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reviewer2246598 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cybersecurity Intern
Real User
It provides solid visibility because we can map out what's happening and get a good overview
Pros and Cons
  • "The timeline feature is excellent. I also like the phishing simulation. We have phishing campaigns to educate employees and warn them about these threats."
  • "The interface could be improved. For example, if you want to do a phishing simulation for your employees, it can take a while to figure out what to do. The interface is a bit messy and could be updated. It isn't too bad, but doing some things can be a long process."

What is our primary use case?

I use 365 Defender to protect against phishing attacks and filter out our email to pick up certain vulnerabilities. For example, if someone sends out their credentials, it triggers an alarm. 

How has it helped my organization?

Features like filtering and phishing simulation increase our email security. The main purpose is to protect employees and sensitive company information. Everything is connected, so an intruder can potentially access sensitive, confidential information by breaching just one account. 365 Defender is a good way to protect the entire environment. 

Defender helped us automate tasks because we had everything preconfigured. We create alerts and automated responses, which save us some time. Threat intelligence is helpful. For example, if there is a suspicious IP address based in Russia, we can block that address. I didn't do much of that, but it's possible.

What is most valuable?

365 Defender provides solid visibility because we can map out what's happening and get a good overview of the intelligence. The timeline feature is excellent. I also like the phishing simulation. We have phishing campaigns to educate employees and warn them about these threats. 

I also like that Microsoft has a lot of resources online. It's easy to Google information about the tool and what it can do for your organization. 

What needs improvement?

The interface could be improved. For example, if you want to do a phishing simulation for your employees, it can take a while to figure out what to do. The interface is a bit messy and could be updated. It isn't too bad, but doing some things can be a long process. 

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Defender XDR
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Defender XDR. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I used Microsoft 365 Defender for 10 weeks during an internship. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

365 Defender is highly stable. I've never had any issues with it. It can be slower at times, but that may not be product's fault. Maybe there's too much traffic or an issue with the connection. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

365 Defender can scale. More than a thousand people work for this company, and some of them have multiple endpoints, like laptops, workstations, phones, etc. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've used CrowdStrike and some other tools for endpoint and email security. Microsoft Defender is excellent because it covers everything in one place, including endpoint protection, email security, phishing simulation, spam filtering, etc.  

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

365 Defender is billed per account. I don't know the exact price, but my supervisor told me that Microsoft Defender is cheaper than the alternatives. It's bundled, so you get all the features in one place. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Microsoft 365 Defender a nine out of ten. It's an excellent product that protects employees and organizations from attacks. If you have it configured correctly, you should be good. It's an ideal solution for new companies that are starting up and need protection. 

If I were asked to pick between a best-of-breed strategy or getting all of my solutions from one company, I would say that it depends on the product. Many companies have products that offer the same quality as others. The Microsoft family covers so much, but you can also try CrowdStrike for endpoint protection or Proofpoint for email security. 

Each platform offers flexibility, and some can be better than Microsoft, but when it comes to creating configurations, I feel that it's a better option. Also, you can get a better price by purchasing all your solutions from one company. 

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Adedapo Adeniji - PeerSpot reviewer
Modern Workplace Solution Architect at a tech consulting company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Features excellent attack simulation and seamless integrations, but false positives need to be reduced
Pros and Cons
  • "The attack simulation is excellent; initially, this feature wasn't very robust, but Microsoft improved what we could achieve with it. We can now customize our practice phishing emails and include our company logo, for example. Attack simulation also helps integrate with third-party solutions where applicable and provides an overview of our security architecture through testing. The summary includes areas for improvement in our protection and what steps we need to take to get there."
  • "A simple dashboard without having to use MS Sentinel would be a welcome improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for email protection to scan incoming emails and attack simulation. Attack simulation allows our users to practice detecting phishing emails without any risk. The product also gives us an overview of our security situation. 

We operate a hybrid environment with a wide variety of users around the world. 

We use multiple Microsoft security products, including Defender for Endpoint, Sentinel, and Defender for Cloud Apps.  

We have integrated all our Microsoft security solutions, and the integration is easy and seamless, though an Azure account is required to connect Sentinel with other products. 

The solutions work natively together to deliver coordinated detection and response across our environment.  

The multiple Microsoft security products provide comprehensive threat protection, especially by combining 365 Defender and Defender for Cloud Apps, Endpoint, and Identity.  

How has it helped my organization?

The solution allows us to remediate threats better, and the Microsoft Secure Score tells us where we need to improve the security of our organization.

365 Defender saves us time in the region of 10%.

With security products, it can be hard to determine how much money they save us by protecting us from attacks, but I would say our cost savings are around 15%. 

The tool decreased our time to detect and respond, as we can quickly navigate to the required dashboard to get on top of unfolding threats. It reduced the time by 5% for each.  

What is most valuable?

The attack simulation is excellent; initially, this feature wasn't very robust, but Microsoft improved what we could achieve with it. We can now customize our practice phishing emails and include our company logo, for example. Attack simulation also helps integrate with third-party solutions where applicable and provides an overview of our security architecture through testing. The summary includes areas for improvement in our protection and what steps we need to take to get there.

365 Defender works seamlessly with other Microsoft products like Defender for Endpoint, and once we've onboarded a device, it's easy to see the entire progression of a malicious email. This includes the IP origin, and these are some of the things I love about the product.

The solution provides us with excellent visibility into threats; there are various features that clearly show when our organization is under attack, which country the attack originates from, and what we need to do to mitigate it. 

365 Defender prioritizes threats across the enterprise, which is essential because it gives us an overview of what we need to do to improve our security. We don't need to think of what we must do which is significant for us. 

The solution's threat intelligence helps us prepare for potential threats and take proactive steps before they hit. Over time, the threat intelligence learns and gets better, much like an AI.  

What needs improvement?

A simple dashboard without having to use MS Sentinel would be a welcome improvement. 

We sometimes get false alerts, and Microsoft told us the issue was with them and that they were aware of it. They were supposed to remediate it, but we had to do much ourselves. The false positives need to be reduced. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using 365 Defender for four years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability isn't bad, but we get too many false positives.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Microsoft has been able to scale up the solution over time, so it's scalable. All we need to do is purchase licenses according to our requirements. We have around 1,000 users.

How are customer service and support?

The customer support is good, but there is room for improvement. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

The deployment was straightforward and quick; it took minutes. Onboarding the other solutions can take a little longer, depending on the environment and migration methods.

The setup can be done by one or two staff. In a scenario with many thousands of users and a proficient security admin, the deployment could be done in 15 to 20 minutes. The solution doesn't require any maintenance on our end, as it's cloud-based. 

What was our ROI?

The product gives us an ROI as it protects our organization from potentially costly attacks. Our ROI is around 5%.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product is fairly priced for what we get from it. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution seven out of ten. 

We use MS Sentinel, but I wouldn't say it ingests data from our entire ecosystem. It's straightforward to integrate, but getting the most out of Sentinel requires a lot of configuration, which needs significant expertise and time.

Sentinel enables us to investigate threats and respond holistically from one place, and that's important for us. The process is primarily automatic once the logic hub and configuration are set up.  

Regarding the comprehensiveness of Sentinel's security protection, it's less a tool for protection and more of a solution for providing an overview, management, and optimization of security processes. The most significant security features are found in the Defender line of products. 

We can automate some aspects of 365 Defender, but MS Sentinel is required for more complete automation.

365 Defender doesn't eliminate having to look at multiple dashboards; we still need to click through numerous dashboards for a complete security overview. Sentinel allows management from a single XDR dashboard.

To a security colleague who says it's better to go with a best-of-breed strategy rather than a single vendor's security suite, I'd say, why not save the stress of dealing with multiple vendors? You can have one vendor one click away and seamless integration between your products. 

I recommend the solution; I've worked with it in three different organizations and realized how seamless it is to use the Microsoft suite. They integrate well and help us protect all the services in Microsoft 365.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Defender XDR
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Defender XDR. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer2024007 - PeerSpot reviewer
OT Security Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
User-friendly portal, good advanced hunting capabilities, and great for analysis
Pros and Cons
  • "Within advanced threat hunting, the tables that have already been defined by Microsoft are helpful. In the advanced threat hunting tab, there were different tables, and one of the tables was related to device info, device alert, and device events. That was very helpful. Another feature that I liked but didn't have access to was deep analysis."
  • "The documentation on their website is somewhat outdated and doesn't show properly. I wanted to try a query in Microsoft Defender 365. When I opened the related documentation from the security blog on the Microsoft website, the figures were not showing. It was difficult to understand the article without having the figures. The figures were there in the article, but they were not getting loaded, which made the article obsolete."

What is our primary use case?

The main use case has been for threat hunting, not in the sense of actively looking for the threat, but in terms of analyzing the ongoing process within clients' machines. I was looking into what kind of changes happen when you install any new software and it asks for so many permissions. I wanted to analyze the criticality of the permissions being asked and so on. Usually, when we install any software, we just click next, next, and next. We don't look at the details. So, my role was to check how it behaves within a system. For that reason, I used Microsoft Defender. 

I used the query language to do advanced threat hunting. I ran different queries to collect the data. The data was then brought into Power BI. We had data coming from different channels. So, we used Power BI to collect it at a single point.

How has it helped my organization?

My usage of it was on a very small scale. I am not aware of its overall impact on the organization, but it did help us a lot to know and achieve what we wanted to achieve. Without Microsoft 365 Defender, the detection for our use case would have been impossible.

It provided more visibility into threats, and it came with some of the default functions from Microsoft, which was an advantage. They had already defined different tables in advanced threat hunting, which was very helpful. I am not aware of other vendors providing that.

Its threat intelligence helped to prepare for potential threats before they hit and to take proactive steps. That was my target for that project. We were actively looking for vulnerabilities inside the software, and we wanted to detect the software supply chain aspect. That was a difficult task, but we wanted to be ahead before any attack happened. That's why we were using Microsoft 365 Defender.

It saved time. They had already defined different tables to identify different artifacts within the system, which saved about 50% of our time.

What is most valuable?

Within advanced threat hunting, the tables that have already been defined by Microsoft are helpful. In the advanced threat hunting tab, there were different tables, and one of the tables was related to device info, device alert, and device events. That was very helpful. Another feature that I liked but didn't have access to was deep analysis.

I liked its portal a lot. I am currently using a different vendor, and there is a big difference between them. Microsoft had a very good portal, and its user interface was good. Irrespective of where I was, with a click, I could see comprehensive details about something on the right side. The related information was always on the right side. So, I didn't have to jump over different tabs and functionalities. The information was always there on the right side, which is something I liked in Microsoft 365 Defender portal.

What needs improvement?

The documentation on their website is somewhat outdated and doesn't show properly. I wanted to try a query in Microsoft Defender 365. When I opened the related documentation from the security blog on the Microsoft website, the figures were not showing. It was difficult to understand the article without having the figures. The figures were there in the article, but they were not getting loaded, which made the article obsolete. They should refresh all their articles and see that the steps and figures aren't missing. They can also provide more documentation.

For how long have I used the solution?

I used it just for four months in a previous company.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I never had any problems with it. It was always stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable. You can query each and every machine in the company.

I was working for a client, and that client had more than 50,000 people.

How are customer service and support?

I never contacted them directly, but based on what I heard during the meetings, they seemed to be quite helpful and good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I didn't use any other similar solution before Microsoft 365 Defender. That was the first time I used Microsoft 365 Defender. That was my first experience. Now, I'm using a different product, and I can see that Microsoft 365 Defender was much better than the current product.

Microsoft 365 Defender is very good for analyzing something. There are multiple types of data and multiple ways to utilize that data. With a single click, you can have all the related data for a particular topic. That's really good, and that is what I'm missing in the current product.

What other advice do I have?

I did not use Microsoft Defender for Cloud, but I saw the cloud part for monitoring cloud applications. It was nice, and it had some added functionalities. For example, application risk scoring was very good. It shows what data has been considered to give a particular risk score, which is useful for a new learner like me. It was helpful to know the criteria for scoring. They also included so many applications. There were more than 24,000 cloud applications inside their catalog. That's a really good catalog.

To a security colleague who says it’s better to go with a best-of-breed strategy rather than a single vendor’s security suite, I would agree that multiple vendors are better than a single vendor because every vendor has different capabilities. It's always better to use the best products from different vendors than to use all the products from the same vendor.

I would rate Microsoft 365 Defender a nine out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Kyaw Htay - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Manager at AMNET Technology
Real User
Malware and endpoint security solution that is easy to use compared with other similar solutions
Pros and Cons
  • "We are able to consolidate licences and make use of many Microsoft products using this solution. If we have any Microsoft customers, we encourage them to use this solution for enterprise defence."
  • "This solution could be improved if it included features such as those offered by Malwarebytes."

What is our primary use case?

We make use of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 for endpoint security and email and we use Defender umbrella for impersonation and sales. Under Defender umbrella, we use a lot of products depending on the customer requirements. As a company, we use Defender for email as well as for endpoint security.

What is most valuable?

We are able to consolidate licences and make use of many Microsoft products using this solution. If we have any Microsoft customers, we encourage them to use this solution for enterprise defence. 

What needs improvement?

This solution could be improved if it included features such as those offered by Malwarebytes. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have used this solution for many years and we are a Microsoft partner. We use this solution on a daily basis.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable solution. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a scalable solution.

How are customer service and support?

We have not yet needed to contact Microsoft for support with Defender. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have previously used a number of different solutions including Trend Micro, Symantec, Sophos Intercept X and Malwarebytes. Overall, we are more comfortable using Defender.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer2282451 - PeerSpot reviewer
SecOps Engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Saves investigation time and provides advanced hunting capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "Advanced hunting is good. I like that. We can drill down to lots of details."
  • "At times, when we have an incident email and we click on the link for that incident, it opens a pop-up, but there is nothing. It has happened a couple of times."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it for incidents and alerts. It is helpful for threat hunting.

We have tied it to Azure AD or Microsoft Entra, and we are trying to implement it for Linux.

How has it helped my organization?

It saves the investigation time. There is a lot of information about the threats and other things.

What is most valuable?

Advanced hunting is good. I like that. We can drill down to lots of details.

It is user-friendly. It has a lot of parts. For me, it was pretty quick to get a sense of it.

What needs improvement?

It protects from phishing emails, but sometimes, some of the emails are not detected. They are getting delivered into the inbox, not in a junk folder or spam folder. Users are reporting them as phishing emails.

At times, when we have an incident email and we click on the link for that incident, it opens a pop-up, but there is nothing. It has happened a couple of times. 

In terms of additional features, it is too early for me. I am still learning all the parts. I am just scratching the surface of the tool. One year is not enough to get every detail of it.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Defender XDR for about a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable, but sometimes, we experience an issue. Clicking the link in an incident email opens a small window, but we cannot find anything there. This has happened a couple of times. There is a bug.

Other than that, we have not experienced any downtime or any big issues. It is pretty stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have plans to maximize its usage. We are trying to see how to get the most out of it, but my older colleagues would know more about it. I am still learning it.

How are customer service and support?

I have not contacted them.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I am not sure. I am relatively new. I have only been working here for a year. They already had it in place.

I have not worked on a similar tool before. This is my first XDR tool.

How was the initial setup?

It is on the cloud. I am not aware of its deployment because it was already deployed before I joined.

What other advice do I have?

I cannot recommend it because this is the only tool for XDR that I have used. I have not used any other tool, but it is a good tool.

I would rate Microsoft Defender XDR a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Hande Tarhan - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Business Consultant at PeakUp
Consultant
User-friendly and easy to set up threat protection solution with good scalability and stability
Pros and Cons
  • "Setting up Microsoft 365 Defender is easy. It's a user-friendly solution that provides threat protection. It has good stability and scalability."
  • "What could be improved in Microsoft 365 Defender is its licensing, e.g. it should be more consolidated and would be good if it has some optimizations. Improving the alerts and notifications, in terms of adding more details, would also be good for this solution."

What is our primary use case?

Microsoft 365 Defender is one of the first layers to our security. It's our first layer security product, e.g. we use it, then we also use Exchange Online Protection for email, Safelink, etc.

We always recommend these products to our customers, e.g. if the customer is using another third-party product. We are always recommending these compliance and security products, e.g. Microsoft 365 Defender, Cloud App Security, etc.

We usually recommend cloud security because it connects all of these security and compliance products in one center to take logs and make them meaningful, plus you can also create alerts. We are also recommending it because of Microsoft Teams usage, especially because in Microsoft Teams, users sometimes do mass deletion, mass download, etc. We always say: "Let's connect your Cloud App security with your Azure Information Protection, with Microsoft 365 Defender and your Microsoft Teams, your Engula, etc. We find cloud security to be very useful.

What is most valuable?

What I found most valuable in Microsoft 365 Defender is that it's able to scan emails and protect users from dangerous links or attachments. This is important in a first layer or base layer security product such as Microsoft 365 Defender. You can even combine Microsoft Defender for Endpoint with this solution to get the most benefits.

I also find Microsoft 365 Defender user-friendly, so that's another valuable feature of this solution.

What needs improvement?

What could be improved in Microsoft 365 Defender is its licensing. It needs to be more consolidated, because there are so many plans for Microsoft 365 Defender, and every other year, there will be new licensing options, e.g. plan one, plan two, etc., that become more and more different from each other. The most valuable product would be the most expensive product, and customers usually say: "We really need the last version, but that's really expensive for us, because we are in Turkey and the currency is very, very high now." Three years ago, this wasn't a problem, because $1 was three or four Turkish liras, but now it's 15.

In the licensing options, it would also be better if there can be some optimizations, similar to what Power BI Pro offers. There are two options in Power BI: user-based and capacity-based. It would be good if there can be another option for one consolidated product for the whole company with a higher price, but you cannot depend on user count.

What I'd like to see in the next release of Microsoft 365 Defender is for them to provide more details in the alerts and notifications they send out.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been a partner for Microsoft for 10 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I found that the stability of Microsoft 365 Defender is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is good in Microsoft 365 Defender.

How are customer service and support?

What we have is Premier Support from Microsoft, e.g. we are a CSP partner, so we were required to buy Premier Support and Cloud Consulting from Microsoft. We are really happy with the support we've been receiving for Microsoft 365 Defender, but on the customer side, they don't have Premier Support, and sometimes, depending on the case, they're not very satisfied with the support. 

Our satisfaction is five out of five, but our customers would only have three or four out of five, in terms of their satisfaction with Microsoft 365 Defender support.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup for Microsoft 365 Defender is really easy. It's not very complicated. I didn't see any other difficulties with setting it up, but customers sometimes think it's not very easy. They purchase consulting services from us, so it doesn't bother us, but sometimes the customer says: "I don't know how to start, but I use Microsoft Security." Microsoft is very late in the security niche, so customers sometimes say: "We have Symantec", or they would mention that they have other products from other vendors, and these vendors are very reliable for many, many years.

In the last three or four years, though, customers start to depend on Microsoft Security products, but they are not early adopters, because they usually tell us: "When we buy the product, some policies cannot be used, but after sometime we can use it." It's not really a problem, but I wanted to relay some of the feedback we get from our customers.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The most valuable licensing option is expensive, so pricing could be improved. Licensing options for this solution also need to be consolidated, because they frequently change.

What other advice do I have?

We've been dealing with the latest version of Microsoft 365 Defender.

For an average project, deployment of Microsoft 365 Defender can take a week, but we do need some change management models, because we still need to train the users about safe links and attachments, so we sometimes have to expand the average time, but implementation is not very hard. If we only do the implementation, one week is more than enough.

We rely on just one to two persons, particularly engineers, for the deployment and maintenance of Microsoft 365 Defender.

My recommendation to others looking into implementing Microsoft 365 Defender is that reading the documentation is really good. If you are a Microsoft partner, you'll also have benefits, e.g. CDS tenants and demo tenants that are free to you for one year, so you can test the products first, before you implement. If you are a partner, my advice is to use your Microsoft partner benefits.

I'm giving Microsoft 365 Defender a rating of eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1945362 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Provides good insights, allows us to prioritize threats, and comes with a centralized portal
Pros and Cons
  • "The EDR features are valuable. By getting the EDR features, we have more control over the device. We have information about events in real-time and more protection against zero-day threats and zero-day vulnerabilities. We can monitor every event or action that a device is going through. We can get an idea if it is something malicious or if we have to take any actions."
  • "The onboarding and offboarding need improvement. I work with other vendors as well, and they have an option to add a device or remove a device from the portal, whereas with Microsoft 365 Defender, we need to do that manually. However, once you do that, everything can be controlled through the portal, but getting the device onboarded and offboarded is currently manual. If we have an option to simply remove a device from the portal or get a device added from the portal, it would be more convenient. The rest of the features are similar. This is the only area where I found it different from others. I would also like to be able to simply filter with a few of the queries that are already there."

What is our primary use case?

Microsoft 365 Defender is an extension of Windows Defender. Windows Defender is an AV that is integrated with Windows OS, and with this extension, you also get the EDR functionality for security purposes. Microsoft 365 Defender gets more access to the device and provides more insights and control over that. Apart from the Windows platform, it also includes other OSs, such as Linux and macOS.

We do have multiple options for deployment. We did deploy it on the cloud. We got the on-cloud license, and we onboarded our devices to the portal. The portal is deployed on the Azure cloud.

How has it helped my organization?

It helps us prioritize threats across the enterprise. We also have options to prioritize a specific device and monitor it. We can keep a device on high alert or on the watch out for each and every event. There are different severity levels, such as critical, high, medium, and low. We can set severities on any of the devices. Based on the set severity level, Microsoft 365 Defender can track events, and we can monitor those events from the console.

We get more insights and more information about the devices that we have. Because most of them are Windows devices, we have integrations with Intune or SCCM. It is easy to transfer all the information and see everything in one single portal. If we want to configure anything or control the devices in the whole organization, it is easy because all of them are in the same environment. It is easy to manage and control them.

There are fewer compatibility issues and errors and a better ability to track events. With third-party solutions, I used to see more issues related to compatibility and setting the ports. For each and everything, we had to either go through the support documents or through the support to get information. Most of the Microsoft documentation is publicly available. It is not that you only get that when you open a support case. That's an advantage compared to others.

It helps to automate routine tasks and the finding of high-value alerts. We have KQL or SQL queries that we can set up. We can schedule them so that it automatically queries for a specific device or all the devices and gives us a report that we can simply export.

Its threat intelligence helps to prepare us for potential threats before they hit and take proactive steps. It has helped us to recover a few devices. Because it is integrated with the OS, we get information about failed logins.

It saves time and manual labor. Previously, we used to use a deployment portal such as Filezilla or GPOs. We used to manually update the signatures, but now, it is automatic. It saved me pretty much half a day's work.

It has decreased our time to detect and our time to respond. It has saved half a day's work. The sensor constantly connects to the console. In case of an issue, we get an email immediately. We also get a notification in the console. Previously, we used to manually scan the device or query something and then get the results. Because it is automated, we don't need to manually do that. Previously, we used to manually isolate or block a device, or we used to work with different teams to get the device offline, but now, we can simply search the device name in the console and isolate a device from there, which is convenient for us.

What is most valuable?

The EDR features are valuable. By getting the EDR features, we have more control over the device. We have information about events in real-time and more protection against zero-day threats and zero-day vulnerabilities. We can monitor every event or action that a device is going through. We can get an idea if it is something malicious or if we have to take any actions.

Because Microsoft 365 Defender is integrated with the OS, we get more insight into the events or threat activities. With a third-party solution, we could have some limitations or compatibility issues with the OS, whereas with Microsoft 365 Defender, there are no compatibility issues for Windows, and we get more insights and more information on the threats simply by logging into the console.

What needs improvement?

The onboarding and offboarding need improvement. I work with other vendors as well, and they have an option to add a device or remove a device from the portal, whereas with Microsoft 365 Defender, we need to do that manually. However, once you do that, everything can be controlled through the portal, but getting the device onboarded and offboarded is currently manual. If we have an option to simply remove a device from the portal or get a device added from the portal, it would be more convenient. The rest of the features are similar. This is the only area where I found it different from others. I would also like to be able to simply filter with a few of the queries that are already there. 

For how long have I used the solution?

It has been almost three months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate it a seven out of ten in terms of stability. It is quite stable but it can be improved for a few scenarios. It is still new for macOS and Linux, and for these OSs, I would rate it a six out of ten in terms of stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. We are using it pretty extensively. It is for multiple departments, and there are multiple teams handling it. In the tenant I have, there are 2,000 devices that are currently onboarded. We also get information about which devices are not onboarded. I can see that a few hundred devices are not onboarded. We also have a few other clients or partners who are using it but on a small scale. 

How are customer service and support?

It is good. We do get constant responses and inputs from them whenever we raise a case. They are quite helpful. I would rate them an eight out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I started working with this solution because I changed my organization. That was the major reason. 

Being able to get the information simply from a single portal and the integration with other portals have been some of the benefits. Previously, we used to get data manually, and then we used a SIEM or event collector to send that data to other portals. Now, we can integrate with other Microsoft portals, such as Intune, and get the same information there as well. That's one convenience I have found.

How was the initial setup?

I am not involved with tenant deployment. I am involved with the onboarding of the devices. If you have the right knowledge, it is completely fine. They do have an admin console. You can deploy multiple tenants and also control through that console, but I don't have access to that. I only have access to my own tenant. I only have control over that. We can also include a tenant for a specific organization from the admin console. That admin console is deployed on Azure.

Most of the maintenance is automatic. Because we allow Windows updates, most of the Defender updates are also included in Windows updates. We don't have to specifically go and check. If we see any alert or we find any suspicious events or something on the console while we are investigating, then it might need manual checks. We do get some recommendations through the console itself for what we can do to improve the device security score. So, it requires some maintenance, but that's only when we detect something or we are investigating something. For maintenance, we have different teams in each section. We have around 15 to 20 people.

What was our ROI?

I don't have the metrics, but we started to see its benefits within a couple of weeks from the time of deployment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Its licensing and pricing are handled by someone else. My role is limited to incidents or issues with the portal, but you get what you pay for. It is worth the cost.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did compare it with VMware Carbon Black and McAfee. We did check Symantec as well, but Symantec didn't have EDR capabilities. So, we dropped it. The final call was Microsoft because we found the integrations and other things easy. It saves time for us because we don't need to go through another team or get a separate team involved just for data transfers.

What other advice do I have?

I would definitely recommend this solution. Getting the product is easy. You simply get the license, but after getting the product, you need to go through the deployment and configuration of the product to match your environment. You can just try out the product and experiment in your own way and learn each and every feature. The documentation is completely public. 

I would rate it an eight out of ten because there are a few areas where it can be improved.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Mustafa Al-Shawwa - PeerSpot reviewer
Security analyst trainee at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 10
The solution can replace multiple security products because it covers everything
Pros and Cons
  • "The advantage of Microsoft Defender XDR has over other XDRs in the market is that it's easy to use. You can quickly differentiate between alerts, incidents, devices, software, etc. It's easier to investigate an incident, and you have so many options. You can automate investigations and use playbooks. There's also the live response session, which is something you can't find in any other XDR."
  • "The design of the user interface could use some work. Sometimes it's hard to find the exact information you need."

How has it helped my organization?

Defender XDR can replace multiple security products. It covers everything, including phishing protection, network security, device security, applications, etc. 

The solution has reduced time spent on manual tasks because almost everything is automated. You don't have to do anything. If something happens, you'll get a notification, and it will instantly run the playbook for the incident. For example, a phishing email might take an hour to investigate manually. If you have Defender, you will have all the information you need on the incident page. It's all there, so you can investigate the incident in around 5 to 10 minutes.

Adopting Defender cuts costs. While the solution is a little pricey, you only need two products—XDR and Sentinel—so you don't need to add other security products. You only need to use the Microsoft security stack. 

What is most valuable?

The advantage Microsoft Defender XDR has over other XDRs in the market is that it's easy to use. You can quickly differentiate between alerts, incidents, devices, software, etc. It's easier to investigate an incident, and you have so many options. You can automate investigations and use playbooks. There's also the live response session, which is something you can't find in any other XDR. 

The identity protection is excellent. It uses some rules, including some built-in rules from Microsoft itself. It identifies risky users and differentiates between a user who is trying to sign in and isn't the actual user. Identity and access management is a valuable component of Defender.

Defender covers non-Microsoft technologies if you're using the full Microsoft stack with Sentinel and Defender. You can ingest logs from other solutions, like Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls. 

It stops advanced attacks like ransomware and phishing in real time and prevents them from entering your environment. There's a feature called Security Advisory that shows you all the latest threats and vulnerabilities in the market so that you can make rules for them. It helps you understand them more. 

With Sentinel and Microsoft Lighthouse, you can use multi-tenant access. It allows you to connect multiple tenants to one tenant, which you can use to monitor everything from there. Before we had Microsoft Defender, we had to go to each tenant, log n from your account, and investigate the incident if it's there. Lighthouse has one page with all the alerts, and they're all connected together. You can investigate every alert from one page.

What needs improvement?

The design of the user interface could use some work. Sometimes it's hard to find the exact information you need.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate Microsoft Defender XDR 7 out of 10 for stability. There are some performance issues maybe 5% of the time. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate Microsoft Defender XDR 9 out of 10. It's easy to scale. 

How are customer service and support?

I rate Microsoft support 8 out of 10. They answer quickly. If you open a ticket, they will respond immediately. You can chat with them or schedule a call. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The setup is straightforward. You only need to buy the product and onboard every device. It's like a script for Microsoft Intune. The process takes a couple of days for a small company, but a larger business may require three or four days. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Defender XDR is fairly priced. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Microsoft XDR Defender 8 out of 10. I recommend giving the product a try. If it doesn't work for you, try something else until you find a suitable product. There might be other solutions that are a better fit. It's good for my case, but it might not be right for everyone. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Defender XDR Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: December 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Defender XDR Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.