Item: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have it deployed statewide. Specifically for all of our endpoint systems in our department, it's 3,500 endpoints that we're making sure are secure.

Pros and Cons

Doing well is being able to detect issues. It does that!

I'm not sure, because we recently had a cyber attack that affected a lot of our endpoints, and we've been trying to recover for the last year and a half on that, and I'm not sure that it's something the Defender for Endpoint would've been able to assist with. So I don't really have an answer for that, honestly.

Return on Investment

I think it's had a positive impact for us. I think that ultimately it has kept our endpoints more secure, so I think that it had a positive effect. I mean, we've had a cyber attack not related to this, and so I don't think that that's a negative impact. We're still using it. We still like it.

Key Differentiators

Other

I wasn't the decision maker, so I wouldn't have had the influence. But I think a lot of it has to do with the name and the fact that we use Microsoft products.

Components

Detection & mitigation, early detection allows us to isolate the endpoint from our network quickly and remediate the malware or virus. We rarely have false positives, which saves us time and energy.

Probably over 9,000. Platforms would be Windows server. Also, it hasn't been deployed with us yet for Mobile Device Manager, but it will be a mixture of Apple and Android also. So I know that that's coming down the pipe very shortly.

Alternatives Considered

BitLocker Drive Encryption and Ivanti Endpoint Manager

Honestly, when we started out with BitLocker, there was a lot of pain points and certain "features" that were really bugs for us, if we plugged a laptop into a dock and started it, then starting it without a dock would lock the machine. Those things were eventually fine-tuned and fixed, but we never went through a real painful period with the implementation of Defender for Endpoint. To me, that makes it an asset. We are incredibly busy, so the more fine-tuning we are tasked with, the less time we have to manage our day-to-day projects. We also use Ivanti at the Department level currently. It works well for patching and updating, as well as push packages, and remediation, we don't have a detection feature, I would say it works well as a complimentary component with Defender for Endpoint, but would not do the job alone security wise.

Key Insights

Do you think Microsoft Defender for Endpoint delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Defender for Endpoint live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint again?

Yes

Other Software Used

VMware Carbon Black Endpoint, Ivanti Endpoint Manager

Likelihood to Recommend

We use it on an enterprise level for the whole state of Alaska. I guess in that sense that's well suited for that. But at the department level, we don't have a huge amount of control, so I guess it's super suited for enterprise-level security. That's how we use it. I don't really have anything beyond that. My knowledge on it is pretty slim, but I do know that we have it for not department-wide, but enterprise-wide. I know that the lack of control at the department level is a bummer for us. But for Enterprise Solutions, it's great. It works well.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Review

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint