Cisco SecureX [EOL] vs Microsoft Defender XDR comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 7, 2023
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco SecureX [EOL]
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
15th
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Application Security Tools (18th), Vulnerability Management (15th), Cisco Security Portfolio (9th)
Microsoft Defender XDR
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (6th), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category, the mindshare of Cisco SecureX [EOL] is 1.3%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 11.2%, up from 6.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
Unique Categories:
Vulnerability Management
0.2%
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
4.3%
Microsoft Security Suite
5.2%
 

Featured Reviews

SC
Aug 5, 2022
When we need to investigate something, we only need to go to one place
The two biggest things that are great about SecureX: Orchestrator and visibility. We initially implemented it when it was first introduced because of the visibility piece. We could look at the performance and statistics associated with our entire security portfolio. When they introduced Orchestrator, it was a game changer because now we can actually develop Orchestrator scripts to handle a lot of the investigations that we were previously doing manually ourselves. We can actually set up Orchestrator to do things like investigations. If it discovers something that we need to look deeper into, it can just send us an email or text message for whatever we need to do, which has been huge. It has evolved a lot, just that monitoring piece to the current Orchestrator piece. The additional analytics are there. They now have something called Insight, which can basically take data from Microsoft Azure AD and Intune to give us information about our endpoints. This is detailed information about the endpoints, from Secure Endpoint and all these different products. So, it is just constantly evolving. Every time that it evolves, we have more information with more visibility. There are more features that we have that just make everything so much easier, and it is in one place. I don't have to keep going back and forth. I don't have to go to Secure Endpoint and ISE to get the data. I don't have to go to Intune on Microsoft to get the information. It is all in one place.
ES
Jun 7, 2024
Good incident graphs and vulnerability scanning but AI needs to improve
I like the attack graph of each incident. It's really handy, and there's a summary. For example, you can see what had happened with a timeline. And if you go to investigate, the evidence will be there, including the users and devices. Co-pilot is integrated there as well. With just one click, you have a summary of what to do and the next steps. For young analysts, it is quite helpful. You can have security administrators or global administrators. You can set up different permission structures outside of Defender. The solution's security extends or covers more than just Microsoft technologies. Linux machines can be used, for example. It is possible to install an agent for Linux so you can monitor also Linux machines. Apart from having everything within the same console, you have alerts. The attack disruption capabilities positively affect our security operations. We can integrate with third parties. If an email comes in with a file attached, Microsoft's intelligence would be able to tell if it's a phishing scam, and it can automate the deletion. We do educate and train our users, however, it provides an extra security layer that catches suspect emails. It reduces the risk of users accidentally clicking on phishing emails. The solution adapts to evolving threats. It's a next-generation solution. The machine learning and AI are integrated. With the help of machine learning, it can block quite a bit of suspicious activity. It offers multi-tenant capabilities. We have four different tenants, and for each, we have a different console, so I don't directly deal with multi-tenant capabilities; however, it is possible. We do use the solution with a variety of others. We haven't reduced the number of other products we use for security. However, it's quite handy. It blocks a lot of malicious attempts. Nothing really gets by it. The automatic incident response and protection have kept us very safe, even though we do have other backups there on offer as well. We've saved a lot of time with the automated detection. It reduces the time we need to respond and react. We've saved maybe 30% to 40% of the typical amount of time it would take, thanks to automation. For example, if there is, a phishing email goes to the XDR if we had to do an analysis and a report, that alone might take 20 minutes to an hour. Then, we have to remediate, delete and block. With automation, we can save those 20 minutes to an hour. The process is automatic, so we don't have to manually do it. Also, if you have a bunch of suspicious domains or IPs, it will take time to manually go through everything, one by one. However, we can automate the blocking process and save ourselves a lot of time.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The automation and orchestration tools are the most valuable features."
"The ability to create firewalls online has been most valuable including the ability to create rules."
"It has evolved a lot, just that monitoring piece to the current Orchestrator piece. The additional analytics are there. They now have something called Insight, which can basically take data from Microsoft Azure AD and Intune to give us information about our endpoints. This is detailed information about the endpoints, from Secure Endpoint and all these different products. So, it is just constantly evolving. Every time that it evolves, we have more information with more visibility. There are more features that we have that just make everything so much easier, and it is in one place. I don't have to keep going back and forth. I don't have to go to Secure Endpoint and ISE to get the data. I don't have to go to Intune on Microsoft to get the information. It is all in one place."
"Using SecureX, a tool provided by Cisco, we can easily integrate it with many of our other Cisco products such as Cisco ISE and many networking devices."
"SecureX enables us to have all the threat intelligence and threat event data in one place."
"Integrates well with our existing security infrastructure."
"I like that I don't have to jump around to five different products and log into five different places to view the data that it returns."
"SecureX takes all the separate pieces of security within your company, adds in intelligence from different sites and services on the internet, and makes them work together."
"All of the security components are valuable including, antiphishing, antispam, and stage three antivirus."
"Advanced hunting is good. I like that. We can drill down to lots of details."
"I like Defender XDR's automation capabilities. XDR isn't automated by default, but you can automate it to respond. If an attack is performed anywhere within the organization, you can isolate that instance from the network. This is what I can figure out for it. When integrated with Sentinel, you can set up playbooks to automate all the alerts gathered on Sentinel from different Microsoft solutions. Sentinel has a wider range of capabilities than XDR."
"Email protection is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender XDR."
"It reduces the risk of users accidentally clicking on phishing emails."
"Microsoft 365 Defender's most valuable feature is the ability to control the shadow IP."
"The most valuable feature depends on the scenario. For compliance, I like Microsoft Purview Information Protection and Data Loss Prevention. Sentinel is the most helpful feature for security. 365 Defender helps us prioritize threats across an enterprise. It's a crucial feature for the managed services team."
"Defender XDR enables you to scan a system remotely and get a complete inventory of its assets. You can gather more information from the asset inventory and apply threat intelligence using Office 365 or something."
 

Cons

"The automation and orchestration could be simpler. It could be that all the other parts are that easy to use so that these stick out as a negative, but that's the trickiest part for us. The workflows within the orchestration are just a bit more difficult."
"The front-end work controls the new algorithm and the firewall rules. The search feature of these rules could be improved."
"The documentation can be improved and the on-prem integration. The set of applications that it was integrated with wasn't comprehensive."
"For us, the biggest sticking point is that the product is not being designed for multi-tenancy use at present, from an MSP perspective."
"what's missing right now is the multi-tenant capability."
"If they could make the Cisco Umbrella piece a little bit more advanced or easier to manage, that would help. We use it for filtering and when you compare it to a normal content filter, it lacks some functionality."
"I would like it to integrate with another solution, e.g., DNA. I would like it to connect to that solution, but not the security aspect."
"Remediation stuff could be integrated into the product's automation."
"From a performance standpoint, improvements could be made."
"Microsoft frequently changes the names of its products, sometimes even renaming entire portals or features."
"The licensing is a nightmare and has room for improvement."
"Just like in any solution, the price can always be cheaper."
"Generally, antivirus products provide a central control to manage every device in terms of who is installing it or who is trying to disable it, but Microsoft doesn't have such a control center for the antivirus product it provides."
"My client would like the solution to be more customizable without using code. You can only build on the default console, but we're not allowed to change it."
"I personally have not seen much evidence of how Defender can enhance the story of zero trust for enterprises."
"365 Defender has multiple subsets, including Defender for Cloud Apps. When integrating Defender for Cloud Apps with apps on third-party cloud platforms like AWS or GCP, there are limitations on our ability to control user activities. If Microsoft added more control over third-party products, that would be a game-changer and help us quite a lot."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For the value you get, the pricing of the solution is excellent."
"The pricing is competitive, especially for education institutions. Licensing can be a little bit difficult to navigate, especially with resellers with Cisco, but for us it has been pretty easy."
"It comes free with all Cisco products. So, it is a good price."
"The product is absolutely free to any customer. As such, the only thing one must keep in mind is that as long as he already has one Cisco security product, irregardless of what that product is, SecureX is available for free."
"It would be nice if they had a different pricing model. Most of our budget for projects goes towards Cisco."
"The pricing is the best part of this solution. It is free if you buy Umbrella or Duo Security. It is also a good solution."
"You can spend less money for another solution, but if you really want to have a good solution you have to pay. We are happy that we are getting such a good solution for what we are spending."
"Cisco SecureX is more expensive than Trend Micro. However, considering the integration capabilities with other solutions and the quality of technical support, I believe there's justification for the price difference."
"Microsoft Defender XDR is included in our license."
"I believe that the pricing of the licensing is fair."
"While the standalone price of Defender XDR might seem high, its value becomes clear when considering the ease of implementation and smooth integration with our existing Microsoft infrastructure, especially when bundled with other Microsoft products."
"The pricing of Microsoft 365 Defender is definitely on the costly side, but with the features and services that Microsoft provides, such as the seamless integration of all the Defender tools, while the price is on the higher side, there is no alternative."
"Purchasing Microsoft Defender XDR as part of a Microsoft 365 bundle can be cost-effective, but acquiring it as a standalone product may be more expensive."
"Microsoft Defender falls within a mid-tier price range compared to other security solutions."
"The solution is too expensive."
"Microsoft is not competitive with the pricing of the solution. The competitors are able to offer lower discounts. The price of the solution is higher."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
38%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Government
5%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco SecureX?
Integrates well with our existing security infrastructure.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco SecureX?
Cisco SecureX is more expensive than Trend Micro. However, considering the integration capabilities with other solutions and the quality of technical support, I believe there's justification for th...
What needs improvement with Cisco SecureX?
One area for improvement in SecureX could be additional on-premises options for organizations like ours that require more control over certain aspects of the platform. I also think enhancing automa...
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 needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?
The solution can improve the rules and privileges it offers. They need to be more transparent with changes. Often, changes come too rapidly.
 

Also Known As

Kenna.AppSec, Kenna.VI
Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NHS, Rackspace, UNC Pembroke, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Missing Piece
Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco SecureX [EOL] vs. Microsoft Defender XDR and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.