Avanan vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

This software is well-suited for a company that is looking to protect its data from common security breaches. It is very user-friendly and easy to implement, which is why these few things make it easily usable on a daily basis. This software also allows for much faster cloud performance and provides regular reports which provide security analytics.

It is well suited if your team is working with Microsoft tools and Azure services. but if you are using other cloud service providers and don't want to spend efforts in learning integration with third-party software then this is not a great fit for you. overall we are very satisfied with the product. If your corporation with Microsoft tools then I would recommend it.

Incentivized

• The dashboard for Avanan makes all of the most important information easy to digest.
• Alerting - specifically, the Geo-Location alerts allow us to see if a user has possibly been compromised.
• The End-User Email Quarantine experience gives users the ability to request emails be released, which trains them to better spot legitimate emails.

Incentivized

• The integration to Microsoft Entra ID is seamless, which allows Conditional Access to redirect the session to Microsoft Defender for Cloud App for it to take actions (Block or Monitor).
• Tracker users' activity is very good when troubleshooting or running an investigate.
• Detecting risky users through tight integration with Microsoft Entra ID is a very good feature.
• Detecting mass downloads and blocking the download of files from non-manage company devices is a very good feature as well.

Incentivized

• I only ever had one complaint, we had a few hiccups during the setup process. We have now been a customer for two years and have had no further issues. It is likely that the setup pain points have now been resolved as well. Overall the product does what it claims while providing a very intuitive interface.

Incentivized

• Cloud discovery throws away found services not found in the MCAS database of SaaS apps.
• Many panes of glass required for a fully enabled implementation to administer, configure and utilize 100% of the product.
• Room for improvement in the reporting realm - not enough records are visible and exportable for high record count policy reports.

Incentivized

Cost, need to make sure the cost is competitive for how many users are using email protection as we move users to MS Teams and don't rely so much on full access to email accounts (both sending and receiving internal and external).

Incentivized

Usability is so easy. It was a quick configuration with entering in some credentials, accepting terms and permissions and before you know it it's already going through and taking a look at existing emails. Portal is very easy to use and there are always updates with decent logs. The new UI is great and highly intuitive.

Incentivized

The interface is pretty simple and easy to use; however, you will need to do a lot of investigative research on your own to get comfortable with it. Originally, many of the Microsoft security tools had their own seperate consoles. Overtime, they have blended into one interface which is the ideal state. In some cases it is clear Microsoft had to pick which console a certain feature or setting was going to reside in and this leads to some confusion. For example, DLP is managed through Defender for Cloud Apps but you will also need to jump into Purview. For things like reverse proxy on your M365 tenant, you will need to go into Azure and setup conditional access rules. Not a big problem and I can understand why the settings are located where they are but for someone just starting out with Defender for Cloud Apps, it will take some time to figure out.

Incentivized

Always been available as needed.

Incentivized

It's not all the time, on occasion the platform can delay email by seven to ten minutes.

Incentivized

Avanan support always is ready to respond to user requests and typically does it in an exceptionally quick timeframe. Most requests are not even needed to be escalated as their team will look at active threats and deal with them before they are even a problem. Monthly meetups are also great in obtaining our needs as well as showing us what is new and in the horizon.

Incentivized

I have not utilized actual support but the Sales and Product teams have been super helpful in moving our implementation forward and showing us the best practices.

Incentivized

There was no in person training.

Incentivized

Takes a lot to get a 10 out of 10.

Incentivized

Ensure system administration and exchange admin are up to speed on Avanan

Incentivized

I have used Cisco's secure Email, one of the major dislike is User Interface that is buggy and not user friendly. It does not update it's database for spam sites. Integration process takes much time whereas Avanan takes very less time. Cisco Secure Email sometimes deletes the important emails and that is worst where as Avanan has good AI/ML integration there are very rare false positive in deleting emails.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps stacks up against Netskope. There are areas in which Netskope offers more insights into web traffic however because of the tight integration to the Microsoft ecosystem is one of the reasons why we choose Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps. It also offered savings. We didn't have to invest in another tool to gain the benefits of a CASB. For productivity tools we use Micorosft Office 365 and therefore Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps provides very good insight into these applications because of the tight integration with the Microsoft ecosystem. These are both Microsoft products.

Incentivized

It does what they claim and then some.

Incentivized

• Improved risk mitigation by providing additional layer protection for M365.
• Easy to setup and configure. No expert knowledge required and no downtime required.
• Customizable license count. No need to buy the same number of mailbox users if you really don't want to protect some unused mailboxes.

Incentivized

• It has good features which helps our organization to quickly fix challenges.
• It depends on the requirements. Certain requirements are really complex.
• The deployment itself is quite fast because [Microsoft Cloud App Security] is on the cloud, but there are a lot of requirements from the regulations and the bank's standards perspective.

Incentivized