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It has become apparent to Microsoft that Azure-branded services that offer hybrid cloud functionality may be misleading to customers. For example, some customers have mistakenly believed that the "Azure Security" solutions were only for Azure services due to product branding and marketing.
Microsoft is carrying out a major overhaul of the naming of security services to more accurately reflect the hybrid functionality these services contain. Note the following Azure security service name changes:
| Old Name | New Name |
| Azure Security Center | Microsoft Defender for Cloud |
| Azure Defender | |
| Azure Defender for IoT | Microsoft Defender for IoT |
| Azure Sentinel | Microsoft Sentinel |
| Azure Advanced Threat Protection | Microsoft Defender for Identity |
| Microsoft Cloud App Security | Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps |
The "Defender" branding is now used more consistently with the naming across the security portfolio. Let's see how each of these services fits into the overall Microsoft security portfolio. It helps to reflect the integrated security capabilities Microsoft offers across identities, endpoints, applications, email, IoT, infrastructure, and cloud platforms.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is used for security posture management and threat protection. It helps ensure that businesses are ready for cyberattacks coming their way and includes a mix of best practices and technology tools. In addition, Defender for Cloud can protect workloads running in Azure, on-premises (hybrid configurations), and other cloud platforms. Using Defender for Cloud, organizations can harden cloud resources and see how their cloud security posture changes over time.
Learn more about Microsoft Defender for Cloud here.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud helps to assess security and defend cloud and hybrid resources
Microsoft Defender for IoT
With many organizations deploying latency-sensitive IoT workloads that need to exist close to the edge environment, IoT use in many environments has exploded. Microsoft Defender for IoT provides an agentless network detection and response (NDR) solution. It works with many IoT environments and devices, including industrial control systems. It also seamlessly works with Microsoft 365 Defender and Microsoft Sentinel. In addition, as the new Microsoft Defender branding indicates, it can be deployed in hybrid cloud environments with on-premises IoT and in the cloud. Learn more about Microsoft Defender for IoT here: Microsoft Defender for IoT
Microsoft Defender for IoT provides security and posture management for IoT devices
Microsoft Sentinel
You can think of Microsoft Sentinel as modern, cloud-native security information and event management (SIEM) technology that leverages Microsoft's large-scale artificial intelligence-enabled security experience. Using years of information gathering and security intelligence "training," Microsoft Sentinel allows businesses to take advantage of AI-driven security monitoring. SIEMs are notoriously complex solutions to provision, "train," and operate. Using Microsoft Sentinel, businesses can operate a SaaS-based SIEM for their organization, with the benefit of allowing Microsoft to manage the underlying infrastructure. Learn more about Microsoft Sentinel here: Azure Sentinel
Microsoft Sentinel SIEM provides threat intelligence automation and AI driven models
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
The Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps helps organizations discover "shadow IT" operations and protect against data leakage of sensitive information. Defender for Cloud Apps has many other capabilities, including cyber threat protection, compliance assessment, governance, and security posture management. It allows protecting thousands of cloud-based applications in the Microsoft Defender catalog.
Learn more about Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps here: Announcing Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
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Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
Wrapping up
The renaming of Microsoft security products helps align their security portfolio with the increasingly hybrid configuration of today's organizations. It also helps eliminate confusion around the context in which security solutions operate. For example, rather than Azure-only solutions, the Microsoft Defender portfolio covers infrastructure in Azure, on-premises (hybrid configurations), and even other public cloud environments.
