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Microsoft Defender for Identity vs NetWitness Platform comparison

The compared Microsoft and NetWitness solutions aren't in the same category. Microsoft is ranked #3 in ITDR , with an average rating of 8.7, and holds a 11.4% mindshare in the category. NetWitness is ranked #34 in Log Management , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 75% of NetWitness users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Defender for Iden...

Read 28 Microsoft Defender for Identity reviews

6,602 Views
3,301 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NetWitness Platform

Read 36 NetWitness Platform reviews

2,362 Views
1,252 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender for Iden...

NetWitness Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Defender for Identity and NetWitness Platform based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. NetWitness Platform Report (Updated: September 2022).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. NetWitness Platform

September 2022

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Helped 885,444 peers since 2012

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

Microsoft Defender for Iden...

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (8th), Microsoft Security Suite (5th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (3rd)

NetWitness Platform

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Log Management (34th), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (33rd)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Security Software solutions, they serve different purposes. Microsoft Defender for Identity is designed for Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) and holds a mindshare of 11.4%, down 18.8% compared to last year.
NetWitness Platform, on the other hand, focuses on Log Management, holds 0.8% mindshare, up 0.3% since last year.

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Identity	11.4%
CrowdStrike Falcon	14.0%
Microsoft Entra ID Protection	7.1%
Other	67.5%

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)

Log Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
NetWitness Platform	0.8%
Wazuh	7.5%
Splunk Enterprise Security	6.8%
Other	84.9%

Log Management

Featured Reviews

Oluwa Adetunji

CyberSecurity Engineer | Information Security Management at Self Employed

Automation and threat intelligence streamline threat response and user management

In Microsoft Defender for Identity, I would appreciate improvements in providing information on conditional access. They have added more control that can be put in place, which was not present years ago. They have also integrated Azure Information Protection where policies can be configured. The Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) allows users to reset their passwords, which is a valuable tool for remote workers. They have added more features into conditional access that integrate with other components, including SSPR and Identity Information Protection, trusted IPs, and locations. These configurations in trusted IP addresses are integrated into conditional access and control the applications I want to secure. Regarding impossible travel scenarios, I can either block the user or grant access while requesting multi-factor authentication. They should improve the automation for impossible travel detection. When connected to Wi-Fi and then to VPN, the system sometimes interprets the IP address change as impossible travel. If Microsoft could develop a feature that indicates when impossible travel is caused by VPN connections, it would prevent unnecessary password resets and session disruptions, especially for VIP users in organizations.

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MOTASHIM Al Razi

CISO at One Bank Limited

It is a stable solution, but they should make the user interface easier to understand

The solution's initial setup takes work. We have to organize multiple paths and many features. The deployment process takes less than a week. But it takes a month to complete if we want to make the solution smarter by integrating it with various devices. I rate the process as a six out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The feature I like most is that you can create your own customized detection rules. It has a lot of default alerts and rules, but you can customize them according to your business needs."

"Auto-remediation is a valuable feature applied to Microsoft Defender for Identity, reducing the burden of investigating false positives."

"Microsoft is a big company."

"We use AD Connect to sync on-premises AD to Azure AD, and so far, it has been effective."

"Defender for Identity has not affected the end-user experience."

"All the integration it has with different Microsoft packages, like Teams and Office, is good."

"The most valuable aspect is its connection to Microsoft Sentinel and Defender for Endpoint, and giving exact timelines for incidents and when certain events occured during an incident."

"The basic security monitoring at its core feature is the most valuable aspect. But also the investigative parts, the historical logging of events over the network are extremely interesting because it gives an in-depth insight into the history of account activity that is really easy to read, easy to follow, and easy to export."

More Microsoft Defender for Identity pros

"The most valuable features are the packet decoder, log decoder, and concentrator."

"The development of use cases on the SSA console is quite user friendly. This means that the security analyst or the researcher does not have to learn another language."

"It's quite economical compared to other solutions in the market."

"The most valuable features are its ingestion of logs and raising of alerts based on those logs."

"The most valuable feature is the security that it provides."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to write rules and triggers for network communication, and then being able to investigate based on that."

"Offers a good wireless feature."

"Overall, it is easy to implement."

More NetWitness Platform pros

Cons

"Microsoft Defender for Identity does not save me time, but I think it is the way that I secure the data."

"We observe a lot of false positives. Sometimes, when we go for a coffee break, we lock our screens. Locking the screen has a separate Windows event ID and sometimes I see it is detected as a failed login."

"I would like to be able to do remediation from the platform because it is just a scanner right now. If you onboard a device, it shows you what is happening, but you can't use it to fix things."

"The solution should provide more detailed data regarding anomaly detections."

"The impact of the sensors on the domain controllers can be quite high depending on your loads."

"The impact of the sensors on the domain controllers can be quite high depending on your loads. I don't know if there's any room for improvement there, but that's one of the things that might be improved."

"The solution could be better at using group-managed access and they could replace it with broad-based access controls."

"I would like to be able to do remediation from the platform because it is just a scanner right now. If you onboard a device, it shows you what is happening, but you can't use it to fix things. You need to go into the system to fix it instead."

More Microsoft Defender for Identity cons

"RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets can improve the threat level aspect, it is lacking compared to other solutions."

"The solution should have more integration capabilities with different platforms."

"Lots of competing products have vulnerability protection built into their products, and this solution would be improved by including that support."

"The initial setup was complex because it took a lot of time to complete the implementation."

"One thing to be improved in NetWitness is the capability to correlate event logs in a general sense."

"Log aggregation is an issue with this solution because there are a huge number of alerts in a single instance."

"It is overly complicated. It has taken years to implement and the return on investment just isn't there."

"I'd like to see improvement in its ease of use. It's basically unusable. It's overly complex."

More NetWitness Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Microsoft Defender for Identity comes as part of the Microsoft E5 licensing stack."

"You won't be able to change your tenants from where you deploy them. For example, if you select Canada, they will charge you based on Canadian pricing. If you are also in London, when you deploy in Canada, the pound is higher than Canadian dollars, but your platform resources are billable in Canadian dollars. Using your pounds to pay for any of these things will be cheaper. Or, if you deploy in London, they will charge you based on your local currency."

"The product is costly, and we had multiple discussions with accounting to receive a discounted rate. However, on the open market, the tool is expensive."

"It is very affordable considering that other SIEM solutions are much more expensive and have many more licensing restrictions and fees."

"Defender for Identity is a little more expensive than other Microsoft products. Identity and Microsoft Defender for Cloud are both a bit costly."

"It is cheap."

"The product price was reasonable for my region and the market."

"The licenses are good but the cost is very expensive."

"The NetWitness Platform may be affordable only for enterprise-level customers, as it may not be within the budget of small and medium-sized businesses."

"RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets do not have a subscription model, it's a one-time purchase. There is only a perpetual license."

"It’s cheaper to run virtual machines in a VMware environment."

"Many clients are not able to purchase the packet capability because there is a huge amount of data, and the cost depends on the number of EPS (Events per second), as well as the number of gigabytes of data per day."

"This is a pricey solution; it's not cheap."

More NetWitness Platform pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) solutions are best for your needs.

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885,444 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Comparison Review

Vinod Shankar

Manager, Enterprise Risk Consulting at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Feb 26, 2015

HP ArcSight vs. IBM QRadar vs. McAfee Nitro vs. Splunk vs. RSA Security vs. LogRhythm

We at Infosecnirvana.com have done several posts on SIEM. After the Dummies Guide on SIEM, we are following it up with a SIEM Product Comparison – 101 deck. So, here it is for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think by posting your comments below. The key products compared here are…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

11%

Construction Company

Performing Arts

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	20

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Identity?

I really would have to sit down to think about how Microsoft Defender for Identity can be improved. I didn't take stock in what needs to be improved because I appreciated having the tools right the...

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What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Identity?

My main use cases for Microsoft Defender for Identity include Conditional Access, checking risky users, remediating risky users, and user sign-ins. I can easily remediate or determine what the user...

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What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Defender for Identity?

I don't really use Microsoft Defender for Identity a lot because my new role doesn't allow me to take time to do so. I don't really use the threat intelligence feature of Microsoft Defender for Ide...

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What do you like most about NetWitness Platform?

The product's initial setup phase was not at all difficult.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetWitness Platform?

The pricing is comparable to others, and I consider the cost to be intermediate. Specific cost details are unknown to me.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetWitness Platform?

There is currently no need for improvement in the SIEM ( /categories/security-information-and-event-management-siem ), though there could be potential enhancements by integrating with AI.

See all answers

Comparisons

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID Protection vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 4% of the time

BloodHound Enterprise vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Identity Competitors

IBM Security QRadar vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 7% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 6% of the time

RSA enVision vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 4% of the time

Elastic Security vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 4% of the time

Sumo Logic Security vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 4% of the time

More NetWitness Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Identity

March 2026

Download Microsoft Defender for Identity product report

Buyer's Guide

NetWitness Platform

March 2026

Download NetWitness Platform product report

Also Known As

Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity

RSA Security Analytics

Overview

Microsoft Defender for Identity offers real-time threat detection and protection for hybrid Active Directory environments. It integrates with Microsoft 365 components for seamless security and monitors advanced behaviors, enhancing identity protection across cloud and on-premises environments.

Microsoft Defender for Identity provides detailed threat insights and user behavior analytics to detect unauthorized access and notify anomalies. It allows setting custom detection rules, enhancing threat response automation. While it needs improvements in cloud security, SIEM integration, and access controls, users leverage its ability to mitigate identity threats like suspicious logins and ransomware. Enhanced integration with Microsoft security products ensures a coordinated threat response for identity control and privilege management.

What are the key features of Microsoft Defender for Identity?

Active Directory Federation: Seamlessly integrates with Microsoft 365 for comprehensive security.
Real-time Security Monitoring: Provides immediate insights into advanced user behaviors and potential threats.
Threat Insights: Delivers detailed analysis of threats with the ability to customize detection rules.
User Behavior Analytics: Analyzes user activities to detect anomalies and potential risks.
Identity Protection: Offers comprehensive protection in both cloud and on-premises environments.

What benefits should users expect from reviews of Microsoft Defender for Identity?

Unauthorized Access Prevention: Identifies potential unauthorized activities with advanced detection mechanisms.
Anomaly Notification: Alerts users to unexpected activities within their environments.
Threat Response Automation: Facilitates rapid response to threats with automated solutions.
Enhanced Cloud Security: Strengthens identity management across hybrid and cloud frameworks.

In specific industries, organizations implement Microsoft Defender for Identity to secure on-premises and hybrid Active Directory environments through user and entity behavior analytics, malicious activity detection, and integration with Microsoft security tools. This approach enhances security posture assessment and helps mitigate identity threats like identity harvesting and unauthorized access.

Microsoft

NetWitness Platform is an evolved SIEM and threat detection and response solution that functions as a single, unified platform for ALL your security data. It features an advanced analyst workbench for triaging alerts and incidents, and it orchestrates security operations programs end to end. In short: NetWitness Platform is all you need to run an intelligent SOC.

NetWitness

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.

Los Angeles World Airports, Reply

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. NetWitness Platform

September 2022

Free Report: Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. NetWitness Platform

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. NetWitness Platform and other solutions. Updated: September 2022.

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See our Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. NetWitness Platform report.

We monitor all Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.