Item: Microsoft Defender for IoT
Rating: 8
Author: Paras Jasal

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have consulted multiple MNCs, especially home security companies looking to shift to Azure. Microsoft Defender was used for full security layer of a company's IoT environment. Easy and Seamless Azure Integration with IoT devices makes Defender the top choice for companies already using any Azure Services. Having a full security plan and global threat protection without any performance hits also provides a great advantage among its competitors

Pros and Cons

Easy Integration in the form of multiple deployment options including On Prem, Azure or Hybrid Cloud
All round protection/ Real time analytics with absolutely no performance hits
Interoperability with Microsoft SIEM/SOAR. This helps in global threat protection with automated and cross domain network security

To use it to it's full potential, multiple Azure services are required including but not limited to Intune, VM etc
Due to a heavy focus on UI rather than Code heavy approach, it sometimes limits itself in terms of features and adds additional complexity when looking for niche network security features.
Major features like Device inventory and alerting are still in preview mode, which of course can hamper an organisation's trust

Most Important Features

We are a Microsoft Gold Partner, hence for my Organisation, Integration with Azure Cloud is extremely useful
Ease of setting up. Due to a code less approach of Defender and azure in general, it is super easy to configure and set up
The defender dashboards are spot on for Clients. Clients love the at a glance dashboard insights helping them discover issues and probable solutions immediately

Return on Investment

Positive: With the influx of IoT device organisations in general, we have seen significant demand of the product and hence a good revenue
Negatively, sometimes, some preview features may significantly change or stop working, which causes client frustration
Overall, keeping the distrust in preview features aside, 99% of the times, defender hits the right spot!

Alternatives Considered

My company being more into the Azure Cloud ecosystem, I haven't used a lot of Defender's competitors, but judging from other products and their counterparts (S3 vs ADLS or Data factory vs glue for example), Defender is definitely a superior choice given the user friendliness alone, the features are like a bonus

Key Insights

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

Yes

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

Yes

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

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Microsoft Defender for IoT go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft Defender for IoT again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Azure Data Factory, Azure Databricks, Azure Synapse Analytics (Azure SQL Data Warehouse)

Likelihood to Recommend

Companies that are not using Azure cloud exhaustively will struggle with maximizing the potential of Microsoft defender as multiple important features require the use of IoT Hub etc

The product definitely shines though, when integrated with it's friends, i.e when used collectively within microsoft ecosystem. Paired with Intune and IoT Hub, it does a phenomenal job at providing global protection including automated threat protection and cross domain network security features

Defender for IoT: A one stop solution for all the IoT security needs

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Defender for IoT