Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Tanium comparison

Microsoft and Tanium are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Microsoft is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.1, while Tanium is ranked #22 with an average rating of 7.1. Additionally, 94% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 73% of Tanium users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Tanium and Microsoft Defender for Cloud are competing products in the endpoint security and cloud protection markets. Based on the data comparison, Microsoft Defender for Cloud has an advantage due to its integrated cloud services and expansive feature set, which provides more value for the investment.

Features: Tanium provides exceptional endpoint security through deep visibility and control, real-time data collection, and efficient incident response capabilities. Microsoft Defender for Cloud offers robust threat intelligence, seamless Azure integration, and a comprehensive suite of security tools designed for cloud environments. These features make Defender for Cloud better suited for cloud-focused security needs.

Room for Improvement: Tanium could improve its ease of use and streamline its deployment process to reduce the learning curve. Additionally, enhancing integration capabilities with third-party services would be beneficial. For Microsoft Defender for Cloud, expanding its strengths in endpoint security would provide a more balanced offering. It would also benefit from refining its multi-cloud support features and improving its threat detection precision to reduce false positives.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Tanium's deployment model is flexible but requires dedicated resources and a significant learning curve; however, it provides personalized support. Microsoft Defender for Cloud is straightforward to deploy, especially within Microsoft's ecosystem, and benefits from guided setup, extensive online resources, and robust support, making it more user-friendly in Azure environments.

Pricing and ROI: Tanium's higher upfront costs are offset by its capabilities in detailed data collection, offering substantial ROI through efficiency. Microsoft Defender for Cloud is cost-effective with cloud-native security features and integration benefits, providing significant ROI, particularly for organizations already utilizing Microsoft services. Despite the higher costs, Tanium's data visibility may justify the investment, while Defender for Cloud delivers strong ROI through its cloud features.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Tanium Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Tanium

March 2025

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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

Zafran Security

Featured Reviews

Israel Cavazos Landini

Associate Director IT Security Operations at Novartis

Weekly insights and risk analysis facilitate informed security decisions

I appreciate the weekly insights Zafran provides, which include critical topics for networks and IT security, allowing us to evaluate which insights apply to our environment. The organization score feature is valuable to keep the leadership team updated on how our infrastructure fares security-wise. The applicable risk level versus base risk level feature is beneficial because prior to Zafran, we only used the base risk level, but now understand that risk depends on the asset itself. Zafran is an excellent tool.

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Vibhor Goel

Senior Cloud Platform Engineer at Deutsche Börse

A single tool for complete visibility and addressing security gaps

Currently, issues are structured in Microsoft Defender for Cloud at severity levels of high, critical, or warning, but these severity levels are not always right. For example, Microsoft might consider a port being open as critical, but that might not be the case for our company. Similarly, it might suggest closing some management ports, but you might need them to be able to log in, so the severity levels for certain things can be improved. Even though Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides a way to temporarily disable certain alerts or notifications without affecting our security score, it would be better to have more granularized control over these recommendations. Currently, we cannot even disable certain alerts or notifications. There should be an automated mechanism to design Azure policies based on the recommendations, possibly with AI integration. Instead of an engineer having to write a policy to fix security gaps, which is very time-consuming, there should be an inbuilt capability to auto-remediate everything and have proper control in place. Additionally, enabling Defender for Cloud at the resource group level, rather than only at the subscription level, would be beneficial.

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Mo Vermeiren

Cybersecurity Business & Technology Consultant at Capgemini

Is able to make several campaigns work in parallel, but the user interface needs improvement

It's mainly used by the cybersecurity team for Windows patching and deployment of some software solutions I like the fact that you can create patching campaigns depending on the area of your network that you want to address first. I like the ability it has to make several campaigns that work in…

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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

"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."

"Zafran is an excellent tool."

"Using Security Center, you have a full view, at any given time, of what's deployed, and that is something that is very useful."

"The solution's robust security posture is the most valuable feature."

"The most valuable feature is the hunting feature, which integrates well into the entire Microsoft ecosystem."

"One important security feature is the incident alerts. Now, with all these cyberattacks, there are a lot of incident alerts that get triggered. It is very difficult to keep monitoring everything automatically, instead our organization is utilizing the automated use case that we get from Microsoft. That has helped bring down the manual work for a lot of things."

"Provides a very good view of the entire security setup of your organization."

"The pricing is good."

"It isn't a highly complex solution. It's something that a lot of analysts can use. Defender gives you a broad overview of what's happening in your environment, and it's a great solution if you're a Microsoft shop."

"Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a valuable tool that integrates seamlessly with Azure Policy and our Security SIEM, simplifying implementation and enhancing security posture."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pros

"Tanium's most valuable features are patch management, inventory, and distribution software."

"Tanium has made the process of detecting threats more proactive with its detection. So, the process is easier and more efficient."

"I'm not so familiar with the tool but I like the interaction of the console to the picture. Patching is the primary model I have been focusing on for the last couple of weeks. So I have created a proof of concept environment and have been checking the available features."

"The product is granular and can build complex roles compared to other EDR vendors."

"The interrogation piece was the most valuable feature because it was very detailed."

"For incident response tasks, all these tasks can get done in minutes with minimal disruption to the end-user."

"The security features are very valuable."

"I like the fact that you can create patching campaigns depending on the area of your network that you want to address first. I like the ability it has to make several campaigns that work in parallel."

More Tanium pros

Cons

"Initially, we were somewhat concerned about the scalability of Zafran due to our large asset count and the substantial amount of information we needed to process."

"If a customer is already using Okta as an SSO in its entire environment, they will want to continue with it. But Security Center doesn't understand that and keeps making recommendations. It would help if it let us resolve a recommendation, even if it is not implemented."

"The overview provides you with good information, but if you want more details, there is a lot more customization to do, which requires knowledge of the other supporting solutions."

"I would like to see better automation when it comes to pushing out security features to the recommendations, and better documentation on the step-by-step procedures for enabling certain features."

"Microsoft Graph needs improvement."

"Microsoft Defender could be more centralized. For example, I still need to go to another console to do policy management."

"After getting a recommendation, it takes time for the solution to refresh properly to show that the problem has been eliminated."

"We would like to have better transparency as to how the security score is calculated because as it is now, it is difficult to understand."

"Customizing some of the compliance requirements based on individual needs seems like the biggest area of improvement. There should be an option to turn specific controls on and off based on how your solution is configured."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud cons

"When working with Tanium, there are some older devices that haven't been patched for a long time, and certain patches are not included in Tanium."

"It is not really additional functions, or the features that are needed, rather the complexity would be reduced based on the number of modules required to put together a comprehensive operational security and risk compliance model."

"The solution can give a lot of false positives."

"When working with Tanium, there are some older devices that haven't been patched for a long time, and certain patches are not included in Tanium. I have to search outside to download patches, create bundles, and then perform the task."

"The reporting could be improved."

"We had some issues with the solution's OS upgrade."

"They could improve the UI."

"Any movement into a SaaS solution has challenges since the processes and data flows are not well defined. Hence, you need to build it at the same time."

More Tanium cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Our clients complain about the cost of Microsoft Defender for Cloud."

"This solution is more cost-effective than some competing products. My understanding is that it is based on the number of integrations that you have, so if you have fewer subscriptions then you pay less for the service."

"The cost of the license is based on the subscriptions that you have."

"Security Center charges $15 per resource for any workload that you onboard into it. They charge per VM or per data-base server or per application. It's not like Microsoft 365 licensing, where there are levels like E3 and E5. Security Center is pretty straightforward."

"The pricing is very difficult because every type of Defender for Cloud has its own metrics and pricing. If you have Cloud for Key Vault, the pricing is different than it is for storage. Every type has its own pricing list and rules."

"There is a helpful cost-reducing option that allows you to integrate production subscriptions with non-production subscriptions."

"They have a free version, but the license for this one isn't too high. It's free to start with, and you're charged for using it beyond 30 days. Some other pieces of Defender are charged based on usage, so you will be charged more for a high volume of transactions. I believe Defender for Cloud is a daily charge based on Azure's App Service Pricing."

"Understanding the costs of cloud services can be complicated at first. As with a lot of things in the cloud, it can be quite hard to understand the end cost, but it becomes clearer over time. Early on, the lack of transparency is a challenge. Microsoft does not tell you the cost when they launch something. It is clever marketing, and there is room for improvement there. There should be clarity from the start."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pricing and cost advice

"The solution is expensive but it's a good investment."

"There is an annual license required to use this solution."

"It is higher than some competitors in the market."

"The product's pricing differs from region to region depending on negotiations and the number of endpoints."

"The solution offers value for money."

"It's an expensive solution. It would be nice if the cost were lower."

"Tanium is a more expensive solution in Latin America than some of the competitors, such as BigFix."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Government

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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

Pricing for Zafran Security is not expensive. We have a contract for five years, and the cost is lower than other too...

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What needs improvement with Zafran Security?

I would like to see an integration with Check Point firewalls. It's essential for us and they are currently working o...

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What is your primary use case for Zafran Security?

We use Zafran Security for threat prioritization. We establish priority to understand which risks should be patched o...

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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...

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What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Cloud?

The entire Defender Suite is tightly coupled, integrated, and collaborative.

See all answers

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

Initially, the cost was reasonable, but additional services from Microsoft sometimes incur extra expenses that seem h...

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What do you like most about Tanium?

Tanium’s linear-chain architecture is valuable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Tanium?

When working with Tanium, there are some older devices that haven't been patched for a long time, and certain patches...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Tanium?

We primarily use Tanium for patching, focusing on vulnerabilities. Our major goal with Tanium is to patch based on vu...

See all answers

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Compared 13% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Defender XDR vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

Orca Security vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

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CrowdStrike Falcon vs Tanium

Compared 16% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

ServiceNow Discovery vs Tanium

Compared 6% of the time

BigFix vs Tanium

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)

March 2025

Download Zafran Security product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

March 2025

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Tanium

March 2025

Download Tanium product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender

No data available

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Zafran Security

Microsoft

Demo not available

Tanium

Overview

Zafran Security integrates with existing security tools to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities effectively, proving that most critical vulnerabilities are not exploitable, optimizing threat management.

Zafran Security introduces an innovative operating model for managing security threats and vulnerabilities. By leveraging the threat exposure management platform, it pinpoints and prioritizes exploitable vulnerabilities, reducing risk through immediate remediation. This platform enhances your hybrid cloud security by normalizing vulnerability signals and integrating specific IT context data, such as CVE runtime presence and internet asset reachability, into its analysis. No longer reliant on patch windows, Zafran Security allows you to manage risks actively.

What are the key features of Zafran Security?

Threat Exposure Management: Utilizes existing tools to prioritize vulnerabilities and manage threats.
Integrative Analysis: Combines security data with IT context for precise vulnerability management.
Real-time Risk Reduction: Enables immediate risk management without waiting for patches.
Hybrid Cloud Compatibility: Functions across diverse cloud environments for comprehensive security.

What benefits can users expect from Zafran Security?

Improved Security: Enhances protection by efficiently identifying and mitigating risks.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces unnecessary patching expenses by confirming non-exploitable vulnerabilities.
Time Savings: Frees developers to focus on root causes by handling immediate threats.
Comprehensive Insight: Offers a holistic view of security threats and vulnerabilities.

In industries where security is paramount, such as finance and healthcare, Zafran Security provides invaluable protection by ensuring that only exploitable vulnerabilities are addressed. It allows entities to maintain robust security measures while allocating resources efficiently, fitting seamlessly into existing security strategies.

Zafran Security

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a comprehensive security solution that provides advanced threat protection for cloud workloads. It offers real-time visibility into the security posture of cloud environments, enabling organizations to quickly identify and respond to potential threats. With its advanced machine learning capabilities, Microsoft Defender for Cloud can detect and block sophisticated attacks, including zero-day exploits and fileless malware.

The solution also provides automated remediation capabilities, allowing security teams to quickly and easily respond to security incidents. With Microsoft Defender for Cloud, organizations can ensure the security and compliance of their cloud workloads, while reducing the burden on their security teams.

Microsoft

Tanium Endpoint Platform reduces security risk, improves agility & increases efficiency, a fundamentally new approach to endpoint security's threat detection, indicent response, vulnerability assessment and configuration compliance & with management's software distribution, asset utilization, asset inventory and patch management.

Tanium

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is trusted by companies such as ASOS, Vatenfall, SWC Technology Partners, and more.

JPMorgan Chase, eBay, Amazon, US Bank, MetLife, pwc, Cerner, Delphi, MGM Grand, New York Life

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Tanium

March 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Tanium

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Tanium and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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