AWS Control Tower vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
AWS Control Tower
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
The vendor presents AWS Control Tower as the easiest way to set up and govern a new, secure multi-account AWS environment. With AWS Control Tower, builders can provision new AWS accounts in a few clicks, while knowing new accounts conform to company-wide policies.N/A
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP) for Azure, on-premises, and multicloud (Amazon AWS and Google GCP) resources.N/A
Pricing
AWS Control TowerMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AWS Control TowerMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AWS Control TowerMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Best Alternatives
AWS Control TowerMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Small Businesses
Armor
Armor
Score 6.0 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Druva Security Cloud
Druva Security Cloud
Score 9.4 out of 10
CrowdStrike Falcon
CrowdStrike Falcon
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Druva Security Cloud
Druva Security Cloud
Score 9.4 out of 10
CrowdStrike Falcon
CrowdStrike Falcon
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AWS Control TowerMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(4 ratings)
8.1
(56 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(4 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(1 ratings)
8.2
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
AWS Control TowerMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
Amazon AWS
We were wanting to prove the concept of a low touch process for quickly spinning up boilerplate AWS environments. We were able to get started quickly and to ensure that the AWS Well-Architected Framework principles were followed - at least upfront - however, we found that for our use case and expertise level it ultimately wasn't a fit. We have the skills on our team to manage more of this on our own. My recommendation would be contingent on what skills are already available on your team: if you can "do it yourself" you might as well so that you don't pay for resources you don't need and you have finer grain control over what's created.
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Microsoft
Microsoft is well-suited with its definitive cloud, and I also like its Microsoft Intune ID. The conditional policies are great with that, and they're really good and well situated, so you can't beat them at that conditional policy level. Less appropriate, as I said, some of these low-hanging fruit features, like being good in phishing campaigns, and then I feel like maybe doing better at their seam products. So we'll see how that goes.
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Pros
Amazon AWS
  • Easily create new AWS accounts.
  • Easily secure and manage AWS accounts.
  • Landing zone with SSO is a huge win for larger teams.
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Microsoft
  • I like that with Microsoft Defender for Cloud you can track your secure score to see how well you are doing with your security controls.
  • There are remediation steps for findings with the platform and some can be fix automatically with a few clicks.
  • There are recommendations for exactly what controls to put in place to ensure a more secure environment for Azure.
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Cons
Amazon AWS
  • The AWS SSO GUI is not very intuitive and determining how to apply policies to users without creating redundant logins has been a challenge.
  • The default guardrails do not fully encompass all the security checks that we needed.
  • There does not appear to be any way to control roles at the IAM level from the control tower account through the GUI.
  • Some features on AWS accounts still require logging into the individual account with the root user and cannot be done from AWS Control Tower.
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Microsoft
  • Granular permissions and role-based access management could improve security. This would enable organizations to control who has access to and can set specific features.
  • While it offers integration with various Microsoft services, expanding support for third-party cloud platforms and applications would enhance its versatility. Many organizations use multiple cloud providers, and broader compatibility would be advantageous.
  • The cost structure could be more transparent, especially for larger organizations with extensive cloud resources. Clearer cost breakdowns and predictions would help organizations budget more effectively.
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Likelihood to Renew
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
It is a great product that integrates nicely when running an Azure platform and even multi-cloud environment. Not looking for point-solutions but a suite that answers most requirements. It is very comfortable being able to use KQL, workbooks and automation that is native to the azure platform
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Usability
Amazon AWS
There is no way to easily close an AWS account whether it was created manually or via the AWS Control Tower. It takes too many steps to close it vs to provision a new AWS account
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Microsoft
My visibility is limited because I'm only doing very small pieces of what the overall org does. And also, we have limitations on what we're allowed to use. It's not like we get a new product as users or leadership level users, and everything is on, and we can just do whatever we want. We're very restricted in what we can use any tooling within the org because of the different levels of regulatory constraints we have, because of just the nature of who we are inherently. So that's why. I don't think it's necessarily the product. I think it's more or less of what we're able to do with the product.
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Alternatives Considered
Amazon AWS
Using AWS Systems Manager and other slightly lower level components has been helpful for us to manage parts of our AWS presence at a more granular level than AWS Control Tower was designed for. It's not at all an apples-to-apples comparison as they solve different use cases, but for us, the use case associated with AWS Systems Manager was a better fit for our specific needs and skillsets. We did not need everything that AWS Control Tower was doing for us.
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Microsoft
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is definitely the choice with the latest market trend and attacks that are currently happening. Microsoft has been able to safe guard a lot after the recent serious attacks happening globally in the digital world. There is a trust in this software and with the latest updates and machine learning capabilities, Microsoft Defender for Cloud should be the choice.
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Return on Investment
Amazon AWS
  • Less time manually deploying accounts which was error prone.
  • Central logging allowed us to have 1 place to view logs.
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Microsoft
  • It simplifies security management and saves time. I'm not sure, but I'm very confident it saved me a couple of paychecks by centralizing the data I need to secure the cloud environment.
  • I also utilize the inventory overview to monitor my team's activities and verify they are following internal regulations, as well as cost overruns.
  • The recommendations can be utilized as a valuable instructional tool. I have the team explain why they are receiving them, why they are not following them, and what they are doing differently.
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ScreenShots

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Screenshots

Screenshot of Remediation of critical issues in codeScreenshot of Cloud security benchmark mapped to industry FramworksScreenshot of Prioritization of critical risks with contextual threat analysisScreenshot of Workload protectionScreenshot of Unified DevOps VisibilityScreenshot of Visualizations to improve security posture proactively