No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Secureworks Taegis XDR comparison

Why PeerSpot?
Sponsored
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Qualys TotalCloud
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (10th), Container Security (11th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (8th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (8th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (2nd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (7th)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (6th), Container Management (6th), Container Security (4th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (4th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (7th), Microsoft Security Suite (7th), Compliance Management (4th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (3rd)
Secureworks Taegis XDR
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Network Detection and Response (NDR) (8th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud10.7%
Wiz8.6%
AWS GuardDuty8.0%
Other72.7%
Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
Extended Detection and Response (XDR) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Secureworks Taegis XDR1.2%
SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint6.4%
Wazuh5.4%
Other87.0%
Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2859021 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Risk-based triage has transformed container security and now prioritizes high-impact threats
The best features Qualys TotalCloud offers currently include managing cloud infrastructure and container security while facing major challenges such as alert fatigue. Traditional vulnerability scanners flag hundreds of CVEs on short-lived Kubernetes containers, some of which have no internet exposure or are gone before we can even triage them. I leverage Qualys TotalCloud to move beyond static CVSS. I use it to implement runtime exposure, correlation risk reprioritization, and shift-left integration. This notifies developers to fix a base image upstream rather than patching live ephemeral instances. In my work with cloud and container security, the biggest operational hurdle was alert fatigue. I use Qualys to shift left from static CVSS severity to context-aware risk prioritization. I correlated raw vulnerability data with real-time risk factors such as public network exposure, active runtime execution, or overly permissive IAM roles. This allows us to immediately drop the priority of isolated containers and escalate lower-severity CVEs that sit on an exposed, high-risk path. We can map these findings directly back to our CI/CD pipelines so developers can patch the root base images upstream. We have drastically cut down the signal-to-noise ratio, saved a lot of manual hours doing triage work, and ensured engineering effort goes directly towards high-impact risk reduction.
RW
Head Of IT at Cirrus Response
Cloud security has cut investigation time and now reveals threats faster but needs simpler oversight
When deploying AI applications, my key security concerns with Microsoft Defender for Cloud are data loss, leakage of data, and guardrails around the actual AI, and I am hoping that this is going to help me put those guardrails in place and identify data exfiltration. Microsoft Defender for Cloud has not helped me manage and secure multi-cloud environments, as we are 100 percent Microsoft and have not really got it in any other environment at all. I am not yet using the unified AI-powered security feature offered by Microsoft Defender for Cloud, but that is coming. I am not yet using the integrated XDR feature of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, but that is coming. I am not yet utilizing the GenAI threat protection features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud. That is also coming and a lot of that will come from learning it here. I have enabled the agentless scanning in my cloud environment with Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Assessing the impact on my workload protection without needing to install agents with Microsoft Defender for Cloud makes it a lot easier, but it also identifies a lot more, which puts more load on me sometimes. I would advise another organization considering Microsoft Defender for Cloud that it is the most logical route to follow if their whole ecosystem is Microsoft. It is easy to implement and it is very self-explanatory when doing it, making sense to just follow the steps as it is too simple, really. I would rate this review a 7.5 out of 10.
Mohammad Jundiah - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at Qatar Datamation Systems
Centralized monitoring has strengthened threat hunting and improved ransomware protection
Threat hunting and SOC augmentation represent the most special features about Secureworks Taegis XDR, where some of the best people in cybersecurity proactively search, provide reports, and deliver indicators of compromise for any activity in your network. This monitoring and reporting can be conducted weekly or monthly. Centralized security monitoring and reporting is one of the most valuable aspects, as security fundamentally revolves around compliance. Having a centralized security monitoring platform that detects endpoints, networks, and cloud environments, including servers and switches, is essential. Secureworks Taegis XDR's architecture involves a collector device that collects all your data, even from small laptops, and allows you to monitor everything in one platform. This centralized system provides compliance and security visibility, ensuring evidence and visibility for your security and any compliance requirements you have. Analytics with Secureworks Taegis XDR give you a full preview of everything on your device. It takes all the inputs and outputs of your infrastructure; for example, if it is a firewall, it scans all of the traffic. While it is not a SIEM, it is an open XDR, which excels at conducting analytics. This represents one of its best features because Secureworks has implemented a machine learning model that can detect and analyze everything independently, providing AI-driven features. Integration with third-party tools is quite seamless. Secureworks Taegis XDR can integrate with virtually anything. One of the best features of this product is its integration capabilities with multiple sources of EDRs and any operating system, whether protecting Linux or Windows servers. It boasts very good integration, and if a specific integration is not available, you can raise a ticket to Secureworks, and they will work on your integration, whatever it is, even if it is custom-built software. Secureworks Taegis XDR absolutely aids in efficiency. SOC augmentation extends an organization's existing SOC, which helps reduce alert fatigue significantly. It provides additional threat intelligence and expert investigation, making it very useful for organizations that have a security team but lack twenty-four seven coverage.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Qualys TotalCloud has significantly reduced our workload in terms of managing risks, helping us to be more efficient and save substantial resources."
"Qualys TotalCloud's most valuable feature is its agent versatility."
"By integrating TotalCloud, we have significantly reduced vulnerabilities in our deployment pipeline."
"I would recommend Qualys TotalCloud to other users because it is cost-efficient and has a good return on investment."
"TotalCloud's best feature is the integration of cloud accounts. It helps with the risk and security posture management of our cloud infrastructure."
"The most valuable feature is the consolidated information that it provides from various platforms."
"While automatic inventory detection upon connection is a helpful feature, a truly valuable capability would be assessing an environment's security posture against Azure and CIS best practices."
"One of Qualys' best features is its categorization, which allows us to see the types of assets, their security postures, and the AI-powered version of the tool."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is its ability to assess an environment and give us a clear idea of what security components are lacking and which are not."
"It is very scalable, the product has been very easy to use and simple to set up, the maintenance and updating are part of the service so that brings great value, it's a stable product, technical support is helpful, and it's got a lot of great features."
"It is very intuitive when it comes to policy administration, alerts and notifications, and ease of setting up roles at different hierarchies. It has also been good in terms of the network technology maps. It provides a good overview, but it also depends on the complexity of your network."
"Everything is built into Azure, and if we go for cross-cloud development with Azure Arc, we can use most of the features. While it's possible to deploy and convert third-party applications, it is difficult to maintain, whereas Azure deployments to the cloud are always easier. Also, Microsoft is a big company, so they always provide enough support, and we trust the Microsoft brand."
"Azure Security Center helped us in recovering from our mistake."
"The features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud that I like the most are the regulatory compliance capabilities; these features have benefited my organization by improving our overall security posture."
"Most importantly, it's an integrated solution. We not only have Defender for Cloud, but we also have Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Office 365, and Defender for Identity. It's an integrated, holistic solution."
"The most valuable feature is the recommendations provided on how to improve security. It has made the cloud environment more secure, thanks to all the recommendations we can get."
"It's a complete solution package."
"Sophos is a good XDR, and I recommend it for large companies since they have approximately 2,000 or 3,000 devices and can implement it as it is the best XDR."
"The features I find most valuable are the fact that Secureworks Taegis XDR runs itself without any form of intervention."
"The auto-triage feature of Secureworks Taegis XDR makes my workflow easier and efficient, helping me shorten the time of responding to every alert, make my activities productive, and manage everything that I need to check every alert and detection."
"Definitely, Secureworks Taegis XDR is cost effective for the long run since the product is at a lower cost rather than other brands."
"The price for Secureworks Taegis XDR is very competitive."
"Secureworks Taegis XDR has positively impacted our organization by improving detection rates and reducing our time; as I mentioned, it saves us from manually going through all the logs, which is not practical."
"Threat hunting and SOC augmentation represent the most special features about Secureworks Taegis XDR, where some of the best people in cybersecurity proactively search, provide reports, and deliver indicators of compromise for any activity in your network."
 

Cons

"Qualys's ticketing system can be confusing when assigning tasks to individuals, and support could be improved by offering instant call solutions with engineers in addition to ticket replies."
"It is already perfect, but they can bring some newer dashboards and customization options for the dashboard. It would be great to be able to include on-prem assets on the dashboard."
"To improve the user experience, reporting could be simplified for better comprehension by end users and project managers, facilitating issue resolution."
"We encountered challenges identifying the correct resource category for certain items, such as those in containers or storage."
"In terms of improvement, remediation still belongs to the cloud team, which is one of the issues we faced with Qualys TotalCloud."
"The vulnerability part is good, but the policy compliance module needs improvement because it involves a lot of manual work. Specifically, the remediation part of the controls requires enhancements."
"I would appreciate additional integration options to connect Qualys TotalCloud with our other vulnerability management tools."
"It has been working very well, but it would be helpful if the dashboard could generate reports tailored to specific compliance needs. For example, in India, we have to comply with RBI and SEBI guidelines. It w"
"Support needs to be highly responsive, especially in large enterprise environments."
"My experience with Microsoft Defender for Cloud has been largely negative due to a poor user experience."
"Another thing that could be improved was that they could recommend processes on how to react to alerts, or recommend best practices based on how other organizations do things if they receive an alert about XYZ."
"One of the main challenges that we have been facing with Azure Security Center is the cost."
"Microsoft Defender for Cloud can be improved because many of the functions involve multiple places to accomplish the same task, which can make it convoluted."
"I would suggest building a single product that addresses endpoint server protection, attack surface, and everything else in one solution. That is the main disadvantage with the product. If we are incorporating some features, we end up in a situation where this solution is for the server, and that one is for the client, or this is for identity, and that is for our application. They're not bundling it. Commercially, we can charge for different licenses, but on the implementation side, it's tough to help our end-customer understand which product they're getting."
"However, some Copilot features aren't available in the GCP environment. This is something we hope will be addressed in the future."
"I would like to see more connectors and plugins with other platforms."
"The efficiency or the smooth navigation of the website or the application can be improved in Secureworks Taegis XDR."
"Secureworks Taegis XDR is a good product, but it should include AI technology."
"We found limitations in the XDR's detections, lacking the ability to create customized detection and log parsing rules."
"I do not see any other problems with Secureworks Taegis XDR besides pricing."
"Customer support for Secureworks Taegis XDR is not that bad; they are reachable but not super efficient."
"To improve Secureworks Taegis XDR, we need to enhance the support part."
"One negative aspect I always hear from customers is about the cost."
"The pricing could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It isn't cheap, but it's reasonable. It helps us to manage things with very few resources."
"TotalCloud's price is about right where I would expect it to be."
"Its price seems higher compared to other tools, but it is worth it. If they could adjust the pricing and make it comparable with other tools, that would be great."
"The pricing for TotalCloud is attractive and competitive in the market. Given the features, especially the dashboard, I have no concerns regarding pricing."
"Although Qualys TotalCloud is relatively expensive due to its unique automation features, its cost-effectiveness is rated an eight out of ten, with ten being the most costly."
"Qualys TotalCloud is expensive."
"Qualys TotalCloud offers good pricing that is affordable and competitive with the market. Our partnership also provides us with additional benefits."
"Qualys TotalCloud is cost-efficient and was selected for its value compared to other products."
"Microsoft Defender for Cloud is pricey, especially for Kubernetes clusters."
"I am not involved in this area. However, I believe its price is okay because even small customers are using Azure Security Center. I don't think it is very expensive."
"Microsoft's licensing and pricing are sometimes complicated. If someone is new to Microsoft's licensing, they might have difficulty with it."
"The price of the solution is good for the features we receive and there is an additional cost for Microsoft premier support. However, some of my potential customers have found it to be expensive and have gone on to choose another solution."
"Pricing depends on your workload size, but it is very cheap. If you're talking about virtual machines, it is $5 or something for each machine, which is minimal. If you go for some agent-based solution for every virtual machine, then you need to pay the same thing or more than that. For an on-premises solution like this, we were paying around $30 to $50 based on size. With Defender, Microsoft doesn't bother about the size. You pay based on the number of machines. So, if you have 10 virtual machines, and 10 virtual machines are being monitored, you are paying based on that rather than the size of the virtual machine. Thus, you are paying for the number of units rather than paying for the size of your units."
"Defender's basic version is free, which is good. Many of our teams are evaluating the paid version against third-party products."
"The cost is fair. There aren't any costs in addition to the standard licensing fee."
"I'm not privy to that information, but I know it's probably close to a million dollars a year."
"The pricing is six out of ten."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) solutions are best for your needs.
914,322 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
16%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise34
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise49
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?
In terms of improvement, remediation still belongs to the cloud team, which is one of the issues we faced with Qualys...
What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?
My main use case for Qualys TotalCloud is regarding the cloud visibility that we were not having previously. Previous...
How is Prisma Cloud vs Azure Security Center for security?
Azure Security Center is very easy to use, integrates well, and gives very good visibility on what is happening acros...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Cloud?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing was that the license cost was the only consideration. Setup an...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Cloud?
To improve Microsoft Defender for Cloud, I think pricing-wise, the license price is a little bit higher from an inges...
What needs improvement with Secureworks Taegis XDR?
If there were a next release of the product, I would like to see an increase in playbooks, specifically for augmentat...
What is your primary use case for Secureworks Taegis XDR?
Clients are primarily using Secureworks Taegis XDR for securing endpoints, networks, and extending to cloud, identity...
What advice do you have for others considering Secureworks Taegis XDR?
One of the best features of this product is its integration capabilities with multiple sources of EDRs and any operat...
 

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan
Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender
Secureworks Taegis NDR
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is trusted by companies such as ASOS, Vatenfall, SWC Technology Partners, and more.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Wiz, SentinelOne and others in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP). Updated: September 2026.
914,322 professionals have used our research since 2012.