one of the main reasons why many customers are choosing Microsoft."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

12%

Retailer

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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...

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.

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

It's relatively low-cost, especially since it's often bundled with Microsoft 365.

What do you like most about Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

It ensures that sensitive data is automatically safeguarded, even for email attachments, regardless of the user or device.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

The tool's pricing is not a problem for customers because they often purchase it as part of a bundle. With an E5 license, for example, users get access to the entire functionality. This is one of t...

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

I had experience with previous versions of Microsoft Purview Information Protection as well. The new version doesn't have all the features that were present in the previous native clients and funct...

Zscaler Internet Access vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Comparisons

Compared 24% 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

Varonis Platform vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Compared 18% of the time

Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Defender XDR vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Compared 11% of the time

Securiti vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Compared 10% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Compared 9% of the time

More Microsoft Purview Information Protection Competitors

Product Reports

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps product report

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps report

Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Download Microsoft Purview Information Protection product report

Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Also Known As

MS Cloud App Security, Microsoft Cloud App Security

Microsoft Information Protection

Learn More

Microsoft

Overview

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".

Implement Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) to help you discover, classify, and protect sensitive information wherever it lives or travels.

MIP capabilities are included with Microsoft 365 Compliance and give you the tools to know your data, protect your data, and prevent data loss.

To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs. Microsoft Purview Information Protection