Microsoft Forefront (Discontinued Product) vs. Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Forefront is Microsoft's antivirus offering.N/A
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Cortex XDR (formerly Traps) replaces traditional antivirus with multi-method prevention, a proprietary combination of malware and exploit prevention methods that protect users and endpoints from known and unknown threats.N/A
Pricing
Microsoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
Best Alternatives
Microsoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
Small Businesses
Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes
Score 8.2 out of 10
SentinelOne Singularity
SentinelOne Singularity
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
Score 9.1 out of 10
CrowdStrike Falcon
CrowdStrike Falcon
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
Score 9.1 out of 10
CrowdStrike Falcon
CrowdStrike Falcon
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
Likelihood to Recommend
In large deployments, I have found Microsoft Forefront to be very effective at combating the majority of threats faced by our users. It provides the base platform for catching threats that would otherwise threaten our users and their data. If you have an environment that is under constant malware threat, then a secondary program may be needed as required.
Read full review
In a scenario where EDR is a requirement or necessity XDR performs well with or without a SIEM. There are millions of events and logs to parse through and XDR is capable of handling the large load. On top of the large data that is being parsed, features such as Live Terminal, File Retrieval, OS support, and general Metrics, the tool has room to grow and provide a lot for a Security team or organization. Incident Response is a great example of how XDR can shine
Read full review
Pros
  • SCEP is a light weight client which is minimally impactful on the user end.
  • Forefront's management console provides excellent monitoring and reporting.
  • Setup and configuration is very easy.
Read full review
  • Great tool to help analyze and identify unknown malicious software on workstations, servers, and mobile devices.
  • Integration with Panorama help to quickly and efficiently identify potential malicious files.
  • Integration with Wildfire helps to quickly deploy signatures not only to endpoints but to firewalls as well.
Read full review
Cons
  • Malware detection is not quite 100%. We have to use a secondary program occasionally.
  • On low ram and weak CPU systems scanning can freeze the machine.
  • The same reporting tools that are on the console version, aren't on the client.
Read full review
  • We encountered some glitch in a certain version of the agent. When we deployed newer version, the policy set on the previous version was white-listed/overwritten.
  • Moving to encrypted based connection (communication between agent to server) is troublesome, coz we need to uninstall the agent first.
  • Need to have a more flexible reports/dashboard where we can customize it
  • We feed Traps log to our SIEM, however the information sent to the SIEM was not complete, but we need to investigate more probably some faults are on us
Read full review
Usability
No answers on this topic
Cortex XDR does a very good job of blocking suspicious and threatening items. However, as with all software of this nature, it will sometimes block known-good items. The difficulty is in manually whitelisting these known-good items. The interface to whitelist is confusing even for a seasoned IT professional and has been the single most frustrating experience of using Cortex XDR
Read full review
Support Rating
No answers on this topic
The support we receive from Palo Alto is one of the best aspects of Traps. It is very easy to recommend their support. It seems much easier to connect directly with someone with a deep understanding of the product rather than other companies where you basically have to make an airtight case that it is some kind of non-standard issue that can't be solved with existing documentation. Palo Alto digs deep and helps with advanced troubleshooting to get things working.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
The biggest advantage that MSF and SCEP provide over Norton is: One: Far less client overhead required. Both Norton and McAfee are highly intensive client side when in use. Two: We've had far better luck using the Microsoft system with its detection capabilities, versus the others. Three: It is tied right into the Microsoft updating system, which provides central updating capabilities of av/mal/windows updates.
Read full review
Traps provided us with a cloud-based platform that made our lives a lot simpler. Nothing like Traps exists in the market and I've never used anything like it. Others, on the other hand, were a lot slower to respond. Malwarebytes and other enterprise-level malware software are also available, but they do not fall under the same heading.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Less turnaround on virus based issues.
  • Helps reduce malware issues over time.
  • Can breed overconfidence in the system, so people don't always try a second tool.
Read full review
  • Traps has paid for itself in time saved re-imaging PCs to clean them
  • Traps gives us a lot of good insight on what's being run on our endpoints
  • Traps is a great extra layer of security for our end users and minimizes malware outbreaks, which in turn minimizes downtime
Read full review
ScreenShots

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR Screenshots

Screenshot of a Cortex XDR overviewScreenshot of a view of the Cortex XDR dashboardScreenshot of a view of the Cortex XDR dashboardScreenshot of a view of the Cortex XDR dashboard