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Microsoft Defender XDR vs VMware Carbon Black Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Defender XDR boosts security efficiency, saves time, reduces breaches, despite high licensing costs, enhancing overall organizational security posture.
Sentiment score
7.3
VMware Carbon Black Cloud offers cost savings, improved security, centralized protection, better efficiency, and quick ROI with automation features.
Ever since we turned on the M5 feature set back in June, we have seen a reduced number of potentially malicious clicks and faster alerting when incidents occur.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Microsoft Defender XDR support excels in premium tiers but has mixed reviews for basic service response times and expertise.
Sentiment score
6.6
Users typically find VMware Carbon Black Cloud support efficient, with no negative feedback reported and alternative contacts available for assistance.
It's critical to escalate SEV B issues immediately to a domestic engineer.
You get stuck in low-level support for way longer than you should, instead of them escalating the issue up the chain.
The customer service is good, and they supported us well.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender XDR is scalable and cloud-based, with positive user feedback, but may face network and licensing challenges.
Sentiment score
7.6
VMware Carbon Black Cloud is highly rated for scalability, performing well in diverse environments from small to enterprise businesses.
Microsoft Defender XDR shows tremendous scalability, much more so than on-premises solutions.
It is suitable for enterprise-level deployment but has room for improvement.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender XDR is highly stable and reliable, with users rating it 8 or 9 out of 10.
Sentiment score
7.0
VMware Carbon Black Cloud became reliable after initial instability, with high user satisfaction despite minor performance issues on large deployments.
The service has remained consistently online, with any issues isolated to specific components, suggesting a well-designed and modular architecture.
The services within our ecosystem have been reliable, meeting their SLAs.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender XDR needs faster scans, improved integration, intuitive dashboards, cost-effective licensing, better automation, and broader environment support.
VMware Carbon Black Cloud needs better false positive handling, agent efficiency, support improvement, and enhanced features, training, and global support.
The licensing process needs improvement and clarification.
Improvements are needed in automated response capabilities.
It would be better if much of that information were immediately visible, especially when looking at endpoints or users.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender XDR pricing opinions vary, with some appreciating bundled savings and others finding standalone costs high.
I would rate the pricing as eight out of ten, indicating it is a reasonable cost for the product.
Microsoft purposefully obfuscates this through marketing ploys to hide costs.
The pricing is a little high, however, it is on par with other competitive tools in the market.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender XDR offers integrated tools, enhancing threat detection, management, and automation, simplifying security tasks for enterprise environments.
VMware Carbon Black Cloud offers cost-effective, real-time security with intrusion alerts, quarantine, host isolation, data search, and threat hunting.
This allows us to secure our systems in advance and proactively improve security, rather than waiting for incidents to occur.
With Microsoft threat intelligence information, it detects various types of threats, including insider attacks, malicious content, and data exfiltration.
Vulnerability assessment and just-in-time access are some valuable features of Defender for server plans.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender XDR
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
97
Ranking in other categories
Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (4th), Microsoft Security Suite (3rd)
VMware Carbon Black Cloud
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
46th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Security Incident Response (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 3.3%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Carbon Black Cloud is 0.2%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
 

Featured Reviews

Gabor Nyerd - PeerSpot reviewer
Includes four services and four products, which can help organizations a lot
We found that sometimes integrations work, but testing them can take some time. Sometimes, configurations take much longer than expected. We have a configuration in place that needs to be synchronized with another server. However, the servers are four hours apart, so this can cause delays. In general, I believe that the time it takes to configure and test a service should be shorter. Sometimes, it can take a couple of hours to test a single configuration setting. Other times, it is only ten or fifteen minutes, which is normal. However, sometimes, even immediate actions can be triggered by configuration changes, and some settings can take up to eight hours to complete. I believe that this time can be improved. Microsoft is making a lot of improvements to its services in a short period of time. This is a good thing, as it means that the services are constantly being updated and improved. However, it can be challenging for customers to keep up with the changes. For example, a customer may read about an update, understand it, and share it with their colleagues and boss. However, it may take days or weeks to test the update and get the necessary approvals. This can be especially challenging for large customers with many users or machines. In some cases, Microsoft may change a service before the customer has had a chance to implement the previous update. This can be frustrating for customers, as it means that they have to constantly learn new things and adjust their workflows. On the one hand, it is important for Microsoft to keep updating and improving its services. This helps to ensure that the services are meeting the customers' needs and that they are staying ahead of the competition. Microsoft should also be mindful of the challenges that these changes can create for customers. One way to address this challenge is to provide customers with more time to implement changes. Microsoft could also provide more information about upcoming changes so that customers can plan ahead. Ultimately, Microsoft needs to strike a balance between keeping its services up-to-date and providing customers with a smooth transition to new features.
Tom Kar - PeerSpot reviewer
Shows promise for endpoint detection and response, with room for improvement in complexity and pricing
VMware Carbon Black Cloud is a user-friendly solution that can isolate machines from the rest of the network. When a machine is quarantined, it cannot communicate with any other machines on the network except for the Carbon Black Cloud server. This allows you to investigate the machine without the risk of malware escaping to the network. Carbon Black Cloud's server can communicate with the quarantined machine through DNS and VSCP. This allows you to collect data from the machine, such as system logs, process activity, and registry changes. This data can be used to investigate the infection and determine the next steps. CrowdStrike and Cybereason are also popular EDR solutions. They offer similar features to VMware Carbon Black Cloud but may have different strengths and weaknesses. It is important to evaluate all of your options before choosing an EDR solution. Additionally, it is complex to use, and the pricing should be improved.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Real Estate/Law Firm
11%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft 365 Defender?
Microsoft Defender XDR provides strong identity protection with comprehensive insights into risky user behavior and potential indicators of compromise.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft 365 Defender?
Licensing is somewhat confusing, particularly when presenting our pitch decks to stakeholders and leveraging key features in premium SKUs, but we managed with some assistance from Microsoft.
What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?
It would be beneficial to reduce the number of clicks required to navigate between blades, as the current navigation and breadcrumb system can be a bit confusing. Some inconsistencies exist between...
What to choose: an endpoint antivirus, an EDR solution or both?
I can recommend Carbon Black, an award-winning next-gen anti-virus (NGAV) and endpoint detection and response (EDR) security solution. The CB Predictive Security Cloud platform combines multiple hi...
What's the difference between Carbon Black CB Response and Carbon Black CB Defense?
Carbon Black offers two different levels of Endpoint Detection and Response. One is the VM Carbon Black Cloud Endpoint Standard (CB Defense), and the other is the Carbon Black Endpoint Detection an...
What do you like most about Carbon Black CB Response?
Threat hunting is the most valuable feature of VMware Carbon Black Cloud.
 

Also Known As

Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
Carbon Black CB Response
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
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Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender XDR vs. VMware Carbon Black Cloud and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
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