How to differentiate SaaS applications vs regular web URLs in MDCA.

[RavTin]

In MDCA, under cloud discovery what I see is a combination of regular SaaS apps and web URLs. Is there a way to differentiate these two in cloud discovery? Or a way to differentiate them with filters?

Reason I'm asking is I just want to focus on SaaS applications under cloud discovery and/or cloud catalog.

Thank you,

TR

[#2]

Hi @RavTin ,

Discovery is only going to look for SaaS applications that are in the catalog.  This is done based on the traffic and matching domains/IPs to data contained in the app catalog. This data is present in the discovered apps tab of the discovery dashboard.

[#3]

@Keith_Fleming Thanks Keith! Understood but not all apps under cloud discovery are SaaS apps so then how do you differentiate between SaaS and URL?

[#4]

@RavTin all apps in the app catalog are considered SaaS apps unless they are custom apps that were manually added.  Usually in this case they will be corporate developed applications but will still have an associated URL or IPs.

Can you provide an example here of an app that's "not" a SaaS application?

[#5]

For example; bbb.org

[#6]

Hi @RavTin,

We do consider this a SaaS app and have it defined in the app catalog.

[#7]

@Keith_Fleming Could you please explain which fields am I looking at in that screenshot that distinguishes from regular URL? Also, is there a way to categorize SaaS app from the fields under General, Security, Compliance and Legal?

Thanks,

TR

[#8]

@RavTin 

We consider this a SaaS application.  If we see "any" URL that matches any app we have the catalog it will show as a discovered app. In this case the URL bbb.org matches the domain list we have for the SaaS app BBB.

Each app will also be broken down by category so you can filter with this menu from discovered apps.

[#9]

Hi Keith, Thanks for explaining. Just trying to understand more on this, is there a criteria Microsoft uses when onboarding an app in the catalog to consider it as a SaaS app?

[#10]

This is just speculation but it looks like Microsoft will tag an app as a SaaS if you can somehow create an account and login to a website.