We are using Microsoft Defender XDR for our endpoint, desktop, and laptop protection.
Cloud Architect at Vision Bank
Helps extend its protection to third-party applications, stops malware attacks, and reduces costs
Pros and Cons
- "Scanning, vulnerability reporting, and the dashboard are the most valuable features."
- "While the XDR platform offers valuable functionalities, it falls short of other solutions in its ability to deliver a cohesive identity experience."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Microsoft Defender can extend its protection to the third-party applications we use, which is helpful.
Microsoft Defender XDR not only helps stop malware attacks but also offers advanced attack prevention features to safeguard against sophisticated threats.
Our environment is multi-tenant, and Microsoft Defender XDR offers seamless integration. Its ability to respond to threats across the multi-tenants is good.
It helps our security team by automating tasks, providing detailed reports, safeguarding our systems, and enabling historical analysis.
It has helped to reduce some of our costs by almost $10,000 per month.
Microsoft Defender XDR is easy to manage, saving our security team time.
What is most valuable?
Scanning, vulnerability reporting, and the dashboard are the most valuable features.
What needs improvement?
While the XDR platform offers valuable functionalities, it falls short of other solutions in its ability to deliver a cohesive identity experience. To address this limitation, integrating MDR as part of the XDR experience and incorporating the latest advancements into Microsoft Defender XDR are crucial steps.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Defender XDR
August 2025

Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Defender XDR. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2025.
867,445 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Defender XDR for over three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Defender XDR is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We can scale up with Microsoft Defender XDR with no problems.
How are customer service and support?
We have a dedicated account manager who handles our support requests. We submit our requests through a ticketing system, and they respond promptly.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We also use CrowdStrike. Both have advanced capabilities and are easy to manage. We have them integrated with multiple tenants but for different products.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment was straightforward and took one to two days to complete.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
While Microsoft Defender XDR carries a higher cost, its ease of use compared to Defender may justify the investment.
What other advice do I have?
Although I would rate Microsoft Defender XDR eight out of ten, its visibility suffers when used with third-party applications and non-Azure cloud platforms.
While the implementation itself is straightforward, troubleshooting, log creation, and monitoring can be challenging. This solution may be suitable for Microsoft-centric environments, but its visibility suffers in scenarios with multiple third-party solutions or hybrid deployments.
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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

IT Development Manager, Architect, Developer at Miltel Communications LTD
It gives you reports and updates about the latest hotfixes and zero-day vulnerabilities
Pros and Cons
- "I like Defender XDR's reports and alerts. They give you updates about the latest hotfixes and zero-day vulnerabilities, which gives me all the information I need to maintain my servers."
- "Defender's AI for identifying suspicious activity could be improved. Also, I do a lot of home updates. Maybe there is a way to set it up faster. For example, let's say that I want to automatically update seven computers, servers, etc. I wouldn't do it to a user, but maybe the server. I don't mind if the server restarts automatically."
What is our primary use case?
We're a small business. Defender XDR gives us a centralized security solution for monitoring our servers and some user PCs. We have around 30 machines, 10 of which are servers.
How has it helped my organization?
Defender XDR saves the security team time by telling us what patches to apply. We also get preemptive notes about things that need to be done.
What is most valuable?
I like Defender XDR's reports and alerts. They give you updates about the latest hotfixes and zero-day vulnerabilities, which gives me all the information I need to maintain my servers.
What needs improvement?
Defender's AI for identifying suspicious activity could be improved. Also, I do a lot of home updates. Maybe there is a way to set it up faster. For example, let's say that I want to automatically update seven computers, servers, etc. I wouldn't do it to a user, but maybe the server. I don't mind if the server restarts automatically.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Defender XDR for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Defender XDR is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Defender is scalable. I haven't had any issues with that part.
How are customer service and support?
Microsoft support is good. I usually don't contact them directly. We have a support partner. If there's an issue, they can resolve it with Microsoft quickly.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Symantec antivirus. We're a small company, so switching wasn't a big deal. We switched because Symantec discontinued the solution we were using. They actually don't sell it anymore.
I wasn't involved in the decision to purchase Defender XDR. We are a small company, so we needed a vendor to support SMEs, and Microsoft caters to businesses of all sizes. We checked some other solutions but went with Defender because we're already on Azure, so the solutions complement each other.
How was the initial setup?
Deploying Defender XDR was easy. Our external security guy handled most of the settings and onboarding, and our IT guy handled a few of the problematic cases. Most of the maintenance was automatic.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't know the exact pricing, but I believe Defender offered the best small business solution for the price.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Microsoft Defender XDR nine out of 10. I don't have experience with other XDRs that I can compare it to, but I think Defender is an excellent solution. It's fairly easy to understand and navigate, and it's a good value.
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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Defender XDR
August 2025

Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Defender XDR. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2025.
867,445 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Enables users to access any application and system within the organization
Pros and Cons
- "The best feature is probably the alert generation. When I do a security reset, the other session triggers instantly from the Defender console, and I can work on it. The policies are three times, but they are also ready to install it."
- "Defender XDR could provide recommendations for threat-hunting queries. Some people do not know how to write an advanced threat query, so we need to spend time training them."
What is our primary use case?
We use Defender XDR to assign roles and monitor based on the analytics report from Microsoft.
How has it helped my organization?
Defender XDR has improved the organization's confidentiality. If there's a DLP violation, such as someone sharing documents inappropriately, a notification will automatically trigger. Defender stops the movement of advanced attacks. We first need to set up some independent indicators of compromise. The IOCs are connected to some attack surface reduction rules.
We get alerts if someone tries installing something on the system or adding an external hard drive. We get security recommendations from Microsoft, but our security implements them on their own. We don't use the AI feature. We see significant time savings from the alerts based on the indicators of compromise. It saves us about 10 to 15 percent.
What is most valuable?
The best feature is probably the alert generation. When I do a security reset, the other session triggers instantly from the Defender console, and I can work on it. The policies are three times, but they are also ready to install it.
The identity management feature is something we need for our use case. It wraps up the access management and XDR components, so it's not just Defender. It works well with Azure AD for access management. I didn't think I needed identity and access management in the past, but it's nice to have if you're performing a significant migration on a tight schedule.
Defender XDR's coverage extends beyond Microsoft technologies. It covers all the endpoints of users in the organization. I can manage access to any application and system within the organization.
What needs improvement?
Defender XDR could provide recommendations for threat-hunting queries. Some people do not know how to write an advanced threat query, so we need to spend time training them.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have used Defender XDR for about 15 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate Defender XDR 10 out of 10 for stability. It's a stable solution. We've had no outages.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability depends on the number of licenses you can purchase. If I want to add more endpoints or solutions from Microsoft XDR, I have to pay more. The scale depends on the pricing.
How are customer service and support?
I rate Microsoft support eight out of 10. Some cases are easy fixes, so they don't take much time, whereas some of our more complex tickets take some time.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've also worked with Trellix. Microsoft provides better recommendations for protecting our tools, devices, and files. Trellix has XDR capabilities, too, but Microsoft's recommendations are more robust.
How was the initial setup?
Defender XDR is a SaaS solution. The deployment is ongoing because we're constantly onboarding and retiring endpoints. Microsoft handles most of the maintenance for it. It rarely requires maintenance from our end.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Defender XDR is fairly priced and cost-effective.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Microsoft Defender XDR eight out of 10. If you want to implement this product, you should have a team who understands the product well. It's SaaS-based, so the Microsoft team is delivering everything to you. However, you still need to know the product.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
SecOps Lead at Barco
Works very well for vulnerability management but doesn't have many features available in other solutions
Pros and Cons
- "The portal is quite user-friendly. There is integration with Office, Intune, and other products from the same portal. From there, we can see which policies are installed on a particular machine. We also can manage devices, groups, and tagging."
- "The patching capability should be there. Patching is something that you cannot do even though you see the vulnerabilities present in your environment. For patching, you have to depend on another solution."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Microsoft Defender for Office 365 for identity and email security, safe links, etc.
How has it helped my organization?
It works as an antivirus, and it also works for any behavioral issues in a particular machine. It protects all the applications from any vulnerability. It works in both ways. It works for vulnerability management and also for the EDR part. Earlier, we had Qualys for vulnerability management, but Microsoft Defender takes care of both. It provides information about how vulnerable a machine is, and it also takes care of the antivirus and behavioral issues in a particular machine due to some threats or any unwanted applications installed.
It helps us manage vulnerabilities. If there are any vulnerabilities in a machine due to a lack of patches or end-of-life software installed on the machine, it gives us the report. After seeing the report, we can fix those vulnerabilities by uninstalling the vulnerable applications or by patching them.
It takes care of the antivirus part. The signatures are constantly getting updated related to new viruses. It covers any identity-related issues or device-specific issues. It covers the MITRE framework. If any threat or risk is present in our environment, it takes care of that and then tells us that these are the issues that we need to work on. After we get the alerts, we do the investigation and remediation.
It provides unified identity and access management. You can create role-based access. You can create policies based on different risk levels. You can also trigger password resets. There are a lot of capabilities that are built in. You can also create conditional access (CA) policies. If any vulnerable application is installed on a device, you do not want that device to be connected to your network, you can create conditional access policies. It will first check whether the integrity of the device is as per your organization's requirements. If it is compliant, then only that device will be allowed to connect to your network. The same goes for identity. If MFA is enabled in your environment, the users will be allowed to connect only if their accounts have MFA enabled. Otherwise, the access is blocked. You can automate such things.
It is important that identity and access management are included in Microsoft Defender rather than needing an additional solution. Nowadays, you see a lot of phishing emails and unsecure links being forwarded to user accounts. In Microsoft Defender, we have secure links and safe links. Once enabled, if any malicious link is sent to a user account, when the user clicks on a link, it immediately checks whether it is safe to access. If it is found to be malicious, it is immediately blocked. If a user mistakenly clicks on a link, the risk state is changed automatically in the web portal. If you have a conditional policy in place, the access is blocked for that user. Even if the attackers have access, they will not be able to do anything. In today's scenario, it is pretty important to have these in place.
As of now, the integration part is pretty limited to Microsoft products. However, by using Sentinel, which is a SIEM solution, you can integrate other products.
It stops the lateral movement of advanced attacks like ransomware or business email compromise. You can create lateral movement policies, and you also can create high-risk users or high-risk devices. You can have customized policies for them. You can create different policies, and the alerts triggered from those devices or users are put into high severity so that you can take immediate action.
You get the telemetry of any attack observed by Microsoft Defender. You can see everything from the starting point till the remediation steps automatically taken by Microsoft Defender. The investigations can be found easily. They are pretty detailed. Everything is there in the portal.
It has the ability to adapt to evolving threats. Threat intelligence is embedded in the portal itself for new threats, technologies, ransomware, or malware. All the latest threats are automatically handled by Microsoft Defender. Remediation is also automatically available.
It saves time. There is automatic remediation, and there are playbooks that you can configure. You can automate the remediation steps that you have already tried on a particular machine. If you want to suppress some of the alerts, you can create suppression rules so that your team does not spend time investigating them. Playbooks, automatic remediation, and suppression of similar alerts save a lot of time.
What is most valuable?
Vulnerability management is valuable. We had a different product for vulnerability management. We were using Qualys for that, but after we got Microsoft Defender, we also got the vulnerability management part. It is embedded in the portal itself. We do not have to look into another solution or tool. We did not have to install any additional sensor which reduces the overhead and does not affect the machine's capability. With the same sensor, we get the vulnerability report and threat report. We also get to know any risks and issues related to malware and other things.
The portal is quite user-friendly. There is integration with Office, Intune, and other products from the same portal. From there, we can see which policies are installed on a particular machine. We also can manage devices, groups, and tagging. For a different set of teams or departments, we can create different device groups. Based on the teams and their work portfolio, we can create different policies. It is quite handy, whereas with the Qualys solution, the portal was quite cluttered. To find a particular option, we had to look at many options, whereas Microsoft Defender is quite user-friendly.
We are also getting all the reports by using the same sensor. It is light on the machines as well. It consumes less resources than other solutions available in the market.
It is evolving. We are seeing new advancements and integrations. They have integrated Copilot, so going forward, we can take the AI advantage. It will be quite easy for us to run any queries. These are the advantages that I see in Microsoft Defender in comparison to others.
What needs improvement?
The patching capability should be there. Patching is something that you cannot do even though you see the vulnerabilities present in your environment. For patching, you have to depend on another solution.
Other than that, there are still limitations in creating device groups. You can create tags, but these tags are based on limited options. There are only a few categories based on which you can create a tag or device group. If there are other conditions that you want to put, such as creating a group based on the application installed on a particular machine, you cannot do that. There are some shortcomings. Also, if you want to whitelist a particular application for a set of groups, you cannot do that. We had an incident where we wanted to whitelist a particular application that was getting blocked by Microsoft Defender, but we were not able to create those groups. We were not able to whitelist the application for some of the devices. We had to whitelist it for the whole environment, which we did not want to do.
It only has pre-built dashboards. You cannot create customized dashboards. They have a set of dashboards, but they are not customizable.
We can create reports using KQL, but it is hard to create customized reports using KQL. You get a CSV, but you need to use Power BI or another reporting product to create the report. The other products available in the market give you customized dashboards, customized reporting, and customized workflows. This is pending in Microsoft Defender.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with this solution for 1.5 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a Microsoft product. It is similar to any other Microsoft product in terms of stability. They do change the name and other functionalities, but it is pretty much similar to any other Microsoft product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is pretty scalable. It does not stop you anywhere.
I am working in an MNC. We have more than 6,000 people.
How are customer service and support?
It depends upon the license that you have. They have a different set of licenses based on which you get support. It depends on the support packages you have purchased.
It is very easy to raise a request. They have a portal. From there, you can create a ticket by email or by chat. The response is based on the support package that you have. If you have premium support, you can get a response in minutes.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In my previous organization, I worked with Palo Alto XDR. In this organization, we had McAfee, which is a signature-based solution. Microsoft Defender is more advanced than McAfee. It is EDR-based, whereas McAfree was signature-based. It was based on the signatures related to a particular threat or virus. It was handling threat prevention, but behavioral analysis and other functionalities that you see in EDRs were not there. We wanted to move to a behavioral-based antivirus solution. That is why we opted for Microsoft Defender.
Microsoft Defender also enabled us to discontinue the Qualys solution. It has many capabilities related to vulnerability management. They are available out of the box, but patching is something that is missing. For patching, you need to use Intune, whereas, in Qualys, you can also do patching, so patching is something that is missing in Microsoft Defender. However, Microsoft Defender is very good for the assessment of vulnerabilities.
You also get visibility of the devices that are still not onboarded to Microsoft Defender. You have something called Device Discovery in Microsoft Defender. Once enabled, you can get details of all the machines that still do not have Defender, whereas, in Qualys, you have to create customized or scheduled scans of your network. They then run on a periodic basis, but that is not the case with Microsoft Defender. It is on a real-time basis. The Microsoft Defender client continuously does the scanning, and you get visibility into all the machines on your network that still do not have Microsoft Defender onboarded. However, you cannot do patching with Microsoft Defender.
Microsoft Defender can save costs. Qualys is pretty expensive. Microsoft Defender does vulnerability management out of the box, so if you do not want to do patching and you have another solution for patching, you can save costs. It also has out-of-the-box functionality for identity protection.
How was the initial setup?
It is deployed on a public cloud. If you do not have people in your team who know about this product, Microsoft can give you a vendor to help with deployment, creating the policies, etc.
Overall, it is pretty straightforward because Microsoft Defender is enabled on all Windows machines. All you need to do is to activate the sensor that is already installed. The installation process is not much, but if you want somebody to help you, Microsoft can help you with a list of vendors at a particular location. The vendor can help you with configuring the policies and activating different licenses.
Documentation is available on the Microsoft portal to help you create policies and go forward as per your environment.
What about the implementation team?
We took help from somebody for implementation.
It does not require a lot of people because it is a cloud solution and the sensor is already available in the machine itself. It does not require a lot of manpower to get started with Microsoft Defender and do a migration. However, it also depends on how big your organization is. If it is an MNC with a presence in multiple countries, you might need at least one person per region. If any hands-on support is required on a client machine, you can do troubleshooting remotely or provide on-site support. If you have only one site, you do not need much manpower. A single person can do it.
Its maintenance is similar to any other solution. If you are changing any policy, you have to test them before putting them into production. Apart from that, it does not require anything. The Defender updates are automatically available. You can push them through your patching solution. Its maintenance is not hard.
What other advice do I have?
Every organization has different requirements. In my previous organization, we opted for Palo Alto even though we had Defender and CrowdStrike. CrowdStrike is also a best-in-class solution, but we opted for Palo Alto because it was giving something that was a requirement. In that organization, we also wanted to do some management. We wanted to run some scripts through our XDR solution. CrowdStrike had some limitations. We also wanted to do a console login for a particular machine. CrowdStrike gave that functionality, but it was pretty limited, whereas, in Palo Alto, it was limitless. We could straightaway see the files present on a machine by using the console view. We could run a different set of queries. It did not matter whether we were running a PowerShell script, a Python script, or any other language script because the compiler was embedded in the sensor. Palo Alto met the needs of that company. For the use cases, it was the best fit.
In my current organization, the use cases are different. We only wanted an EDR solution. Also, because most of the products in our environment are from Microsoft, the integration with them was pretty easy. That is why we opted for Microsoft Defender. An organization should look at its use cases and then decide on an EDR/XDR solution.
Comparing Microsoft Defender's EDR capabilities with other solutions, I would recommend going for another solution available in the market. I would rate it a 6 out of 10 because there are a lot of things that are available in other solutions, such as doing a remote of a particular machine and running other language scripts. Other solutions are also better in terms of the isolation of a particular device, removal from the isolation, and granularity of security control. I am not comparing it with others for vulnerability management because Palo Alto or CrowdStrike do not do that. If there are any vulnerabilities and you want to fix them, you have to do all the work.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Chief Information Officer at a university with 501-1,000 employees
Robust security with seamless integration into the Microsoft ecosystem
Pros and Cons
- "Its most significant advantage lies in its affordability."
- "The management features could be improved, particularly in terms of better integration with Intune, Microsoft's cloud-based management solution."
What is our primary use case?
It is a universal security tool across our organization, catering to staff members using standard laptops and PCs. Currently, we employ an in-house solution built upon a smaller product from a Finnish company.
Although it integrates with Microsoft AD, our solution remains somewhat proprietary as we've independently implemented and tailored it to our specific needs.
We do not leverage the multi-tenant management capabilities of the solution. In our scenario, we operate as a single organization, allowing us to utilize a straightforward, single-setup approach.
How has it helped my organization?
The identity protection offered by the solution has proven highly effective for us because we developed it in-house. Crafting it ourselves has allowed us to seamlessly integrate all of our specifications with the solution within a relatively short timeframe.
The significance of using the identity and access management integrated into Microsoft 365 Defender cannot be overstated, as it is vital for the proper functioning of the product. While it is crucial, the available functionality might not be entirely sufficient. We have opted for our in-house solution to complement and address the additional requirements.
It empowers us to phase out the use of other security products.
What is most valuable?
Its most significant advantage lies in its affordability. Being an integral part of the Microsoft Stack, it comes with a cost-effective package. Especially for higher education, there's an appealing pricing structure.
What needs improvement?
The management features could be improved, particularly in terms of better integration with Intune, Microsoft's cloud-based management solution. Enhanced integration would contribute to a smoother user experience, and ease of use is a key aspect that could benefit from such improvements.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using it for approximately four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It has demonstrated exceptional stability, with no concerns or complaints on my end.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It exhibits sufficient scalability for our specific needs.
How are customer service and support?
We utilize extended support for Microsoft's stability, and the quality is excellent.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Within our network, we incorporate Cisco products, utilizing various security features and functionalities offered by Cisco. For instance, our firewalls are implemented using Cisco technologies. This adds diversity to our security landscape, as Microsoft alone may not cover all our security needs.
What about the implementation team?
It has been implemented across various locations, spanning our three campuses and multiple departments. Maintenance is handled by a team of four people.
What was our ROI?
It didn't contribute to cost reduction. Our expenditure has maintained a consistent level, with little change over the years, aside from factors like inflation.
Using it has resulted in time savings for our security team. Currently, the team comprises approximately four individuals working with these technologies, equating to a total of four times thirty-seven hours per week.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It has consistently offered highly appealing academic pricing, with distinct rates for higher education and general educational purposes. This differential pricing is a significant factor and it influenced our choice to use Microsoft products.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.
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
Senior SOC Developer at XVE Security
Extends beyond Microsoft technologies, provides a centralized view, and reduces costs
Pros and Cons
- "The unified view of the threat landscape on a central dashboard is the most valuable feature."
- "The licensing is a nightmare and has room for improvement."
What is our primary use case?
We use Microsoft Defender XDR in our multi-tenant environment comprising Windows, Linux, and the Cloud.
We have Microsoft Defender deployed in a hybrid environment across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
How has it helped my organization?
Microsoft Defender XDR provides unified identity and access management. The identity protection the solution provides is good.
If we had to use a separate solution for identity and access management I believe the performance would be clunky.
Microsoft Defender XDR extends beyond just Microsoft technologies, encompassing a wider range of platforms and services. This broad coverage is a key strength of the solution.
Since implementing Microsoft Defender XDR, the centralized view and management console have been beneficial.
Microsoft Defender XDR limits the lateral movement of advanced attacks.
It integrated seamlessly into our SIEM environment so there are no disruptions to our security operations.
The ability to adapt to evolving threats is critical as the landscape is expanding daily.
The multi-tenant management capabilities for investigating and responding to threats across tenants are good.
We are enabled us to discontinue the use of other vulnerability management tools.
The reduction in the number of vulnerability management tools we use has helped reduce manual operations.
Microsoft Defender XDR has helped reduce our costs by ten percent.
Microsoft Defender XDR has helped save our security team between five and ten percent of their time.
What is most valuable?
The unified view of the threat landscape on a central dashboard is the most valuable feature.
What needs improvement?
The naming convention keeps changing and has room for improvement.
The licensing is a nightmare and has room for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Defender XDR for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Defender XDR is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Microsoft Defender XDR is a SaaS product so it is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used VMware Carbon Black and switched to Microsoft Defender for the multi-cloud environment support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment is straightforward. We identify the critical assets and just deploy for those initially and then slowly roll out for the rest. Around five people were involved in the deployment.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was completed in-house.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Microsoft Defender XDR a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Sr enterprise compute and storage engineer at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Offers robust security coverage for diverse use cases while demonstrating high stability and support efficiency
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable aspect is undoubtedly the exploration capability"
- "It would be beneficial to have a more seamless experience with everything consolidated in one place, particularly when dealing with aspects related to the Exchange console."
What is our primary use case?
Our main use cases include securing critical university services and establishing a research tenant for researchers to store and manage their findings across both everyday machines and dedicated research spaces. It involves dealing with malware and managing server security through tags. Additionally, a significant portion of our work involves exploring and investigating emails using the Explorer tool. It is well-suited for addressing these scenarios and ensuring robust security measures.
How has it helped my organization?
It enables us to respond to incidents more swiftly, pinpointing root causes with greater speed. Retrieving emails is now a much smoother process compared to the previous method using Power Shell. With Explorer, it's a more straightforward and visually intuitive approach, eliminating the previous concerns associated with Query Drive and reducing any associated anxieties. It allowed us to phase out the use of other security products entirely. Initially, we managed this transition through SXM, and later migrated it to the online version of Defender. It has had a notable impact on the operations of our security team. We've had to reshape our procedures, particularly focusing on alerting. There has been a significant upskilling effort, shifting from the previous model where Cisco admins primarily dealt with alerts within SSC or through email.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable aspect is undoubtedly the exploration capability. Given that we are consistently engaged in exploration, constantly seeking reasons for message delivery issues and searching for malicious attachments, the Explorer feature stands out as the primary and most beneficial tool for our needs.
What needs improvement?
I'd like to see more integration with various components. While the ecosystem is quite impressive, there's a noticeable back-and-forth between the Defender console and the Exchange console. It would be beneficial to have a more seamless experience with everything consolidated in one place, particularly when dealing with aspects related to the Exchange console. Currently, we rely on a third-party service for the majority of our IAM needs. The data center extension of security coverage has proven to be highly significant for us. Given our extensive use of Linux and third-party applications, having the capability to monitor these aspects within the Defender console would be immensely valuable.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is quite high. Despite various outages, we've experienced consistent reliability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is indeed very impressive. We can deploy resources globally with just a few clicks, and the use of Terraform to create VMs adds a fast and efficient dimension to the process. In terms of end-users, if we focus on mail and overall usage, we currently have around 105,000 users of VMs. Specifically in Azure, we're nearing the 100,000 mark with more migrations in progress, making the average user count approximately 100,000.
How are customer service and support?
Microsoft support has been performing well, promptly addressing any conflicts that arise. Our account manager is quick to respond and provides additional resources when needed. The frequent check-ins, with calls every hour, contribute to a positive experience. I would rate it eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment was quite straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment process went smoothly, with check-ins and some policies to configure. Overall, it didn't feel cumbersome.
What was our ROI?
In the long term, there is potential for significant time savings for our security team. Although currently, many of us are investing time in upskilling and adapting to the new system, overall, I believe that as we become more familiar with it, there will be noticeable efficiency gains.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There has been a noticeable reduction in costs. We've managed to navigate it effectively through our enterprise agreement, and Microsoft's academic discounts have proven to be quite generous. The overall expense is significantly lower, approximately fifty percent less than what we would incur with a traditional enterprise license.
What other advice do I have?
Especially with an enterprise license, the transition is relatively low-risk. If you're currently using the old-school Defender SCCM, moving to the new system is not a challenging shift. It's worth picking a few machines, testing them out, and seeing if it suits your preferences. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Managing Director, TSG Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The product is scalable and provides summaries of emails, but it is full of bugs and crashes a lot
Pros and Cons
- "The summarization of emails is a valuable feature."
- "The tool gives inconsistent answers and crashes a lot."
What is most valuable?
The summarization of emails is a valuable feature. I get more than 1000 emails a day. It is hard to read them all. Summarization makes it a lot easier. The solution also provides transcription features.
What needs improvement?
It doesn't work in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint consistently. We find it full of bugs. It doesn't work properly. The tool gives inconsistent answers and crashes a lot. I spoke with the Microsoft team regarding these issues. The person I spoke to said that our expectation was too high and that we should have expected that it would only operate at 70% accuracy, which was a bit of a shock.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We use most of E3 and E5. We're using 92% of the catalog. Everything runs in the cloud. In the past six months, there have been incidents where the cloud has had some issues. We've escalated them to Microsoft and have had a conversation about stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The tool is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The support is decent. It could be better in certain circumstances. Overall, it's acceptable for what we need it for.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using a Symantec tool before. We stopped using it because we were exiting a relationship with the Symantec tools. We chose Microsoft Defender for Office 365 because we had a relationship with Microsoft, and it did similar things to what we used the Symantec tool for. It was an easy choice.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex. It doesn't work. Semantic Index takes 48 hours. Getting people to onboard is not as simple as turning it on and making it work.
We have to ensure that we are teaching people about these tools, their value, and the use cases to determine whether they will use them. If we turn it on and somebody is not trained to use the tool, they will abandon it. It's still not functioning properly. It's a bit of a risk for Microsoft to push out a tool that's not ready yet.
What about the implementation team?
We did the implementation ourselves. We have a large enough internal team.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is too expensive. Each license costs us $30.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Google is an alternative. The comparison is based on market share, penetration, usefulness of tools, and cost. Microsoft has the lead. It's embedded. We use it as a productivity suite for our company. Excel, Word, and PowerPoint are tools that people use on a daily basis.
What other advice do I have?
The tool provides a little bit of unified identity and access management. It's not the most important thing for us. Security is a multi-layered strategy, and Defender is one aspect.
The product is one of the many tools we deploy to ensure that the lateral movement of advanced attacks does not occur. If it were the only tool we had, I wouldn't be as confident in saying that we have the proper levels of security, but it is one of the multiple tools we have. So, lateral movement is almost impossible.
The solution might be able to adapt to evolving threats in a smaller shop. However, it is not so in our organization.
We run a bank. We are testing out Copilot. We're about to roll it out to several thousand users. The tool hasn't yet helped improve things in our organization, but it has the potential. Copilot is new. It's difficult to determine the ROI and its value. It's hard to tell. We do get some value out of the product.
Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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