Explore Microsoft Defender for Cloud

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Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a monitoring service that provides threat protection across all your services both in Azure and on-premises. Microsoft Defender can:

  • Provide security recommendations based on your configurations, resources, and networks.
  • Monitor security settings across on-premises and cloud workloads and automatically apply required security to new services as they come online.
  • Continuously monitor all your services and do automatic security assessments to identify potential vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.
  • Use Azure Machine Learning to detect and block malicious software from being installed on your virtual machines (VMs) and services. You can also define a list of allowed applications to ensure that only the validated apps can execute.
  • Analyze and identify potential inbound attacks and help investigate threats and any post-breach activity that might have occurred.
  • Provide just-in-time (JIT) access control for ports by reducing your attack surface by ensuring the network only allows traffic that you require.

Screenshot of Microsoft Defender for Cloud icon.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is part of the Center for Internet Security (CIS) Benchmarks recommendations.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud versions

Microsoft Defender for Cloud supports both Windows and Linux operating systems. It can also provide security to features in IaaS and platform as a service (PaaS) scenarios.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is available in two versions:

  • Free. Available as part of your Azure subscription, this tier is limited to assessments and Azure resources' recommendations only.
  • Standard. This tier provides a full suite of security-related services, including continuous monitoring, threat detection, JIT access control for ports, and more.

To access the full suite of Microsoft Defender for Cloud services, you'll need to upgrade to a Standard version subscription.

You can access the 60-day free trial from the Microsoft Defender for Cloud dashboard in the Azure portal.

Screenshot of the Microsoft Defender for Cloud - Getting Started dashboard in the Azure portal. Information about a free 60-day trial displays.

You can read more about Microsoft Defender for Cloud at Microsoft Defender for Cloud.