Microsoft Defender XDR or Microsoft Sentinel?
Microsoft Defender XDR correlates and responds to threats using signals from Microsoft's own security products across endpoints, identities, email and apps. Microsoft Sentinel is a cloud-native SIEM that collects data from Microsoft and other sources across clouds. Both now meet in the Defender portal.12
How they relate
Complementary. They do different jobs and are often used together.
Defender and Sentinel are complements more than alternatives. Microsoft Defender XDR is a pre- and post-breach defense suite that coordinates detection, prevention, investigation and response across Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Office 365, Defender for Identity, Defender for Cloud Apps and related products, and it correlates signals only from the Microsoft security products you have licensed. Microsoft Sentinel is a SIEM: it ingests data from users, devices, applications and infrastructure on premises and in multiple clouds, including non-Microsoft sources through connectors, Syslog, common event format or REST APIs, and automates response with playbooks built on Azure Logic Apps.
Microsoft separates them by data scope and type of action. Defender XDR acts on its own signals, with automatic attack disruption that contains in-progress attacks and self-healing for devices, identities and mailboxes, plus 30 days of raw data for cross-product hunting. Sentinel adds analytics rules, threat intelligence, watchlists, workbooks and hunting across everything you connect. The two are converging: Sentinel is generally available in the Microsoft Defender portal, even for customers without Defender XDR or an E5 license, and after March 31, 2027 it will no longer be supported in the Azure portal.
A newer option blurs the line. The Integrated Security Operations Center (ISOC), in preview, brings SIEM capabilities such as case management, workbooks and automation rules into Defender for Microsoft Defender Suite, Microsoft 365 E5 or E7 customers without an active Sentinel workspace, with 30 days of included retention for Defender data during this phase of the preview. In our view, an organization whose security data comes almost entirely from Microsoft 365 may find Defender XDR, or ISOC, enough; a full SIEM earns its cost when many non-Microsoft sources must be correlated.123
The technologies
Suite
Microsoft Defender XDR
Microsoft Defender XDR is the extended detection and response layer over Microsoft's Defender services. It joins alerts from endpoints, email, identities and cloud apps into single incidents in the Defender portal, supports hunting across that data and can contain an attack automatically while it is still running.
Cloud service
Microsoft Sentinel
Microsoft Sentinel is Microsoft's cloud-native SIEM with built-in SOAR. It collects security data from Microsoft and other sources across clouds and on-premises, detects threats with analytics rules and hunting, and automates response with Logic Apps playbooks. Its data lake tier keeps data for up to 12 years.
Which fits which goal
| If your goal is | What fits | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Stop an in-progress attack across endpoints, mailboxes and identities automatically | Microsoft Defender | Defender XDR correlates high-confidence signals from several workloads and applies containment through automatic attack disruption to limit lateral movement.1 |
| Correlate firewall, cloud and third-party logs in one place | Microsoft Sentinel | Sentinel collects data across users, devices, applications and infrastructure on premises and in multiple clouds, with connectors for non-Microsoft products and ingestion through common event format, Syslog or REST API.2 |
| Automate ticketing and response in tools such as ServiceNow or Jira | Microsoft Sentinel | Sentinel playbooks are workflows built in Azure Logic Apps, with connectors for services such as ServiceNow and Jira, triggered on demand or by automation rules.2 |
| Hunt across endpoint, identity, email and cloud app data from Microsoft products | Microsoft Defender | Defender XDR gives query-based access to 30 days of raw signals and alerts from Defender for Endpoint, Office 365, Identity and Cloud Apps.1 |
| Add SIEM features to a Microsoft 365 E5 estate without a Sentinel workspace | Microsoft Defender | The ISOC preview brings SIEM capabilities into the Defender portal for Defender Suite, E5 or E7 customers who have no active Sentinel workspace.3 |
| Run a SIEM without adopting other Defender services | Microsoft Sentinel | Microsoft states that Sentinel is available in the Defender portal even for customers without Defender XDR or an E5 license, and that the Azure portal experience ends after March 31, 2027.2 |
No technology here is ranked. Pricing and performance are left out on purpose: they depend on your models, hardware and contract, so measure them in a pilot.
Sources
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