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Google Cloud Run vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Google Cloud Run
Ranking in Container Management
14th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
2.2
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Containers as a Service (CaaS) (5th)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Ranking in Container Management
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (5th), Container Security (4th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (4th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (4th), Microsoft Security Suite (7th), Compliance Management (4th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

Vyas Shubham - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Quality Analyst at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Serverless containers have transformed how we deploy microservices and event-driven workloads
There are a few areas that could be improved. We have experienced cold start latency because when scaling from zero, the first request is slow. It also impacts user experience for real-time applications. The improvement we require is faster cold starts or smarter pre-warming options. There are also limitations with long-running workloads. It is not ideal for very long or always-running processes, and request timeouts are somewhat restrictive. The improvement we want is better support for persistent workloads without workarounds. We have also identified improvements needed in debugging and observability complexity because logs and monitoring are available, but they feel scattered at times, and debugging distributed microservices is harder. The improvement we require is more unified and developer-friendly debugging tools.
RW
Head Of IT at Cirrus Response
Cloud security has cut investigation time and now reveals threats faster but needs simpler oversight
When deploying AI applications, my key security concerns with Microsoft Defender for Cloud are data loss, leakage of data, and guardrails around the actual AI, and I am hoping that this is going to help me put those guardrails in place and identify data exfiltration. Microsoft Defender for Cloud has not helped me manage and secure multi-cloud environments, as we are 100 percent Microsoft and have not really got it in any other environment at all. I am not yet using the unified AI-powered security feature offered by Microsoft Defender for Cloud, but that is coming. I am not yet using the integrated XDR feature of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, but that is coming. I am not yet utilizing the GenAI threat protection features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud. That is also coming and a lot of that will come from learning it here. I have enabled the agentless scanning in my cloud environment with Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Assessing the impact on my workload protection without needing to install agents with Microsoft Defender for Cloud makes it a lot easier, but it also identifies a lot more, which puts more load on me sometimes. I would advise another organization considering Microsoft Defender for Cloud that it is the most logical route to follow if their whole ecosystem is Microsoft. It is easy to implement and it is very self-explanatory when doing it, making sense to just follow the steps as it is too simple, really. I would rate this review a 7.5 out of 10.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Google Cloud Run has positively impacted my organization in numerous ways, such as significant cost efficiency and reduced overhead since we only pay for the resources that we use."
"Google Cloud Run and the Google Cloud environment positively impact my organization by providing almost 99.9% availability for applications, which instills confidence in the organization and users by reducing the dependency on the physical network and allowing access to applications and data."
"Google Cloud Run is a very good tool that I use for deploying applications; its ease of deployment, auto scaling features, and resource optimization are very nice features that help individuals deploy their apps and solutions into the cloud without any hiccups."
"Google Cloud Run has positively impacted our organization by saving us five thousand dollars per month based on scheduling our infrastructure from nine p.m. to nine a.m. for shutdown and starting, as well as stopping the MongoDB clusters."
"Google Cloud Run has impacted my organization positively through faster deployment and development, where developers can deploy applications quickly without worrying about infrastructure, push the app live with just containers, speed up time to market significantly, launch features faster and iterate more often, pay only when code runs without maintaining idle servers, reduce cloud costs dramatically for applications with low or unpredictable traffic, automatically scale based on traffic spikes to handle sudden loads without manual intervention so our business does not lose users during peak hours, and let developers focus on business logic instead of DevOps."
"I would rate Microsoft Defender for Cloud a nine out of 10."
"This solution is more cost-effective than some competing products."
"The tool's most valuable feature is its support for cloud-native services like Kubernetes, containers, managed storage, and databases. Protecting these without Microsoft Defender for Cloud would be extremely challenging. For threat protection specifically, I find the signature-based detection and heuristic detection features very effective."
"The solution is up-to-date with the latest updates and identified threats."
"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."
"The solution is very easy to deploy."
"We are a financial company, so Defender for Cloud helps us create multiple layers to protect assets and ensure a more secure environment."
"Good compliance policies."
 

Cons

"One area where Google Cloud Run could be better is the cold start; when a container scales, it starts from zero and takes a moment to boot up before it can serve the request."
"When it starts from idle to full run, it scales slowly, causing slowness in the service deployed; sometimes some of the APIs fail to respond."
"If speaking about improvements for Google Cloud Run, I think they could reduce the cold starts and manage to configure a set number of minimum instances to keep the instances in a warm phase."
"There are a few areas that could be improved. We have experienced cold start latency because when scaling from zero, the first request is slow."
"There are a few areas where Google Cloud Run could improve."
"After getting a recommendation, it takes time for the solution to refresh properly to show that the problem has been eliminated."
"Azure is a complex solution. You have so many moving parts."
"Agent features need to be improved. Sometimes, we are not able to get correct signals from the machines on which we have installed these agents."
"It's very expensive in terms of the need to maintain it actively."
"The product's advanced analytics and reporting features could be improved."
"Another thing is that Defender for Cloud uses more resources than CrowdStrike, which my current company uses. Defender for Cloud has two or three processes running simultaneously that consume memory and processor time. I had the chance to compare that with CrowdStrike a few days ago, which was significantly less. It would be nice if Defender were a little lighter. It's a relatively large installation that consumes more resources than competitors do."
"The documentation could be much clearer."
"Microsoft sources most of their threat intelligence internally, but I think they should open themselves up to bodies that provide feel intelligence to build a better engine. There may be threats out there that they don't report because their team is not doing anything on that and they don't have arrangements with another party that is involved in that research."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"This is a worldwide service and depending on the country, there will be different prices."
"The cost of the license is based on the subscriptions that you have."
"There is a helpful cost-reducing option that allows you to integrate production subscriptions with non-production subscriptions."
"It has global licensing. It comes with multiple licenses since there are around 50,000 people (in our organization) who look at it."
"Defender for Cloud is pretty costly for a single line. It's incredibly high to pay monthly for security per server. The cost is considerable for an enterprise with 500-plus virtual machines, and the monthly bill can spike."
"I am not involved in this area. However, I believe its price is okay because even small customers are using Azure Security Center. I don't think it is very expensive."
"Defender's basic version is free, which is good. Many of our teams are evaluating the paid version against third-party products."
"The price of the solution is good for the features we receive and there is an additional cost for Microsoft premier support. However, some of my potential customers have found it to be expensive and have gone on to choose another solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise49
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Google Cloud Run?
If speaking about improvements for Google Cloud Run, I think they could reduce the cold starts and manage to configure a set number of minimum instances to keep the instances in a warm phase. Addit...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Run?
In my day-to-day work, I use Google Cloud Run for managing and running cluster and containerized applications on the Google Kubernetes Engine and Google Console. I have created multiple application...
What advice do you have for others considering Google Cloud Run?
If any organization has a lot of load on their Google Kubernetes Engine or on Google Cloud, they can easily switch to Google Cloud Run and should start using it because it will help them in many wa...
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 across your ecosystem. It also has great remote workforce capabilities and supports a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Cloud?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing was that the license cost was the only consideration. Setup and support had no issues.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Cloud?
To improve Microsoft Defender for Cloud, I think pricing-wise, the license price is a little bit higher from an ingestion cost perspective. Depending on what license you choose, you might have to p...
 

Also Known As

Google Cloud Functions, Google Run, GCF
Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is trusted by companies such as ASOS, Vatenfall, SWC Technology Partners, and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Cloud Run vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.