Registration Open: Community-Led Purview Lightning Talks
Get ready for an electrifying event! The Microsoft Security Community proudly presents Purview Lightning Talks; an action-packed series featuring your fellow Microsoft users, partners and passionate Microsoft Security community members of all sorts. Each 3-12 minute talk cuts straight to the chase, delivering expert insights, real-world use cases, and even a few game-changing tips and tricks. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn, connect, and be inspired! Secure your spot now for the big day: April 30th at 8am Redmond Time. See agenda details below and follow this blog post (sign in and click the "follow" heart in the upper right) to receive notifications. ❗UPDATE❗This event is expected to last around 2 hours and 15 minutes, due to the incredible number of community sessions that were submitted! 💖 Please see the timing table below broken out into sections of four talks each, and plan to arrive 10 minutes before the section that interests you, OR stay for the whole time! Speakers will be available in the chat to answer your questions; please ask your questions during their session. Spillover Q&A forum links will also be shared. The full session recording will be indexed and posted to Microsoft Security Community YouTube within 24 hours after the event. Bookmark this page or follow this blog post for updates! Agenda Legend ↩️ Data Lifecycle Management 🔐 Information Protection 🚫 Data Loss Prevention (DLP) 🦾 Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) for AI 🤖 Purview for AI 👁️ Insider Risk Management (IRM) 🔍 eDiscovery 📊 Governance 🗒️ Compliance Manager 🛡️ Data Security All times are listed in US Pacific/Redmond Time. Session lengths are rounded to the nearest minute. AGENDA Section 1 - approximately 8:00 am - 8:43 am ↩️ The Day Offboarding Exposed Infinite Retention — Nikki Chapple Length: 10 minutes | Topic: Data Lifecycle Management A routine Purview request led to an unexpected discovery: more than 9,000 orphaned OneDrives and thousands of inactive mailboxes still storing content long after employees had left. This talk explains how a retain-only policy created hidden retention debt and how Adaptive Scopes can help organisations separate active users from leavers to avoid similar pitfalls. 🔐 The Purview Label Engine: Automated Classification, Translation, and co-Documentation for Enterprise Tenants — Michael Kirst-Neshva Length: 12 minutes | Topic: Information Protection Global enterprises face the challenge of implementing uniform data protection standards across borders and languages. In this talk, I’ll present a framework that makes Microsoft Purview labels truly scalable. Discover how to roll out parent and child label logics automatically, manage priorities with a single click, and generate instant compliance documentation for every business unit. 🗒️ What's In My Compliance Manager Toolbox: A Cloud Security Architect's Perspective — Jerrad Dahlager Length: 8 minutes | Topic: Compliance Manager A practical walkthrough of how I use Compliance Manager across real client engagements to map controls, track improvement actions, and simplify multi-framework compliance. No theory, just what works in the field. 🛡️ Stop, Think, Protect: Data Security in Real Life with Purview — Oliver Sahlmann Length: 8 minutes | Topic: Data Security With simple labels and matching DLP policies, Purview offers a practical and accessible way to approach data security. This lightning talk uses a real-life traffic light concept to show how a low barrier to adoption can still drive meaningful protection and awareness. Section 2 - approximately 8:44 am - 9:15 am 🔐 Using Purview to prevent oversharing with AI services — Viktor Hedberg Length: 10 minutes | Topic: Information Protection In this day and age, AI is the big thing. However, Copilot has access to everything you can access, including potentially sensitive data. In this session we will look at how to prevent Copilot to access highly sensitive data, using Information Protection. 🦾 How I Helped My Customers Understand their AI Usage (and protect their sensitive data) — Bram de Jager Length: 5 minutes | Topic: Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) for AI As AI tools explode across the web, many organizations still have no idea what’s actually happening in the browser—where employees type prompts, paste sensitive data, or visit public AI sites outside corporate governance. In this lightning talk, I’ll share how I helped customers shine a light on this issue. We’ll explore how Purview Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) can reveal which AI tools employees use, what types of data they input, and where sensitive information may leak through prompts. I’ll walk through real customer scenario where we detected risky AI usage patterns—such as employees pasting confidential documents into public chatbots. 🔐 Four Labels Max for Daily Use: Which Ones & Why? — Romain Dalle Length: 8 minutes | Topic: Information Protection Sensitivity labels are one of the most critical parts of a Purview Risk and compliance deployment, if not the most critical, because it directly impacts how end-users and business units should allow or restrict themselves to share their business data, internally and externally, on a daily basis. Labels have not other options than being precise, meaningful, and balanced in terms of embedded data security. Setting the right taxonomy is core to success, and is everything but a one-time project. 🚫 Data-driven Endpoint DLP Solution with Advanced Hunting — Tatu Seppälä Length: 8 minutes | Topic: Data Loss Prevention (DLP) This lightning talk shows you how to use KQL queries in advanced hunting to easily build initial sensitive service domain groups for authorized and unauthorized domains based on your organization's usage patterns. The same approach can be used for numerous other similar solution refinement and design purposes. Section 3 - approximately 9:16 am - 9:46 am 🔐 The Purview Hack No One Talks About: Container Sensitivity Labels That Fix Oversharing Fast — Nikki Chapple Length: 10 minutes | Topic: Information Protection Most organizations tackle oversharing with manual fixes, but the fastest solution is often overlooked. In this lightning talk, I show how container sensitivity labels automatically apply the right sharing and collaboration controls, ensuring every new Group, Team or SharePoint site starts secure by default. 🔍 Does M365 Support eDiscovery? — Julian Kusenberg Length: 11 minutes | Topic: eDiscovery A myth-busting session that separates perception from reality when it comes to Microsoft 365 eDiscovery capabilities. 📊 Improving Discovery, Trust, and Reuse of Analytics with Purview Data Products — Craig Wyndowe Length: 5 minutes | Topic: Governance This talk shows how bringing Power BI and Fabric assets into Microsoft Purview Governance Domains and Data Products creates a single, trusted view of enterprise analytics. By connecting reports, semantic models, and underlying data with shared metadata, ownership, and business context, organizations can make existing assets easy to discover and safe to reuse. 🔐 Why You Should Create Your Own Sensitive Information Types (SITs) — Niels Jakobsen Length: 5 minutes | Topic: Information Protection An in depth analysis of why Microsoft SITs are not one-size-fits-all, and how to create your own using what Microsoft has already built for you. Section 4 - approximately 9:47 am-10:30 am 👁️ From Zero to First Signal: Insider Risk Management Prerequisites That Actually Matter — Sathish Veerapandian Length: 8 minutes | Topic: Insider Risk Management (IRM) A focused live demo showing the real world prerequisites required for Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management to work effectively. This session highlights the critical Entra ID, Intune, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, and Purview DLP configurations that must be in place before creating IRM policies. 🤖 Securing data in the age of AI — Júlio César Gonçalves Vasconcelos Length: 11 minutes | Topic: Purview for AI AI will transform business as we know it; but without proper governance, it can introduce serious risks. We’ll show you how Microsoft Purview enables organizations to accelerate AI adoption while maintaining security, compliance, and transparency. 🔍 Beyond eDiscovery - Purview DSI for Security Investigation — Susantha Silva Length: 11 minutes | Topic: eDiscovery Most people hear “Microsoft Purview” and immediately think compliance, eDiscovery, or legal holds. But this session highlights Data Security Investigations, showing how DSI lets you take a DLP alert or insider risk signal and turn it into a structured investigation. 🚫 Elevating Purview DLP with a real world use case — Victor Wingsing Length: 14 minutes | Topic: Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Learn how I hardened Microsoft Purview DLP beyond out of the box defaults—closing real world data loss gaps, tuning policies to actual user behavior, and turning noisy alerts into protection that really blocks exfiltration. - Quick Closing/ Resource SharingMicrosoft Defender for Cloud Customer Newsletter
What's new in Defender for Cloud? Microsoft Defender for Open-Source Relational Databases is now generally available for Amazon Web Services Relational Database Service (AWS RDS) instances. Receive database threat protection and sensitive data discovery insights for supported open-source relational databases, including Aurora PostgreSQL, Aurora MySQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB on AWS RDS. For more information, see our public documentation. Expanded multicloud security coverage now GA Microsoft Defender for Cloud's expanded multicloud security coverage is now generally available. This release significantly broadens posture assessment for AWS and GCP environments, adding support for about 90 new resource types and over 200 new security recommendations across data, identity and access, networking, compute, and container categories. For more details, please refer to this documentation. Check out other updates from last month here! Check out monthly news for the rest of the MTP suite here! Blogs of the month In June, our team published the following blog posts we would like to share: Now Generally Available: Microsoft Defender for open source relational databases on AWS RDS Start Secure, Stay Secure: How Microsoft is Closing the Gap from Code to Runtime The end of patching era for containers: Microsoft Defender for Cloud expands hardened image support Closing the loop on container security: From code to runtime in the AI era Microsoft Defender for Cloud expands multicloud coverage across AWS and Google Cloud Defender for Cloud in the field Watch the latest Defender for Cloud in the Field YouTube episode here: Stay Secure: AI-powered Faster fixes Visit our YouTube page GitHub Community Check out Defender for Cloud GitHub lab module 25. It walks through the integration between Defender for Cloud and XDR to provide a comprehensive CDR solution. Module 25 - MDC and Defender portal integration Visit our GitHub page Customer journey Discover how other organizations successfully use Microsoft Defender for Cloud to protect their cloud workloads. This month we are featuring Hassan Allam Holding. Hassan Allam Holding is an Egyptian private-sector company with operations spanning engineering, construction, and infrastructure investment and was facing operational complexity. To overcome, they leveraged an end-to-end Microsoft Security ecosystem with Defender XDR, which integrates with Defender for Cloud and other products to centralize detection and signals across endpoint, identity, email and cloud workloads. As a result, alert noise reduce by up to 90%, and Hassan Allam Holding is able to respond faster with far less complexity. Join our community! We offer several customer connection programs within our private communities. By signing up, you can help us shape our products through activities such as reviewing product roadmaps, participating in co-design, previewing features, and staying up-to-date with announcements. Sign up at aka.ms/JoinCCP. We greatly value your input on the types of content that enhance your understanding of our security products. Your insights are crucial in guiding the development of our future public content. We aim to deliver material that not only educates but also resonates with your daily security challenges. Whether it’s through in-depth live webinars, real-world case studies, comprehensive best practice guides through blogs, or the latest product updates, we want to ensure our content meets your needs. Please submit your feedback on which of these formats do you find most beneficial and are there any specific topics you’re interested in https://aka.ms/PublicContentFeedback. Note: If you want to stay current with Defender for Cloud and receive updates in your inbox, please consider subscribing to our monthly newsletter: https://aka.ms/MDCNewsSubscribe
Now generally available: Serverless posture coverage in Microsoft Defender CSPM
Serverless workloads are a foundation of modern application development, powering everything from low-code and no-code solutions to AI applications and agentic workflows. Development teams use functions, app services, containers, APIs, and event-driven infrastructure to move quickly, scale on demand, and reduce operational overhead. As AI applications and autonomous workflows increasingly rely on distributed services, background tasks, retrieval pipelines, and event-driven components, serverless architectures have become a natural fit. At the same time, they introduce new visibility and posture management challenges. While cloud providers manage the underlying infrastructure, organizations remain responsible for securing their applications, including code, container images, dependencies, configurations, identities, permissions, and access paths. Today, we're announcing the general availability of Serverless Container posture in Microsoft Defender Cloud Security Posture Management (Defender CSPM). Building on the recent general availability of Serverless Compute posture in Defender CSPM, these capabilities extend agentless posture coverage across supported serverless containers, applications, and functions in Azure and AWS. With this expanded serverless posture coverage, security teams can: Discover serverless workloads as first-class assets in a unified cloud inventory Assess workload-specific vulnerabilities, insecure dependencies, and risky configurations Surface exposure, identity, permission, and configuration context that helps prioritize contextual attack paths to broader applications Prioritize risk using security graph context and attack path analysis Act on severity-ranked recommendations in Defender for Cloud Serverless posture coverage across containers, apps, and functions Defender CSPM extends posture management across supported serverless workloads in Azure and AWS. Category Covered workloads Serverless applications and functions Azure Functions, Azure Web Apps, AWS Lambda Serverless containers Azure Container Apps, Azure Container Instances, AWS ECS on Fargate These resources are automatically discovered and surfaced in Defender cloud inventory, helping security teams maintain visibility across dynamic, event-driven application environments. Across supported serverless workloads, multiple layers of posture assessment are provided: Inventory: Serverless compute and container workloads are automatically discovered and mapped with key properties, helping teams understand what is running across their environment. Misconfiguration assessment: identify risky settings such as internet exposure, missing HTTPS, and other configuration issues that can increase exposure. Vulnerability management: Vulnerabilities are detected across supported serverless workloads and tracked over time, helping teams understand where exposed workloads may also contain known CVEs. Attack path analysis: Serverless resources are connected into the Security Graph, so teams can understand how a compromised function or container could reach sensitive assets. Actionable recommendations: Findings are surfaced as resource-level recommendations, making it easier to assign ownership, remediate, and track progress. Secure Score impact: Serverless findings contribute to the broader Secure Score, so risk reduction is reflected in the organization’s overall posture. These findings are incorporated into Security Graph and attack path analysis, helping security teams understand risk in context and prioritize remediation based on how serverless workloads connect to other resources across the cloud environment. In practice Exposed function with access to sensitive data: A serverless function may look like a simple HTTP endpoint, but if it is internet-facing, running with broad identity permissions, and connected to sensitive storage, it can become part of a real attack path. Defender CSPM helps connect these signals across exposure, vulnerabilities, identity, and data access so teams can prioritize the workload based on actual risk, not just isolated findings. Serverless container running a vulnerable image: A serverless container running on Azure Container Apps, Azure Container Instances, or Amazon ECS on AWS Fargate may be fully managed at the infrastructure layer, but the customer still owns the image, application code, identity, configuration, and exposure. If that workload is internet-facing, built from an image with a critical CVE, and connected to Key Vault, storage, or other sensitive services, Defender CSPM helps teams discover it, assess the risk, and prioritize remediation in context. One consistent Defender experience Defender CSPM now natively includes serverless posture coverage. Discovered functions, web apps, and serverless containers appear in the unified cloud inventory, are evaluated through security recommendations, integrate into attack path analysis, and are queryable through Cloud Security Explorer. This consistency matters because serverless workloads rarely operate in isolation. A function might call an API, read from a queue, authenticate with a managed identity, and write to storage. A serverless container might expose an endpoint, pull an image from a registry, process events, and connect to secrets or databases. Defender CSPM helps security teams evaluate these workloads with surrounding context, including exposure, vulnerabilities, identity permissions, configuration risk, and relationships to other resources. That context helps teams move from isolated findings to prioritized remediation. Built for modern and AI-ready applications As organizations build AI-powered applications, agentic workflows, and distributed cloud services, serverless infrastructure continues to play a growing role in delivering scalability and operational efficiency. Defender CSPM helps security teams gain visibility into supported serverless containers, applications, and functions, assess vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, and prioritize remediation using Security Graph context and attack path analysis. By bringing serverless workloads into inventory, recommendations, Cloud Security Explorer, and attack path analysis experiences, Defender CSPM helps organizations better understand and reduce risk across their cloud environments. Explore the documentation for serverless protection and posture for serverless container workloads, and discover the latest innovations in Microsoft Defender for Cloud in the release notes.Microsoft Defender for Cloud expands multicloud coverage across AWS and Google Cloud
Organizations are building and running applications across multiple cloud platforms and hybrid environments to move faster, improve resilience, and choose the services that best fit each workload. But that flexibility also changes how teams need to manage exposure. A risk may start with an internet-facing resource, an over-permissive identity, a misconfigured managed service, a vulnerable container image, or a serverless workload with access to sensitive data. When those signals are spread across multiple cloud providers and tools, it becomes harder to understand how exposure is created and which actions will reduce risk fastest. Today, Microsoft is expanding multicloud coverage in Microsoft Defender for Cloud with general availability of approximately 90 new AWS and Google Cloud resource types and more than 200 recommendations. Building on recent enhancements in CIEM, identity security, containers, and serverless workloads, this expansion helps customers evaluate more of their cloud estate through a unified security experience. With broader coverage across cloud-native applications, data platforms, identity services, networking components, and managed services, security teams can move beyond isolated findings and gain more context across resources, configurations, identities, exposure signals, and prioritization. What’s new: broader AWS and Google Cloud coverage Security teams cannot reduce exposure they cannot see. The expanded coverage brings more AWS and Google Cloud resources into the Defender for Cloud experience, helping customers assess a wider set of modern cloud services through a unified security lens, reducing blind spots where teams increasingly build and operate: serverless applications, containers and build systems, identity and entitlement controls, data and analytics services, AI and ML, networking, messaging, storage, and other managed cloud services. App, platform, and serverless services, including Cloud Run and EventBridge, to help teams identify exposure in cloud-native applications and event-driven workloads. Containers, registries, and build systems, including Artifact Registry and CodePipeline, to connect software supply chain posture with workload risk. Identity, data, and managed services, including Cognito and BigQuery, to help teams understand how access, data, and platform configurations can increase exposure. Multicloud compliance and data protection controls, improving visibility into encryption, logging, backup, auditability, and resilience scenarios. This broader view helps customers understand their real exposure surface and act on recommendations tied to the scenarios that matter most. Find the full list of recommendations here. See exposure in context Exposure is rarely created by a single finding. Consider a security team managing applications across AWS and Google Cloud. A publicly accessible BigQuery dataset, a cloud-native application running in Cloud Run, and an over-permissioned identity may each generate separate findings. Viewed independently, these issues can appear as routine posture alerts; together, they reveal a higher-risk exposure scenario that could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data. More AWS and Google Cloud resources can now be assessed in the same security experience, helping teams move beyond isolated findings and toward a clearer understanding of potential exposure and remediation priority. Why this matters For most security teams, the bigger challenge isn't generating more findings, it's prioritizing the ones that matter most. By bringing more AWS and Google Cloud resources into inventory, evaluating them with recommendations, and correlating them with identity context, exposure signals, regulatory compliance results, Secure Score insights, and business criticality, Defender for Cloud helps teams focus on the exposures most likely to impact their organization, without adding another fragmented tool to the stack. As coverage expands, teams can answer practical questions across a broader part of their environment: Which AWS and Google Cloud services are now visible in my cloud inventory? Which newly evaluated resources have recommendations that should be reviewed? Which findings are tied to exposed, high-value, or security-sensitive resources? Where should my team prioritize remediation based on exposure, not just finding volume? Building on recent multicloud investments This release builds on a series of multicloud investments in Defender for Cloud over the past several months that bring deeper, more consistent protection across multicloud environments. CIEM and identity: Identity is one of the most common entry points for cloud exposure. Defender for Cloud evaluates overprovisioned identities, risky permissions, weak authentication, and privilege-escalation paths. Modernized CIEM logic now assesses identity risk based on actual entitlement usage rather than sign-in activity, using a 90-day lookback. Customers benefit from improved accuracy using log ingestion from AWS CloudTrail and Google Cloud Logging, and drive actionable recommendations. Learn more about permissions management. Containers and serverless: In containers and serverless, Microsoft expanded multicloud posture coverage across serverless compute, serverless containers, and modern Kubernetes environments. This expansion brings more cloud-native workloads into a unified code-to-runtime security model with vulnerability assessment, misconfiguration analysis, container-level recommendations, and a richer exposure context. Last month we introduced general availability of serverless compute posture coverage for AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, and Azure Web Apps, and the public preview of serverless container posture coverage for Azure Container Apps, Azure Container Instances, and Amazon ECS on AWS Fargate. Learn more about the latest in container security, and find documentation about serverless protection and serverless containers posture protection. Together, these investments give security teams a more complete view of exposure across Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud. Built into the Microsoft Security experience The expanded AWS and Google Cloud coverage strengthens the foundation for multicloud exposure management in Defender for Cloud. Customers can use the same experience they already rely on to understand inventory, posture, serverless and container risk, CIEM and identity context, compliance, Secure Score, and risk prioritization across more of their cloud estate. Because exposure is shaped by relationships across resources, identities, entitlements, workloads, configurations, controls, and reachable services, a more complete multicloud view helps security teams understand risk and act with greater confidence. For customers standardizing on Microsoft Security, this means broader multicloud exposure management in one place – without adding another fragmented tool to the stack. Get started Customers can begin reviewing the expanded coverage by exploring Cloud Inventory, filtering by cloud provider and resource category, reviewing newly introduced recommendations, and monitoring Secure Score changes as broader assessment becomes available. We recommend that security teams: Use Cloud Inventory to understand which additional AWS and Google Cloud resource types are now represented in Defender for Cloud. Review new recommendations across key workload, identity, compliance, data protection, and networking. Reassess top exposure scenarios across clouds, including serverless, containers, identity, data, and managed services. Prioritize remediation based on exposure, criticality, and business context, not only recommendation volume. Learn more With expanded AWS and Google Cloud coverage, Microsoft Defender for Cloud helps security teams improve multicloud visibility, assess more resources, and prioritize exposure across their cloud estate. To learn more, visit the Microsoft Defender for Cloud documentation, review the latest release notes, and follow the Microsoft Defender for Cloud Tech Community blog for updates on cloud security and posture management.Authenticating AWS Workloads to Azure Functions using Workload Identity Federation
Step-by-step guide to configuring Workload Identity Federation between AWS and Azure, enabling service-to-service authentication where AWS workloads can securely call Azure Functions using token-based access instead of stored credentials.Become a Microsoft Defender for Cloud Ninja
[Last update: 06/25/2026] This blog post has a curation of many Microsoft Defender for Cloud (formerly known as Azure Security Center and Azure Defender) resources, organized in a format that can help you to go from absolutely no knowledge in Microsoft Defender for Cloud, to design and implement different scenarios. You can use this blog post as a training roadmap to learn more about Microsoft Defender for Cloud. On November 2nd, at Microsoft Ignite 2021, Microsoft announced the rebrand of Azure Security Center and Azure Defender for Microsoft Defender for Cloud. To learn more about this change, read this article. Every month we are adding new updates to this article, and you can track it by checking the red date besides the topic. If you already study all the modules and you are ready for the knowledge check, follow the procedures below: To obtain the Defender for Cloud Ninja Certificate 1. Take this knowledge check here, where you will find questions about different areas and plans available in Defender for Cloud. 2. If you score 80% or more in the knowledge check, request your participation certificate here. If you achieved less than 80%, please review the questions that you got it wrong, study more and take the assessment again. Note: it can take up to 24 hours for you to receive your certificate via email. To obtain the Defender for Servers Ninja Certificate (Introduced in 08/2023) 1. Take this knowledge check here, where you will find only questions related to Defender for Servers. 2. If you score 80% or more in the knowledge check, request your participation certificate here. If you achieved less than 80%, please review the questions that you got it wrong, study more and take the assessment again. Note: it can take up to 24 hours for you to receive your certificate via email. Modules To become an Microsoft Defender for Cloud Ninja, you will need to complete each module. The content of each module will vary, refer to the legend to understand the type of content before clicking in the topic’s hyperlink. The table below summarizes the content of each module: Module Description 0 - CNAPP In this module you will familiarize yourself with the concepts of CNAPP and how to plan Defender for Cloud deployment as a CNAPP solution. 1 – Introducing Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Microsoft Defender Cloud plans In this module you will familiarize yourself with Microsoft Defender for Cloud and understand the use case scenarios. You will also learn about Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Microsoft Defender Cloud plans pricing and overall architecture data flow. 2 – Planning Microsoft Defender for Cloud In this module you will learn the main considerations to correctly plan Microsoft Defender for Cloud deployment. From supported platforms to best practices implementation. 3 – Enhance your Cloud Security Posture In this module you will learn how to leverage Cloud Security Posture management capabilities, such as Secure Score and Attack Path to continuous improvement of your cloud security posture. This module includes automation samples that can be used to facilitate secure score adoption and operations. 4 – Cloud Security Posture Management Capabilities in Microsoft Defender for Cloud In this module you will learn how to use the cloud security posture management capabilities available in Microsoft Defender for Cloud, which includes vulnerability assessment, inventory, workflow automation and custom dashboards with workbooks. 5 – Regulatory Compliance Capabilities in Microsoft Defender for Cloud In this module you will learn about the regulatory compliance dashboard in Microsoft Defender for Cloud and give you insights on how to include additional standards. In this module you will also familiarize yourself with Azure Blueprints for regulatory standards. 6 – Cloud Workload Protection Platform Capabilities in Azure Defender In this module you will learn how the advanced cloud capabilities in Microsoft Defender for Cloud work, which includes JIT, File Integrity Monitoring and Adaptive Application Control. This module also covers how threat protection works in Microsoft Defender for Cloud, the different categories of detections, and how to simulate alerts. 7 – Streaming Alerts and Recommendations to a SIEM Solution In this module you will learn how to use native Microsoft Defender for Cloud capabilities to stream recommendations and alerts to different platforms. You will also learn more about Azure Sentinel native connectivity with Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Lastly, you will learn how to leverage Graph Security API to stream alerts from Microsoft Defender for Cloud to Splunk. 8 – Integrations and APIs In this module you will learn about the different integration capabilities in Microsoft Defender for Cloud, how to connect Tenable to Microsoft Defender for Cloud, and how other supported solutions can be integrated with Microsoft Defender for Cloud. 9 - DevOps Security In this module you will learn more about DevOps Security capabilities in Defender for Cloud. You will be able to follow the interactive guide to understand the core capabilities and how to navigate through the product. 10 - Defender for APIs In this module you will learn more about the new plan announced at RSA 2023. You will be able to follow the steps to onboard the plan and validate the threat detection capability. 11 - AI Posture Management and Workload Protection In this module you will learn more about the risks of Gen AI and how Defender for Cloud can help improve your AI posture management and detect threats against your Gen AI apps. Module 0 - Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) Improving Your Multi-Cloud Security with a CNAPP - a vendor agnostic approach Microsoft CNAPP Solution Planning and Operationalizing Microsoft CNAPP Understanding Cloud Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) Cloud Native Applications Protection Platform (CNAPP) Microsoft CNAPP eBook Understanding CNAPP Why Microsoft Leads the IDC CNAPP MarketScape: Key Insights for Security Decision-Makers Module 1 - Introducing Microsoft Defender for Cloud What is Microsoft Defender for Cloud? A New Approach to Get Your Cloud Risks Under Control Getting Started with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Implementing a CNAPP Strategy to Embed Security From Code to Cloud Boost multicloud security with a comprehensive code to cloud strategy A new name for multi-cloud security: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Common questions about Defender for Cloud MDC Cost Calculator Breaking down security silos: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Expands into the Defender Portal Microsoft Defender for Cloud Customer Newsletter New innovations in Microsoft Defender to strengthen multi-cloud, containers, and AI model security Defender for Cloud integration into the Defender portal (May 2026 GA) Cloud security reporting in the Defender portal (May 2026 Preview) Module 2 – Planning Microsoft Defender for Cloud Features for IaaS workloads Features for PaaS workloads Built-in RBAC Roles in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Enterprise Onboarding Guide Design Considerations for Log Analytics Workspace Onboarding on-premises machines using Windows Admin Center Understanding Security Policies in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Creating Custom Policies Centralized Policy Management in Microsoft Defender for Cloud using Management Groups Planning Data Collection for IaaS VMs Microsoft Defender for Cloud PoC Series – Microsoft Defender for Storage How to Effectively Perform an Microsoft Defender for Cloud PoC Microsoft Defender for Cloud PoC Series – Microsoft Defender CSPM Microsoft Defender for DevOps GitHub Connector - Microsoft Defender for Cloud PoC Series Grant tenant-wide permissions to yourself Simplifying Onboarding to Microsoft Defender for Cloud with Terraform Module 3 – Enhance your Cloud Security Posture How Secure Score affects your governance Cloud secure score in Microsoft Defender for Cloud - Microsoft Defender for Cloud Enhance your Secure Score in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Security recommendations Active User (Public Preview) Resource exemption Create custom security standards and recommendations - Microsoft Defender for Cloud Deliver a Security Score weekly briefing Send Microsoft Defender for Cloud Recommendations to Azure Resource Stakeholders User roles and permissions - Microsoft Defender for Cloud Secure Score Reduction Alert Improved experience for managing the default Azure security policies Security Policy Enhancements in Defender for Cloud Create custom recommendations and security standards Secure Score Overtime Workbook Automation Artifacts for Secure Score Recommendations Connecting Defender for Cloud with Jira Remediation Scripts New preview recommendations for Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Servers as part of Defender CSPM (April and May 2026 Preview) General availability of individual recommendations for Defender for Cloud in Azure portal and deprecation of legacy grouped recommendations (May 2026 GA) Daily score calculation enhancement for risk-based Cloud secure score (May 2026 GA) Module 4 – Cloud Security Posture Management Capabilities in Microsoft Defender for Cloud CSPM in Defender for Cloud Take a Proactive Risk-Based Approach to Securing your Cloud Native Applications Predict future security incidents! Cloud Security Posture Management with Microsoft Defender Software inventory filters added to asset inventory Drive your organization to security actions using Governance experience Managing Asset Inventory in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Vulnerability Assessment Workbook Template Vulnerability Assessment for Containers Implementing Workflow Automation Workflow Automation Artifacts Using Microsoft Defender for Cloud API for Workflow Automation What you need to know when deleting and re-creating the security connector(s) in Defender for Cloud Connect AWS Account with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Video Demo - Connecting AWS accounts Microsoft Defender for Cloud PoC Series - Multi-cloud with AWS Onboarding your AWS/GCP environment to Microsoft Defender for Cloud with Terraform How to better manage cost of API calls that Defender for Cloud makes to AWS Cloud posture management adds serverless protection for Azure and AWS Integrate AWS CloudTrail logs with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Connect GCP Account with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Protecting Containers in GCP with Defender for Containers Video Demo - Connecting GCP Accounts Microsoft Defender for Cloud PoC Series - Multicloud with GCP All You Need to Know About Microsoft Defender for Cloud Multicloud Protection Custom recommendations for AWS and GCP 31 new and enhanced multicloud regulatory standards coverage Azure Monitor Workbooks integrated into Microsoft Defender for Cloud and three templates provided How to Generate a Microsoft Defender for Cloud exemption and disable policy report Exempt resources at scale - Microsoft Defender for Cloud Cloud security posture and contextualization across cloud boundaries from a single dashboard Best Practices to Manage and Mitigate Security Recommendations New multicloud security recommendations (June 2026 Preview) Discovery and posture for serverless container workloads (June 2026 Preview) Expanded container support for cloud scopes (June 2026) Discovery and posture for serverless container workloads (June 2026 Preview) More than 60 multicloud security recommendations across AWS and GCP services (June 2026 Preview) Defender CSPM Defender CSPM Plan Options Go Beyond Checkboxes: Proactive Cloud Security with Microsoft Defender CSPM What’s New in Microsoft Defender CSPM Cloud Security Explorer Identify and remediate attack paths Agentless scanning for machines Cloud security explorer and Attack path analysis Governance Rules at Scale Governance Improvements Data Security Aware Posture Management Fast-Start Checklist for Microsoft Defender CSPM: From Enablement to Best Practices Unlocking API visibility: Defender for Cloud Expands API security to Function Apps and Logic Apps A Proactive Approach to Cloud Security Posture Management with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Prioritize Risk remediation with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Attack Path Analysis Understanding data aware security posture capability Agentless Container Posture Agentless Container Posture Management Microsoft Defender for Cloud - Automate Notifications when new Attack Paths are created Proactively secure your Google Cloud Resources with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Demystifying Defender CSPM Discover and Protect Sensitive Data with Defender for Cloud Defender for cloud's Agentless secret scanning for virtual machines is now generally available! Defender CSPM Support for GCP Data Security Dashboard Agentless Container Posture Management in Multicloud Agentless malware scanning for servers Recommendation Prioritization Unified insights from Microsoft Entra Permissions Management Defender CSPM Internet Exposure Analysis Future-Proofing Cloud Security with Defender CSPM ServiceNow's integration now includes Configuration Compliance module Agentless code scanning for GitHub and Azure DevOps (preview) 🚀 Suggested Labs: Improving your Secure Posture Connecting a GCP project Connecting an AWS project Defender CSPM Agentless container posture through Defender CSPM Contextual Security capabilities for AWS using Defender CSPM Module 5 – Regulatory Compliance Capabilities in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Understanding Regulatory Compliance Capabilities in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Adding new regulatory compliance standards Regulatory Compliance workbook Regulatory compliance dashboard now includes Azure Audit reports Microsoft cloud security benchmark: Azure compute benchmark is now aligned with CIS! Updated naming format of Center for Internet Security (CIS) standards in regulatory compliance CIS Azure Foundations Benchmark v2.0.0 in regulatory compliance dashboard Spanish National Security Framework (Esquema Nacional de Seguridad (ENS)) added to regulatory compliance dashboard for Azure Microsoft Defender for Cloud Adds Four New Regulatory Frameworks | Microsoft Community Hub 🚀 Suggested Lab: Regulatory Compliance Module 6 – Cloud Workload Protection Platform Capabilities in Microsoft Defender for Clouds Understanding Just-in-Time VM Access Implementing JIT VM Access File Integrity Monitoring in Microsoft Defender Understanding Threat Protection in Microsoft Defender Performing Advanced Risk Hunting in Defender for Cloud Microsoft Defender for Servers Demystifying Defender for Servers Onboarding directly (without Azure Arc) to Defender for Servers Agentless secret scanning for virtual machines in Defender for servers P2 & DCSPM Vulnerability Management in Defender for Cloud File Integrity Monitoring using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint File Integrity Monitoring requires MDE agent version 10.8799+ for legacy Windows machines Microsoft Defender Experts for Servers as a managed XDR option (May 2026) Microsoft Defender for Containers Basics of Defender for Containers Secure your Containers from Build to Runtime Guarding Kubernetes Deployments: Runtime Gating for Vulnerable Images Now Generally Available AWS ECR Coverage in Defender for Containers Upgrade to Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management End to end container security with unified SOC experience Binary drift detection episode Binary drift detection Cloud Detection Response experience Exploring the Latest Container Security Updates from Microsoft Ignite 2024 Unveiling Kubernetes lateral movement and attack paths with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Onboarding Docker Hub and JFrog Artifactory Improvements in Container’s Posture Management New AKS Security Dashboard in Defender for Cloud The Risk of Default Configuration: How Out-of-the-Box Helm Charts Can Breach Your Cluster Your cluster, your rules: Helm support for container security with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Defending Container Runtime from Malware with Microsoft Defender for Container Defender for Containers runtime protection on EKS Bottlerocket is now generally available (April 2026 GA) Anti-malware detection and blocking is now generally available (April 2026 GA) DNS Detection for Kubernetes (April 2026 GA) General availability of container security capabilities in Azure Government cloud (April 2026 GA) Updated Helm installation for Defender for Containers sensor (May 2026) Scanning support for Docker Hardened container images (May 2026 Preview) Private clusters protection for gated deployment, binary drift detection, and malware detection (May 2026 Preview) Malware detection for EKS and GKE nodes (May 2026 Preview) Kubernetes misconfiguration enforcement in Defender for Containers (June 2026 Preview) Vulnerability assessment extended to runtime-discovered container images on EKS and GKE (June 2026 Preview) Kubernetes node vulnerability assessment extended to EKS and GKE (June 2026 Preview) Container-level misconfiguration recommendations for Kubernetes (June 2026 Preview) New actionable recommendation to upgrade AKS for system pod vulnerabilities (June 2026 Preview) Grouped container vulnerability recommendations deprecated and replaced by individual recommendations (June 2026) New serverless container recommendations for ECS Fargate, Azure Container Apps, and Azure Container Instances (June 2026 Preview) Microsoft Defender for Storage Protect your storage resources against blob-hunting Malware Scanning in Defender for Storage What's New in Defender for Storage Defender for Storage: Malware Scan Error Message Update Protecting Cloud Storage in the Age of AI Key findings from product telemetry: top storage security alerts across industries Malware scan results now in blob tags (ADLS Gen2 HNS | Public Preview) Automated malware remediation in Defender for Storage (March 2026 GA) Storage Center integration (April 2026 GA) On-demand malware scanning for Azure Files (May 2026 GA) Microsoft Defender for SQL New Defender for SQL VA Defender for SQL on Machines Enhanced Agent Update Update to Defender for SQL servers on machines plan for Fairfax customers (April 2026) SQL Vulnerability Assessment Express Configuration is now generally available for Azure SQL Managed Instance and Azure Synapse Analytics workspaces (June 2026 GA) New SQL alert in preview: abnormally large number of rows extracted from SQL server (June 2026 Preview) Microsoft Defender for SQL Anywhere New autoprovisioning process for SQL Server on machines plan Enhancements for protecting hosted SQL servers across clouds and hybrid environments Defender for Open-Source Relational Databases Multicloud GA of Microsoft Defender for Open-Source Relational Databases on AWS RDS (June 2026 GA) Modern Database Protection: From Visibility to Threat Detection with Microsoft Defender for Clou Microsoft Defender for KeyVault Microsoft Defender for AppService Microsoft Defender for Resource Manager Understanding Security Incident Security Alert Correlation Alert Reference Guide 'Copy alert JSON' button added to security alert details pane Alert Suppression Simulating Alerts in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Alert validation Simulating alerts for Windows Simulating alerts for Containers Simulating alerts for Storage Simulating alerts for Microsoft Key Vault Simulating alerts for Microsoft Defender for Resource Manager Integration with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Auto-provisioning of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint unified solution Resolve security threats with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Protect your servers and VMs from brute-force and malware attacks with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Filter security alerts by IP address Alerts by resource group Defender for Servers Security Alerts Improvements From visibility to action: The power of cloud detection and response Serverless protection for Azure and AWS is now generally available (June 2026 GA) New GA recommendations for AWS Lambda and Azure Functions serverless protection (June 2026 GA) 🚀 Suggested Labs: Workload Protections Agentless container vulnerability assessment scanning Microsoft Defender for Cloud database protection Protecting On-Prem Servers in Defender for Cloud Defender for Storage Module 7 – Streaming Alerts and Recommendations to a SIEM Solution Continuous Export capability in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Deploying Continuous Export using Azure Policy Connecting Microsoft Sentinel with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Stream alerts to monitoring solutions - Microsoft Defender for Cloud | Microsoft Learn Microsoft Sentinel bi-directional alert synchronization 🚀 Suggested Lab: Exporting Microsoft Defender for Cloud information to a SIEM Module 8 – Integrations and APIs Integration with Tenable Integrate security solutions in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Defender for Cloud integration with Defender EASM Defender for Cloud integration with Defender TI REST APIs for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Using Graph Security API to Query Alerts in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Automate(d) Security with Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Logic Apps Automating Cloud Security Posture and Cloud Workload Protection Responses Module 9 – DevOps Security Overview of Microsoft Defender for Cloud DevOps Security DevOps Security Interactive Guide Configure the Microsoft Security DevOps Azure DevOps extension Configure the Microsoft Security DevOps GitHub action Automate SecOps to Developer Communication with Defender for DevOps Compliance for Exposed Secrets Discovered by DevOps Security Automate DevOps Security Recommendation Remediation DevOps Security Workbook Remediating Security Issues in Code with Pull Request Annotations Code to Cloud Security using Microsoft Defender for DevOps GitHub Advanced Security for Azure DevOps alerts in Defender for Cloud Securing your GitLab Environment with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Bridging the Gap Between Code and Cloud with Defender for Cloud Integrate Defender for Cloud CLI with CI/CD pipelines Code Reachability Analysis General availability of Microsoft Defender for Cloud and GitHub Advanced Security integration (May 2026 GA) 🚀 Suggested Labs: Onboarding Azure DevOps to Defender for Cloud Onboarding GitHub to Defender for Cloud Module 10 – Defender for APIs What is Microsoft Defender for APIs? Onboard Defender for APIs Validating Microsoft Defender for APIs Alerts API Security with Defender for APIs Microsoft Defender for API Security Dashboard Exempt functionality now available for Defender for APIs recommendations Create sample alerts for Defender for APIs detections Defender for APIs reach GA Increasing API Security Testing Visibility Boost Security with API Security Posture Management Support for additional Azure regions for Defender for APIs and API security posture management with Defender CSPM (March 2026) GA API security posture management for Function Apps and Logic Apps (June 2026 GA) API security posture management for Function Apps and Logic Apps (June 2026 GA) API recommendations for Function Apps and Logic Apps, including authentication and unused endpoint recommendations (June 2026 GA) 🚀 Suggested Lab: Defender for APIs Module 11 – AI Posture Management and Threat Protection Secure your AI applications from code to runtime with Microsoft Defender for Cloud AI security posture management AI threat protection Extending Defender’s AI Threat Protection to Microsoft Foundry Agents Secure your AI applications from code to runtime Data and AI security dashboard Protecting Azure AI Workloads using Threat Protection for AI in Defender for Cloud Plug, Play, and Prey: The security risks of the Model Context Protocol Learn Live: Enable advanced threat protection for AI workloads with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Microsoft AI Security Story: Protection Across the Platform Microsoft Defender for AI Alerts Demystifying AI Security Posture Management Part 3: Unified Security Intelligence - Orchestrating GenAI Threat Detection with Microsoft Sentinel A new era of agents, a new era of posture Defending the AI Era: New Microsoft Capabilities to Protect AI Malicious content detected in uploaded AI model alert (March 2026 Preview) Suspicious sensitive data mentioned by Azure AI resource alert deprecated (May 2026) 🚀 Suggested Lab: Security for AI workloads Are you ready to take your knowledge check? If so, click here. If you score 80% or more in the knowledge check, request your participation certificate here. If you achieved less than 80%, please review the questions that you got it wrong, study more and take the assessment again. Note: it can take up to 24 hours for you to receive your certificate via email. Other Resources Microsoft Defender for Cloud Labs Become an Microsoft Sentinel Ninja Become an MDE Ninja Cross-product lab (Defend the Flag) Release notes (updated every month) Important upcoming changes Have a great time ramping up in Microsoft Defender for Cloud and becoming a Microsoft Defender for Cloud Ninja!! Reviewer: Tom Janetscheck, Senior PM
Exempt - Azure CSPM Recommendation" (Terraform exemption
The reason you're not finding a standalone policyAssignmentId/policyDefinitionId for this specific recommendation is that it isn't a standalone assignment — it's one control inside the built-in CSPM initiative (the "ASC Default" / Microsoft Cloud Security Benchmark assignment). That initiative does have an assignment ID; you just need to target the specific control within it, not look for a separate one. In azurerm_resource_policy_exemption (or the subscription/resource-group variants), the relevant fields are: policy_assignment_id → the ID of the initiative assignment (ASC Default / MCSB), not a per-recommendation assignment policy_definition_reference_ids → an array scoping the exemption to just this one control instead of the whole initiative resource "azurerm_resource_policy_exemption" "function_app_network_exemption" { name = "exempt-function-network-restriction" resource_id = azurerm_linux_function_app.example.id policy_assignment_id = data.azurerm_subscription_policy_assignment.asc_default.id policy_definition_reference_ids = [ "<reference-id-for-the-specific-control>" ] exemption_category = "Waiver" # or "Mitigated" if an equivalent control exists expires_on = "2026-12-31T00:00:00Z" } To find the policy_definition_reference_id for this specific control: in the Azure Portal, go to Policy → Definitions, search for "Restricted network access should be configured on Internet exposed Function app" to get its definition ID, then open the initiative definition (ASC Default) and find the matching entry in its policyDefinitions[].policyDefinitionReferenceId array — that string is what goes in the array above. Two things worth deciding upfront before automating this: Waiver vs Mitigated — if you've genuinely restricted access another way (e.g., Private Endpoint), use Mitigated so it's distinguishable from accepted risk in reporting. Consider whether the exemption belongs at the resource scope (just this Function App) vs resource group/subscription — narrower is safer, but if you have a pattern of similar apps, a tagged-based resourceSelectors block can scale this without per-resource blocks.Accelerate Your Security Copilot Readiness with Our Global Technical Workshop Series
The Security Copilot team delivers free, hands-on virtual technical workshops for practitioners looking to build AI-for-Security expertise across Microsoft Entra, Intune, Purview, and Threat Protection. These sessions help you onboard, configure, and operationalize Security Copilot—including working with agents—in real-world scenarios. Offered year-round across multiple time zones, they’re led by Microsoft engineering experts and focused on 100% technical, scenario-driven learning through demos, labs, and live Q&A. These workshops are ideal for Security Architects & Engineers, SOC Analysts, Identity & Access Management Engineers, Endpoint & Device Admins, Compliance & Risk Practitioners, Partner Technical Consultants and Customer technical teams adopting AI powered defense. Register now! Below is the schedule of global live deliveries as well as recorded versions of all Security Copilot Virtual Workshops. Join a live workshop: Start building Security Copilot skills—choose the product area and time zone that works best for you. Please take note of pre-requisites for each workshop in the registration page. Please note at the moment we are not able to accept participants from Russia, China and North Korea. Security Copilot Virtual Workshop: Copilot in Defender North America time zone July 22, 2026 at 8:00-9:30 AM (PST) - register here August 19, 2026 at 8:00-9:30 AM (PST) - register here September 16, 2026 at 8:00-9:30 AM (PST) - register here Asia Pacific time zone July 23, 2026 - register here August 20, 2026 - register here September 17, 2026 - register here Security Copilot Virtual Workshop: Copilot in Entra North America time zone July 15, 2026 at 8:00-9:30 AM (PST) - register here August 14, 2026 at 8:00-9:30 AM (PST) - register here Asia Pacific time zone June 18, 2026 - register here August 13, 2026 - register here September 10, 2026 - register here Security Copilot Virtual Workshop: Copilot in Intune North America time zone July 1, 2026 at 8:00-9:30 AM (PST) - register here July 29, 2026 at 8:00-9:30 AM (PST) -register here August 26, 2026 at 8:00-9:30 AM (PST) -register here September 23, 2026 at 8:00-9:30 AM (PST) -register here Asia Pacific time zone July 2, 2026 - register here July 30, 2026 -register here August 27, 2026 -register here Security Copilot Virtual Workshop: Copilot in Purview North America time zone July 8, 2026 at 8:00-9:30 AM (PST) - register here August 5, 2026 at 8:00-9:30 AM (PST) -register here September 2, 2026 at 8:00-9:30 AM (PST) -register here Asia Pacific time zone July 9, 2026 -register here August 6, 2026 -register here September 3, 2026 -register here October 1, 2026 -register here Can't join live? No problem! Access the recordings and workshop guides Copilot in Defender workshop recording Workshop guide Copilot in Purview workshop recording Workshop guide Copilot in Entra workshop recording Workshop guide Copilot in Intune workshop recording Workshop guide Learn and Engage with the Microsoft Security Community Log in and follow this Microsoft Security Community Blog and post/ interact in the Microsoft Security Community discussion spaces. Follow = Click the heart in the upper right when you're logged in 🤍 Join the Microsoft Security Community and be notified of upcoming events, product feedback surveys, and more. Get early access to Microsoft Security products and provide feedback to engineers by joining the Microsoft Security Advisors.. Learn about the Microsoft MVP Program. Join the Microsoft Security Community LinkedIn and the Microsoft Entra Community LinkedInMigrate Sentinel to Defender - Why It Is a Security Architecture Decision, Not Just a Portal Change
Microsoft will retire the Sentinel experience in Azure on March 31, 2027. Most of the conversation around this transition focuses on cost optimization and portal consolidation. That framing undersells what is actually happening. The unified Defender portal is not a new interface for the same capabilities. It is the platform foundation for a fundamentally different SOC operating model — one built on a 2-tier data architecture, graph-based investigation, and AI agents that can hunt, enrich, and respond at machine speed. Partners who understand this will help customers build security programs that match how attackers actually operate. This document covers four things: What the unified experience delivers — the security capabilities that do not exist in standalone Sentinel and why they matter against today’s threats. What the transition really involves - is not data migration, but it is a data architecture project that changes how telemetry flows, where it lives, and who queries it. Where the partner opportunity lives — a structured progression from professional services (transactional, transition execution, and advisory) to ongoing managed security services. Why does the unified experience win competitively — factual capability advantages that give partners a defensible position against third-party SIEM alternatives. The Bigger Picture: Preparing for the Agentic SOC Before getting into transition mechanics, partners need to understand where the industry is headed — because the platform decisions made during this transition will determine whether a customer’s SOC is ready for what comes next. The security industry is moving from human-driven, alert-centric workflows to an operating model built on three pillars: Intellectual Property — the detection logic, hunting hypotheses, response playbooks, and domain expertise that differentiate one security team from another. Human Orchestration — the judgment, context, and decision-making that humans bring to complex incidents. Humans set strategy, validate findings, and make containment decisions. They do not manually triage every alert. AI Agents - built agents that execute repeatable work: enriching incidents, hunting across months of telemetry, validating security posture, drafting response actions, and flagging anomalies for human review. The SOC of 2027 will not be scaled by hiring more analysts. It will be scaled by deploying agents that encode institutional knowledge into automated workflows — orchestrated by humans who focus on the decisions that require judgment. This transformation requires a platform that provides three things: Deep telemetry — agents need months of queryable data to analyze behavioral patterns, build baselines, and detect slow-moving threats. The Sentinel data lake provides this at a cost point that makes long-retention feasible. Relationship context — agents need to understand how entities connect. Which accounts share credentials? What is the blast radius of a compromised service principle? What is the attack path from a phished user to domain admin? Sentinel Graph provides this. Extensibility — partners and customers need to build and deploy their own agents without waiting for Microsoft to ship them. The MCP framework and Copilot agent architecture provide this. None of these exist in Azure experience for Sentinel. All three ship with the Defender experience. The urgency goes beyond the March 2027 deadline. Organizations are deploying AI agents, copilots, and autonomous workflows across their businesses — and every one of those creates a new attack surface. Prompt injection, data poisoning, agent hijacking, cross-plugin exploitation — these are not theoretical risks. They are in the wild today. Defending against AI-powered attacks requires a security platform that is itself AI Agent-ready. The new experience in Defender unlocks this experience. What Unified SIEM and XDR Actually Delivers The original framing — “single pane of glass for SIEM and XDR” — is accurate but insufficient. Here is what the unified platform delivers that standalone Sentinel does not. Cross-Domain Incident Correlation The Defender correlation engine does not just group alerts by time proximity. It builds multi-stage incident graphs that link identity compromise to lateral movement to data exfiltration across SIEM and XDR telemetry — automatically. Consider a token theft chain: an infostealer harvests browser session cookies (endpoint telemetry), the attacker replays the token from a foreign IP (Entra ID sign-in logs), creates a mailbox forwarding rule (Exchange audit logs), and begins exfiltrating data (DLP alerts). In standalone Sentinel, these are four separate alerts in four different tables. In the unified platform, they are one correlated incident with a visual attack timeline. 2-Tier Data Architecture The Sentinel data lake introduces a second storage tier that changes the economics and capabilities of security telemetry: Analytics Tier Data Lake Purpose Real-time detection rules, SOAR, alerting Hunting, forensics, behavioral analysis, AI agent queries Latency Sub-5-minute query and alerting Minutes to hours acceptable Cost ~$4.30/GB PAYG ingestion (~$2.96 at 100 GB/day commitment) ~$0.05/GB ingestion + $0.10/GB data processing (at least 20x cheaper) Retention 90 days default (expensive to extend) Up to 12 years at low cost Best for High-signal, low-volume sources High-volume, investigation-critical sources The architecture decision is not “which tier is cheaper.” It is “which tier gives me the right detection capability for each data source.” Analytics tier candidates: Entra ID sign-in logs, Azure activity, audit logs, EDR alerts, PAM events, Defender for Identity alerts, email threat detections. These need sub-5-minute alerting. Data lake candidates: Raw firewall session logs, full DNS query streams, proxy request logs, Sysmon process events, NSG flow logs. These drive hunting and forensic analysis over weeks or months. Dual-ingest sources: Some sources need both tiers. Entra ID sign-in logs are the canonical example — analytics tier for real-time password spray detection, Data Lake for graph-based blast radius analysis across months of authentication history. Implementation is straightforward: a single Data Collection Rule (DCR) transformation handles the split. One collection point, two routing destinations. The right framing: “Right data in the right tier = better detections AND lower cost.” Cost savings are a side effect of good security architecture, not the goal. Sentinel Graph Sentinel graph enables SOC teams and AI agents to answer questions that flat log queries cannot: What is the blast radius of this compromised account? Which service principals share credentials with the breached identity? What is the attack path from this phished user to domain admin? Which entities are connected to this suspicious IP across all telemetry sources? Graph-based investigation turns isolated alerts into context-rich intelligence. It is the difference between knowing “this account was compromised” and understanding “this account has access to 47 service principals, 3 of which have written access to production Key Vault.” Security Copilot Integration Security Copilot embedded in the defender portal helps analysts summarize incidents, generate hunting queries, explain attacker behavior, and draft response actions. For complex multi-stage incidents, it reduces the time from “I see an alert” to “I understand the full scope” from hours to minutes. With free SCUs available with Microsoft 365 E5, teams can apply AI to the highest-effort investigation work without adding incremental cost. MCP and the Agent Framework The Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Copilot agent architecture let partners and customers build purpose-built security agents. A concrete example: an MCP-enabled agent can automatically enrich a phishing incident by querying email metadata, checking the sender against threat intelligence, pulling the user’s recent sign-in patterns, correlating with Sentinel Graph for lateral risk, and drafting a containment recommendation — in under 60 seconds. This is where partner intellectual property becomes competitive advantage. The agent framework is the mechanism for encoding proprietary detection logic, response playbooks, and domain expertise into automated workflows that run at machine speed. Security Store Security Store allows partners to evolve from one‑time transition projects into repeatable, scalable offerings—supporting professional services, managed services, and agent‑based IP that align with the customer’s unified SecOps operating model As part of the transition, the Microsoft Security Store becomes the extension layer for the Defender —allowing partners to deliver differentiated agents, SaaS, and security services natively within Defender and Sentinel, instead of building and integrating in isolation The 4 Investigation Surfaces: A Customer Maturity Ladder The Sentinel Data Lake exposes four distinct investigation surfaces, each representing a step toward the Agentic SOC — and a partner service opportunity: Surface Capability Maturity Level Partner Opportunity KQL Query Ad-hoc hunting, forensic investigation Basic — “we can query” Hunting query libraries; KQL training Graph Analytics Blast radius, attack paths, entity relationships Intermediate — “we understand relationships” Graph investigation training; attack path workshops Notebooks (PySpark) Statistical analysis, behavioral baselines, ML models Advanced — “we predict behaviors” Custom notebook development; anomaly scoring Agent/MCP Access Autonomous hunting, triage, response at machine speed Agentic SOC — “we automate” Custom agent development; MCP integration The customer who starts with “help us hunt better” ends up at “build us agents that hunt autonomously.” That is the progression from professional services to managed services. What the Transition Actually Involves It is not a data migration — customers’ underlying log data and analytics remain in their existing Log Analytics workspaces. That is important for partners to communicate clearly. But partners should not set the expectation that nothing changes except the URL. Microsoft’s official transition guide documents significant operational changes — including automation rules and playbooks, analytics rule, RBAC restructuring to the new unified model (URBAC), API schema changes that break ServiceNow and Jira integrations, analytics rule transitions where the Fusion engine is replaced by the Defender XDR correlation engine, and data policy shifts for regulated industries. Most customers cannot navigate this complexity without professional help. Important: Transitioning to the Defender portal has no extra cost - estimate the billing with the new Sentinel Cost Estimator Optimizing the unified platform means making deliberate changes: Adding dual-ingest for critical sources that need both real-time detection and long-horizon hunting. Moving high-volume telemetry to the Data Lake — enabling hunting at scale that was previously cost-prohibitive. Retiring redundant data copies where Defender XDR already provides the investigation capability. Updating RBAC, automation, and integrations for the unified portal’s consolidated schema and permission structure. Training analysts on new investigation workflows, Sentinel Graph navigation, and Copilot-assisted triage. Threat Coverage: The Detection Gap Most Organizations Do Not Know They Have This transition is an opportunity to quantify detection maturity — and most organizations will not like what they find. Based on real-world breach analysis — infostealers, business email compromise, human-operated ransomware, cloud identity abuse, vulnerability exploitation, nation-state espionage, and other prevalent threat categories — organizations running standalone Sentinel with default configurations typically have significant detection gaps. Those gaps cluster in three areas: Cross-domain correlation gaps — attacks that span identity, endpoint, email, and cloud workloads. These require the Defender correlation engine because no single log source tells the complete story. Long-retention hunting gaps — threats like command-and-control beaconing and slow data exfiltration that unfold over weeks or months. Analytics-tier retention at 90 days is too expensive to extend and too short for historical pattern analysis. Graph-based analysis gaps — lateral movement, blast radius assessment, and attack path analysis that require understanding entity relationships rather than flat log queries. The unified platform with proper log source coverage across Microsoft-native sources can materially close these gaps — but only if the transition includes a detection coverage assessment, not just a portal cutover. Partners should use MITRE ATT&CK as the common framework for measuring detection maturity. Map existing detections to ATT&CK tactics and techniques before and after transition — a measurable, defensible improvement that justifies advisory fees and ongoing managed services. Partner Opportunity: Professional Services to Managed Services This transition creates a structured progression for all partner types — from professional services that build trust and surface findings, to managed security services that deliver ongoing value. The key insight most partners miss: do not jump from “transition assessment” to “managed services pitch.” Customers are not ready for that conversation until they have experienced the value of professional services. The bridge engagement — whether transactional, transition execution, or advisory — builds trust, demonstrates the expertise, and surfaces the findings that make the managed services conversation a logical next step. Professional Services (transactional + transition execution + advisory) → Managed Security Services (MSSP) The USX transition is the ideal professional services entry point because it combines a mandatory deadline (March 2027) with genuine technical complexity (analytics rule, automation behavioral changes, RBAC restructuring, API schema shifts) that most customers cannot navigate alone. Every engagement produces findings — detection gaps, automation fragility, staffing shortfalls — that are the most credible possible evidence for managed services. Professional Services Transactional Partners Offer Customer Value Key Deliverables Transition Readiness Assessment Risk-mitigated transition with clear scope Sentinel deployment inventory; Defender portal compatibility check; transition roadmap with timeline; MITRE ATT&CK detection coverage baseline Transition Execution and Enablement Accelerated time-to-value, minimal disruption Workspace onboarding; RBAC and automation updates; Dual-portal testing and validation; SOC team training on unified workflows Security Posture and Detection Optimization Better detections and lower cost Data ingestion and tiering strategy; Dual-ingest implementation for critical sources; Detection coverage gap analysis; Automation and Copilot/MCP recommendations Advisory Partners Offer Customer Value Key Deliverables Executive and Strategy Advisory Leadership alignment on why this transition matters Unified SecOps vision and business case; Zero Trust and SOC modernization alignment; Stakeholder alignment across security, IT, and leadership Architecture and Design Advisory Future-ready architecture optimized for the Agentic SOC Target-state 2-tier data architecture; Dual-ingest routing decisions mapped to MITRE tactics; RBAC, retention, and access model design Detection Coverage and Gap Analysis Measurable detection maturity improvement Current-state MITRE ATT&CK coverage mapping; Gap analysis against 24 threat patterns; Detection improvement roadmap with priority recommendations SOC Operating Model Advisory Smooth analyst adoption with clear ownership Redesigned SOC workflows for unified portal; Incident triage and investigation playbooks; RACI for detection engineering, hunting, and platform ops Agentic SOC Readiness Preparation for AI-driven security operations MCP and agent architecture assessment; Custom agent development roadmap; IP + Human Orchestration + Agent operating model design Cost, Licensing and Value Advisory Transparent cost impact with strong business case Current vs. future cost analysis; Data tiering optimization recommendations; TCO and ROI modeling for leadership The conversion to managed services is evidence-based. Every professional services engagement produces findings — detection gaps, automation fragility, staffing shortfalls. Those findings are the most credible possible case for ongoing managed services. Managed Security Services The unified platform changes the managed security conversation. Partners are no longer selling “we watch your alerts 24/7.” They are selling an operating model where proprietary AI agents handle the repeatable work — enrichment, hunting, posture validation, response drafting — and human experts focus on the decisions that require judgment. This is where the competitive moat forms. The formula: IP + Human Orchestration + AI Agents = differentiated managed security. The unified platform enables this through: Multi-tenancy — the built-in multitenant portal eliminates the need for third-party management layers. Sentinel Data Lake — agents can query months of customer telemetry for behavioral analysis without cost constraints. Sentinel Graph — agents can traverse entity relationships to assess blast radius and map attack paths. MCP extensibility — partners can build agents that integrate with proprietary tools and customer-specific systems. Partners who build proprietary agents encoding their detection logic into the MCP framework will differentiate from partners who rely on out-of-box capabilities. The Securing AI Opportunity Organizations are deploying AI agents, copilots, and autonomous workflows across their businesses at an accelerating pace. Every AI deployment creates a new attack surface — prompt injection, data poisoning, agent hijacking, cross-plugin exploitation, unauthorized data access through agentic workflows. These are not theoretical risks. They are in the wild today. Partners who can help customers secure their AI deployments while also using AI to strengthen their SOC will command premium positioning. This requires a security platform that is itself AI Agent-ready — one that can deploy defensive agents at the same pace organizations deploy business AI. The unified Defender portal is that platform. Partners who position USX as “preparing your SOC for AI-driven security operations” will differentiate from partners who position it as “moving to a new portal.” Cost and Operational Benefits Better security architecture also costs less. This is not a contradiction — it is the natural result of putting the right data in the right tier. Benefit How It Works Eliminate low-value ingestion Identify and remove log sources that are never used for detections, investigations, or hunting. Immediately lowers analytics-tier costs without impacting security outcomes. Right-size analytics rules Disable unused rules, consolidate overlapping detections, and remove automation that does not reduce SOC effort. Pay only for processing that delivers measurable security value. Avoid SIEM/XDR duplication Many threats can be investigated directly in Defender XDR without duplicating telemetry into Sentinel. Stop re-ingesting data that Defender already provides. Tier data by detection need Store high-volume, hunt-oriented telemetry in the Data Lake at at least 20x lower cost. Promote only high-signal sources to the analytics tier. Full data fidelity preserved in both tiers. Reduce operational overhead Unified SIEM+XDR workflows in a single portal reduce tool switching, accelerate investigations, simplify analyst onboarding, and enable SOC teams to scale without proportional headcount increases. Improve detection quality The Defender correlation engine produces higher-fidelity incidents with fewer false positives. SOC teams spend less time triaging noise and more time on real threats. Competitive Positioning Partners need defensible talking points when customers evaluate third-party SIEM alternatives. The following advantages are factual, sourced from Microsoft’s transition documentation and platform capabilities — not marketing claims. No extra cost for transitioning — even for non-E5 customers. Third-party SIEM migrations involve licensing, data migration, detection rewrite, and integration rebuild costs. Native cross-domain correlation across Sentinel + Defender products into multi-stage incident graphs. Third-party SIEMs receive Microsoft logs as flat events — they lack the internal signal context, entity resolution, and product-specific intelligence that powers cross-domain correlation. Custom detections across SIEM + XDR — query both Sentinel and Defender XDR tables without ingesting Defender data into Sentinel. Eliminates redundant ingestion cost. Alert tuning extends to Sentinel — previously Defender-only capability, now applicable to Sentinel analytics rules. Net-new noise reduction. Unified entity pages — consolidated user, device, and IP address pages with data from both Sentinel and Defender XDR, plus global search across SIEM and XDR. Third-party SIEMs provide entity views from ingested data only. Built-in multi-tenancy for MSSPs — multitenant portal manages incidents, alerts, and hunting across tenants without third-party management layers. Try out the new GDAP capabilities in Defender portal. Industry validation: Microsoft’s SIEM+XDR platform has been recognized as a Leader by both Forrester (Security Analytics Platforms, 2025) and Gartner (SIEM Magic Quadrant, 2025). Summary: What Partners Should Take Away Topic Key Message Framing USX is a security architecture transformation, not a portal transition. Lead with detection capability, not cost savings. Platform foundation Sentinel Data Lake + Sentinel Graph + MCP/Agent Framework = the platform for the Agentic SOC. 4 investigation surfaces KQL → Graph → Notebooks → Agent/MCP. A maturity ladder from “we can query” to “we automate at machine speed.” Architecture 2-tier data model (analytics + Data Lake) with dual-ingest for critical sources. Cost savings are a side effect of good architecture. Transition complexity Analytics rules and automation rules. API schema changes. RBAC restructuring. Most customers need professional help. Partner engagement model Professional Services (transactional + transition execution + advisory) → Managed Services (MSSP). Competitive positioning No extra cost. Native correlation. Cross-domain detections. Built-in multi-tenancy. Capabilities third-party SIEMs cannot replicate. Partner differentiation IP + Human Orchestration + AI Agents. Partners who build proprietary agents on MCP have competitive advantage. Timeline March 31, 2027. Start now — phased transition with one telemetry domain first, then scale.
