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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
15th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
2.2
Number of Reviews
6
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 (5th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (4th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (5th), Microsoft Security Suite (7th), Compliance Management (4th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

AS
Technical Lead at a construction company with 1-10 employees
Microservices deployment has become faster and cost optimization is driving daily development
While Google Cloud Run does a great job of reducing costs, to mitigate cold starts, users can set minimum instances, but scaling to zero costs has become a cost-saving advantage even when idle, and idle instance costs might occur. This can be avoided because whenever a heavy container causes a cold start, it affects latency and sensitivity of the application. 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. It is difficult to identify the bug because it is often due to the idleness of the application and not the code, which can be quite frustrating. Additionally, simple tasks for developers who just want to run a few lines of code can be more complex. I would say optimizing concurrency can improve the experience; currently, managing multiple containers in a single Google Cloud Run instance becomes quite difficult, especially tasks such as logging and local proxy monitoring. Google provides fully orchestrated alternatives, but Cloud Run is better for scaling. Slowness in applications is a notable issue.
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 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 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 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."
"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."
"In Google Cloud Run, we are mainly using the feature where we can directly pull images from Docker Hub."
"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."
"The features that Azure Security Center provides from a security point of view are amazing."
"The solution has improved our organization in terms of benchmarking, our Secure Score has improved a lot, and we're compliant with particular benchmarks."
"There is no better tool found to protect workloads in Azure than Microsoft Defender for Cloud."
"Microsoft Defender for Cloud is stable and reliable as advertised."
"Azure Security Center has helped to improve our security posture."
"The most valuable feature is the regulatory compliance aspect, where we utilize predefined initiatives like NIST."
"Microsoft Defender for Cloud has significantly enhanced our overall security posture by approximately 20 to 25 percent."
"One of the features that I like about the solution is it is both a hybrid cloud and also multi-cloud. We never know what company we're going to buy, and therefore we are ready to go. If they have GCP or AWS, we have support for that as well. It offers a single-panel blast across multiple clouds."
 

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."
"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."
"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 where Google Cloud Run could improve."
"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."
"I would like to have the ability to customize executive reporting."
"I rate Microsoft support five out of 10. It's difficult to get the necessary support when tickets are first opened."
"Microsoft Graph needs improvement."
"Microsoft has much room for improvement regarding the support for Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Their competitors are much better regarding support."
"One of the main challenges that we have been facing with Azure Security Center is the cost. The costs are really a complex calculation, e.g., to calculate the monthly costs. Azure is calculating on an hourly basis for use of the resource. Because of this, we found it really complex to promote what will be our costs for the next couple of months. I think if Azure could reduce the complex calculation and come up with straightforward cost mapping that would be very useful from a product point of view."
"The range of workloads is broad, but we'd love to add more workloads and make it a single security solution that covers all those workloads."
"The overview provides you with good information, but if you want more details, there is a lot more customization to do, which requires knowledge of the other supporting solutions."
"The solution could improve by being more intuitive and easier to use requiring less technical knowledge."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Security Center charges $15 per resource for any workload that you onboard into it. They charge per VM or per data-base server or per application. It's not like Microsoft 365 licensing, where there are levels like E3 and E5. Security Center is pretty straightforward."
"Currently, Microsoft offers only one plan at the enterprise level which is $15 per machine."
"Azure Defender is a bit pricey. The price could be lower."
"Microsoft's licensing and pricing are sometimes complicated. If someone is new to Microsoft's licensing, they might have difficulty with it."
"There are two different plans. We're using the secure basic plan, but we have used the end security plan as well. There are additional costs, but it gives us more functionalities compared to the basic plan."
"Defender's basic version is free, which is good. Many of our teams are evaluating the paid version against third-party products."
"It has global licensing. It comes with multiple licenses since there are around 50,000 people (in our organization) who look at it."
"Pricing is a consideration, but we strive to keep costs low by enabling only necessary services."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise49
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Google Cloud Run?
While Google Cloud Run does a great job of reducing costs, to mitigate cold starts, users can set minimum instances, but scaling to zero costs has become a cost-saving advantage even when idle, and...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Run?
I am mainly using Google Cloud Run for running microservices and its web APIs, creating GraphQL APIs and validation. I also use it for event-driven processing, uploading files into cloud storage, a...
What advice do you have for others considering Google Cloud Run?
Google Cloud Run is something I have worked with and I have experience using it. The platform is very user-friendly, simple, and easy to use. The portability is highly portable. Google handles its ...
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: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.