Item: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
Rating: 9
Author: Akshay Mahajan

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have an admissions business, there are multiple computers that are being used in the organization. We have a university, and in that university, we have a department for admissions, which has a lot of devices being used. Those devices we have to make sure that they stay in the same network and they don't have access to the outside network. That's how the endpoint or the specific Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is being implemented in those systems.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Most of the times when there are new employees coming into the system to try to access something which is on their personal level, which is not allowed most of the times in our organization just for the security purposes so that they're not passing some personal information or since it's a computer which is inside the organization and if it's compromised, there's going to be a lot of problems because we have sensitive data of the students who are in the admissions and we have a lot of personal information of them stored those. That's the reason we have that particular product implemented.

Cons

Well, honestly, if you're asking me, I won't be able to give you a brief answer on that, but I do for sure know that the one who are a beginner, they kind of mess up with understanding the product. But once we give a demo to them, make them understand that this thing runs in the background, there are certain restrictions if you are using the product, there are restrictions where you have to limit yourself. And basically that's how we roll. That's how we do it.

Return on Investment

We do have, since it's a business institution, which is based on education, we have tie up with the Microsoft so that they supply those products that supply computers to us. And I think so that our team has a pretty good plan with them. So that's a win-win for both of us.

Key Differentiators

Other

Since we started working from home or remotely, there was a situation wherein the devices were usually on a public network and we could not trust the public network all of the time. You never know, you sit in a cafe and it's being watched or monitored by other individuals who never know that. That's why our company had to make sure that they govern every other endpoint and make sure that they don't join any network, which is basically not running on encrypted traffic. Since, as I mentioned on the personal computers, on the laptops, which we provide them, we got sensitive information of the students being stored, all of their details like the SSN and stuff like that. That's why we don't want that to be publicly accessible or by any point it shouldn't be out in the market. If that happens, then it comes on, it's basically a jeopardy for us. The main reason is that we have to make sure that these endpoints stay in a very restricted access. That's why we use the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

Components

Basically we are using the feature in which we come to know about the systems and what kind of access they're getting onto the system or how they are connected to other networks. And about how many times they connect to the other network. That is something that we keep monitoring using the Microsoft Endpoint product.

Protection Scope

The number of endpoints can be a very approximate value. Yeah, it can be around 50 to 80 computers, that's what I believe because I'm in the admissions department. There are other departments involved too. That's the IT and the other one. So they might have a different number too. So we basically have the IO, the Mac OS, the Windows server, and the Windows operating systems.

Alternatives Considered

Before using Defender for Endpoint, we basically had the starter version of the Microsoft product, which comes prebuilt into the system. We had them using in the initial run, but then what usually happened was the employees started disabling it, and that usually made, we guys had to make sure that we locked them into the system, and by using that product they were pretty much locked down.

Key Insights

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

Yes

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

Yes

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

Yes

Did implementation of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Microsoft 365

Likelihood to Recommend

As I mentioned earlier we have sensitive information stored inside the organizations. That's why we have to implement this thing, such as my defender for endpoints so that if the employees try to access something that is outside the organization, it shouldn't be, shouldn't be hampering the system, the entire system. That's why we have to make sure that the computers or the systems are in a closed environment. And the other thing is that we usually now work from home as well, right? So we got laptops implemented, we are giving laptops to the employees to work from home. And when they join a public network, probably if they're working from a cafe or something, we have to make sure and tell them that you need to turn on this Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. That particular service shouldn't be stopped. And if someone plays around or hampers that at that particular time, the product stops working and it's basically giving you access to the public network, which can be risky as well. If you are trying to, maybe if you are on a public network and they try to get on your system, there might be a chance that you are computer may be compromised. So that's something to there.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Feature Ratings

Comments

Please log in to join the conversation

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Review