AWS Control Tower vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
AWS Control Tower
Score 8.2 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 8.2 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 9.6 out of 10
CrowdStrike Falcon
CrowdStrike Falcon
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Druva Security Cloud
Druva Security Cloud
Score 9.6 out of 10
CrowdStrike Falcon
CrowdStrike Falcon
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AWS Control TowerMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(4 ratings)
7.9
(58 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(4 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(1 ratings)
8.2
(3 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 Defender for Cloud is very good at allowing users to see how their Azure environment is secure through the secure score. The recommendations are an excellent source of the controls that should be in place to ensure a secure environment. There needs to be more protection and features for data security.
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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
  • detect and respond to security threats in the cloud environment, reducing the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access.
  • The product assists our organization dealing with sensitive data in achieving and maintaining compliance with data protection rules.
  • The product provides real-time visibility into the cloud environment, offering insights into ongoing security activities.
  • It guarantees that security teams can actively handle possible threats by delivering real-time monitoring and notifications, reducing the impact on business operations.
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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
  • The licensing structure could be better by providing possibilities for partial deployment in a subscription
  • The information in the dashboards are sometimes scattered, there should be a better overall view
  • Some parts of Defender for Cloud are expensive, some features should be moved to the standard capabilities of Azure
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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
Compliance mapping capabilities of the software and reporting.
Ease in deployment and implementation.
Seamless integration of the software with cloud and other third party applications.
The software ensures quick incident response and avilability of ready to help customer services providers.
User interface of the product is very friendly.
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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