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Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Palo Alto Networks VM-Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (10th)
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 12.9%, down from 16.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is 1.3%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

Luis-Brown - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 8, 2023
Allows for easy reporting of problems, valuable anti-phishing, and anti-malware support
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 lacks proactivity in assisting us with preparing for potential threats before they occur. While they employ a substantial amount of threat intelligence to preemptively prevent incidents, their effectiveness diminishes when it comes to delivering proactive threat intelligence alerts from Microsoft. Their focus primarily revolves around managing the internal environment. On the other hand, my other vendor, Check Point, along with my membership in MS-ISAC, supplements me with this type of information. The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement. It is adequate, but it doesn't match the quality of Proofpoint or Mimecast. However, it comes close in effectiveness. Plus, if we're obtaining it for free, investing in the other products seems impractical.
AshwaniTyagi - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 16, 2024
Advanced protection and good integration capabilities with good reliability
We use Palo Alto Networks VM-Series to offer services to our customers as a managed security service provider. We provide solutions and services to our customers across the globe. For example, if I want to host a firewall in the cloud or somewhere where the physical appliance is not a possibility…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of various email campaigns, pinpointing where they emanate from, and identifying the individuals within our organization who are affected."
"Since we have started using the solution, there have been fewer compromises."
"Some of the valuable features on the email side are anti-phishing, anti-malware, and Safe Links."
"The product is not resource-intensive."
"It also gives me good visibility because, with Defender, I'm using a Microsoft product to defend Microsoft products. The integration was really seamless and I have wide visibility because it picks up almost everything. Literally, I can see almost every activity that happens, from the e-mail to the workstation itself."
"The product's scalability is good."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is the ease of use."
"I would say that 90% of the spam and phishing attack emails get blocked right off the bat."
"In terms of security breaches, the product aids in categorizing and monitoring traffic, allowing for the identification of potentially malicisous or incorrectly formatted applications."
"The threat prevention and WildFire features are the most valuable features. DNS is another good feature of the product."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the zero-trust security architecture."
"The VM-Series scalability is fast and easy to implement, improving our security posture as our Azure network grows."
"In the newer version, there are 3850s, all of them are scalable. They fit better into the medium or small businesses."
"Centralized management is valuable because it allows us to configure settings in one location and apply them across all three locations."
"The most valuable features are the User ID, URL filtering, and application filtering."
"It is reliable and the support is very good."
 

Cons

"They have moved features from one console to another. Things have been moved around in the interface and it takes me time to find where certain features are."
"There is room for improvement with the UI."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 could improve by giving customers information on techniques to prevent threats. For example, information about best practices on how to protect their own devices against hackers and scammers, such as educational information or training. This would help others have a better understanding of cyber security. Additionally, there can be more security features added."
"In some situations, it has not been able to pick impersonated emails having no attachments. Technical support definitely has a scope for improvement."
"It would be better if it were more scalable. It depends on the architecture, but we would like to make it more scalable for both data centers."
"Configuring the default strategies and policies in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps generates a lot of noise and false positives."
"The certification training for Defender for 365 needs to be deeper and incorporate Sentinel. I took all the security courses except one, and Sentinel isn't included."
"The UI needs to be more user-friendly."
"The product could provide protection above Layer 3, which gets into the application layer and provides better visibility into those aspects of application security."
"It is not very easy to scale up the solution."
"The interface is all Java-based. I would prefer an HTML5 interface."
"It'll help if Palo Alto Networks provided better documentation."
"They made only a halfhearted attempt to put in DLP (Data Loss Prevention)."
"It would be helpful if we had a direct number for the support manager or the supporting engineer. That would be better than having to email every time because there would be less wait."
"The reporting part of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"All areas need improvement: manufacturing, education, financial, etc."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is normal. Considering its popularity, it's not overpriced."
"While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 necessitates pricier E3 or E5 subscriptions, the extensive functionality offered by these licenses across various Microsoft products justifies the investment."
"The product is very expensive."
"The license is expensive because the cost is based on the number of users."
"I know that the product is incredibly expensive."
"From the pricing point of view, like any other product in the market, there is scope for negotiation."
"Defender is a little bit more expensive as compared to others. We are in the manufacturing environment. So, we don't have a high budget for all of our endpoint devices. Its cost is a major concern for us."
"The pricing has become expensive."
"AWS is available as a AMI that you can purchase from the AWS Marketplace. Therefore, you need to purchase the licensing, since it is per AMI. Then, you deploy it on a regular EC2. Then, for on-premise, you can use both Palo Alto's software and hardware."
"I know Palo Alto is not cheap. They have been telling me, the members of the finance team, it is not a cheap solution. It is a solution whose target is that no matter how big your organization is, small, medium, or large, it is about the maturity of your security team or infrastructure team whom you want to work with."
"Because the solution was getting deployed on AWS, it was the best place to go and it was available there."
"The pricing and licensing are reasonable."
"The solution is a little bit expensive compared to other vendors."
"The VM series is licensed annually."
"We used BYOL, because of the cost to own."
"Palo Alto definitely needs to be more competitive compared to other products. The problem that I have faced is that the price of licensing is very high and not very competitive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of various email campaigns, pinpointing where they emanate from, and identifying the indi...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
The pricing is reasonable since it comes integrated with our Office 365 license.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Sometimes, phishing emails manage to pass through the filter, so the system needs to enhance its phishing email detection capabilities. We also need alerting features for abnormal actions like unus...
Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls
In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it kind of depends what you value most. PA is good at app control, web filtering a...
How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?
Both products are very stable and easily scalable. The setup of Azure Firewall is easy and very user-friendly and the overall cost is reasonable. Azure Firewall offers a solid threat awareness, can...
 

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Warren Rogers Associates
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs. Palo Alto Networks VM-Series and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
815,690 professionals have used our research since 2012.