What’s new in Microsoft Sentinel: June 2026
Welcome back to What's new in Microsoft Sentinel. In June, Sentinel SIEM’s Advanced Security Information Model (ASIM) broadens its normalization, so one analytic rule can reach more sources with less per-source work and, additionally, two new ASIM schemas can now bring asset inventory and AI agent telemetry into common form. In Microsoft Sentinel data lake, the Agent Identities Asset Connector adds the identity context behind your AI agents, helping you see who owns an agent and what permissions it holds. In Sentinel MCP, graph tools help security teams investigate threats and optimize security coverage by visualizing relationships across identities, devices, alerts, and signals in a unified graph experience. Read on for the details, and explore the resources at the end to go deeper. Sentinel innovations: Sentinel SIEM Sentinel data lake Sentinel MCP Microsoft Security Store Sentinel SIEM Advanced Security Information Model (ASIM) parsers and schemas [Generally available] The Advanced Security Information Model (ASIM) in Sentinel normalizes logs into common schemas, so one analytic rule can cover many sources without managing each native schema. ASIM coverage has expanded across more Azure services, broader AWS CloudTrail activity, and a range of third-party firewall, identity, and proxy products, so your detections reach more of your environment with less per-source work. Two schemas also join ASIM: Asset Entities normalizes asset inventory so you can correlate files and assets across investigations, and AI Agent Events normalizes telemetry from AI-driven workflows and autonomous agents. Browse the ASIM parsers on GitHub to explore, file issues, or contribute. Learn more in our blog. Sentinel transition to Defender blog series By March 31, 2027, all Microsoft Sentinel customers transition to Defender. This six-part series guides you through moving your Sentinel experience from the Azure portal to Defender, where SIEM, XDR, threat intelligence, AI, and automation come together in one experience. Your analytics rules, playbooks, workbooks, log analytics workspace, and access assignments all carry forward while the operational layer becomes more connected and intelligent. Starting early matters because you realize the benefits sooner, including a unified incident queue, cross-product correlation, Security Copilot, Sentinel data lake, and SOC optimization. Across the six-part blog series you get 1) the strategic shift, 2) the anatomy of incident and data changes, 3) detection and automation, 4) the governance shift across roles and access, 5) a readiness playbook with the adoption helper and cost guidance, and 6) a look at the AI-first SOC. Each part stands alone, so you can read in order or jump to what matters most to you. Sentinel data lake Agent Identities Asset Connector [Public preview] The Agent Identities Asset Connector brings identity context for AI agents into Sentinel. Activity connectors like Agent 365 and Microsoft 365 Copilot already show you what AI agents do, but activity alone cannot tell you who owns an agent, what permissions it holds, or how it is governed. This connector fills that gap with four asset tables covering agent owners, agent identities, agent blueprints, and the service principals tied to those blueprints. Together they form a connected agent identity graph you can trace from owner to identity to blueprint to permissions to the resources an agent touches. Joining this asset data with activity data in Sentinel data lake lets you detect anomalous behavior relative to permissions, spot over-permissioned or misconfigured agents, and follow full execution chains for end-to-end traceability. To get started, install the Agent 365 and Microsoft 365 Copilot solutions in Content Hub and enable the asset and activity connectors. Learn more. Sentinel MCP Sentinel MCP graph tools [Public preview] Microsoft Security Graph MCP tools, recently introduced in the Microsoft Sentinel MCP Server data exploration collection helps security teams investigate threats by exploring relationships between identities and device assets, and threat and activity signals ingested by data connectors and surfaced by analytic rules. Starting from an alert, analysts can follow the exposure path across connected entities — tracing lateral movement, understanding blast radius, and identifying configuration gaps — all from a single, interactive workspace. The tool provides a clear graph view that highlights dependencies and makes it easier to understand how content interacts across your environment. This helps security teams assess coverage, optimize content deployment, and identify areas that may need tuning or additional data sources. Executing graph queries via the MCP tools will trigger the graph meter. Learn more. Microsoft Security Store Partner testimonials from Adaquest and Glueckkanja For partners like Adaquest and Glueckkanja, the Microsoft Security Store helps not only put their years of knowledge, understanding, and best practices into a scalable, packaged solution, it gives them the ability to democratize that expertise and take it to market globally. Security Store operationalizes their expertise as always-on defenses — discoverable, deployable, and driving real outcomes inside the tools that security teams rely on every day. See how the Security Store is helping security teams act on threats faster with the right solutions and to be ready when it matters most: Watch: Adaquest unlocks faster response times for customers (testimonial) Watch: Glueckkanja builds agents with purpose (testimonial) Additional resources Blogs and documentation: The Advanced Security Information Model (ASIM) Process Event normalization schema reference How BlueVoyant's ASIM-First Strategy Simplifies Threat Detection in Microsoft Sentinel Migrate Sentinel to Defender – Why It Is a Security Architecture Decision, Not Just a Portal Change Connect Microsoft Sentinel to the Microsoft Defender portal Agent 365 connector: Monitor, hunt, and investigate AI agent activity in Microsoft Sentinel Get started with Microsoft Sentinel MCP server Upcoming webinars and events: July 15–16: Microsoft Virtual Training Day: Predict and Defend Against Cybersecurity Threats July 22: Microsoft Security Immersion Event: Shadow Hunter July 23-24: Microsoft Virtual Training Day: Introduction to Microsoft Security July 28: Tech Brief: Modernize security operations with a unified platform July 29: Security Immersion Event: Into the Breach Stay connected Check back each month for the latest innovations, updates, and events to ensure you’re getting the most out of Microsoft Sentinel. We’ll see you in the next edition!What’s new in Microsoft Sentinel: May 2026
Welcome to the May edition of What's new in Microsoft Sentinel. This month’s updates focus on unified role-based access control (RBAC), ecosystem breadth, AI-agent security, and high-assurance identity. RBAC and row-level scoping are now generally available, giving security teams a single, granular permissions model across Sentinel and the Microsoft Defender portal and enabling multi-team SOC collaboration. The Sentinel connector catalog has passed 400 connectors, expanding coverage across Microsoft and third-party data sources and helping customers and partners onboard new data faster with the Codeless Connector Framework (CCF). The Agent 365 connector, now in public preview, brings AI agent telemetry into Sentinel data lake as first-class standardized signals so you can monitor agent behavior alongside identity, endpoint, and cloud activity. Finally, Entra Verified ID partner integrations in Microsoft Security Store are now generally available, delivering high‑assurance identity verification that makes account recovery after compromise far safer and significantly reduces the risk of re‑compromise. Read on for the full list of updates across Sentinel in May. Sentinel innovations: Sentinel SIEM Sentinel data lake Microsoft Security Store Sentinel SIEM Unified role-based access controls and row level scoping [Generally available] Sentinel now delivers general availability of two powerful access management capabilities: Unified RBAC and row-level data scoping. Together, these innovations provide a consistent, end-to-end model for controlling who can access data and what actions they can take — extending unified permissions management across the Defender portal while enabling granular, row-level visibility within a single Sentinel workspace. With Unified RBAC, organizations can simplify and centralize permissions across security workloads, reducing operational overhead, while row-level scoping enables secure collaboration across multiple teams by ensuring users only see data aligned to their role or scope. This milestone unlocks more scalable, multi-team SOC operations without the need for workspace segmentation, helping us to advance toward fully unified, granular access control across Microsoft Security. Tenant groups [Public preview] Managing security across multiple tenants just got simpler. Tenant Groups in the Microsoft Defender multi-tenant portal (MTO) give managed security service providers (MSSPs), cloud service partners (CSPs), and multi-tenant security teams a flexible way to organize tenants into logical groupings such as customer segment, geography, or operational priority, and instantly switch views with a single click. This streamlined experience reduces noise, improves investigation focus, and aligns to how teams actually work, all while respecting existing permissions and access controls. Learn more. Out-of-the-box integrations for Sentinel automation [Public preview] Out-of-the-box (OOTB) integrations for Sentinel automation brings a centralized catalog to easily discover, configure, and manage both Microsoft and third-party integrations. With simple, authentication-based setup, users can quickly add integrations and seamlessly incorporate them into playbooks. The experience places OOTB and custom integrations side by side, with enhanced with smart search, recommendations, and duplicate prevention to streamline automation workflows end to end. Learn more. UEBA enhancements [Public preview] Microsoft Sentinel UEBA continues to evolve with improvements that simplify management and expand detection coverage. A dedicated UEBA tab view in the Sentinel settings page consolidates UEBA and behaviors settings, making configuration easier to find and manage. Learn more. UEBA insights and anomalies now support the OktaV2_CL table alongside the existing Okta_CL table, extending anomalous activity and anomalous MFA failures detections to customers using the newer Okta connector format, without requiring new anomaly types. Learn more. UEBA extends GCP Audit Logs coverage with five anomaly detections for login activity, privileged actions, resource deployments, secret/KMS key access, and infrastructure usage. Learn more. Together, these updates make UEBA easier to operate while extending its visibility into identity and behavior signals from additional cloud and identity providers. Read the latest blog from the Microsoft Defender Research Team to learn more about Microsoft Sentinel UEBA and binary feature stacking, which uses clear binary signals to help establish behavioral context and inform investigation and detection decisions. Threat Intelligence – TAXII Export connector [Generally available] Sentinel supports threat intelligence export through the built-in Threat Intelligence – Trusted Automated Exchange of Intelligence Information (TAXII) Export connector, giving customers a standards-based way to share curated Structured Threat Information Expression (STIX) objects with supported TAXII 2.1 platforms. Configured from the Defender portal, the connector handles destination setup and intelligence delivery to external platforms. The capability supports cross-organization intelligence sharing for collective defense and centralized management in multi-tenant environments, with use cases across government, critical infrastructure, and large distributed organizations. Additional enhancements are planned, including more export options and expanded destination support. Learn more. Decision-stage resources for SIEM migration to Sentinel The AI-powered SIEM migration experience helps teams analyze detections, identify required data sources and connectors, and plan a phased move to Sentinel. But, customers still need help turning that analysis into a clear decision. To support that step, we’re introducing two new customer-facing resources: the Sentinel SIEM Migration Decision and Planning Guide, which explains the migration journey, outputs, and decision checkpoints before execution, and the Decision-Stage Customer FAQ, which answers common questions around disruption, cost, dual running, detection coverage, and delivery support. Together, these resources help make migration conversations more concrete and move teams more quickly from evaluation to a clearer, lower-risk next step. Learn more: Read the blog: AI-powered SIEM migration experience announcement Download the guide: Decision and planning guide Download the FAQ: Decision-stage customer FAQ Learn more: SIEM migration experience documentation Register for live AMA (Jun 23 at 9am PT): Live Microsoft Tech Community AMA on SIEM migration Sentinel data lake 400+ Sentinel data connectors The Sentinel connector catalog now includes 400+ connectors, providing broad, ready-to-deploy coverage across Microsoft and third-party data sources. Customers can flexibly ingest security data into Microsoft Sentinel analytics tier or the data lake tier. The Codeless Connector Framework (CCF) and VS code-based connector builder agent enables partners and customers to onboard new data sources faster and scale the catalog. Discover connectors in the Sentinel Content hub within the Defender portal or build custom connectors when needed. Learn more. Agent 365 connector [Public preview] Agent 365 connector streams AI agent telemetry from Agent 365 into Sentinel data lake, giving SOC teams visibility into agent behavior alongside identity, endpoint, and cloud signals. With the Agent 365 connector in place, Sentinel data lake becomes the system of record for agent security, turning activity such as data exposure or access drift into first-class security signals that analysts can correlate, hunt across, and investigate. Telemetry is normalized and to mapped to standard Advanced Security Information Model (ASIM) schemas, ready for analytics and detections, and end-to-end investigations can run through KQL, graph, and MCP-powered workflows. Install the connector with a single click from Sentinel Content Hub in the Defender portal. Learn more. CCF support for Azure Blob Storage [Public preview] Sentinel Codeless Connector Framework (CCF) supports Azure Blob Storage as a data source, providing an ingestion pattern designed for high-volume security data. Partners and customers can build CCF connectors that read from Blob Storage through a durable architecture that buffers spikes, handles backpressure, and reduces data loss risk during outages or throttling, making ingestion more reliable for variable or distributed pipelines. The pattern broadens compatibility with partners already streaming logs to Azure as part of their audit data delivery, with Cloudflare and Netskope as early adopters. App Assure further provides engineering-backed support for designing, validating, and remediating the Azure Blob Storage CCF connector integration. Learn more. Data filtering and splitting [Generally available] At RSAC, we announced built‑in filtering and splitting capabilities in Microsoft Sentinel, which is now generally available. As security teams ingest more data, it is important to optimize security data pipeline by controlling what data is ingested and in which tier. With filtering and splitting natively integrated into the Defender portal, security teams can shape data before it reaches Sentinel, without switching tools or managing custom JSON files. Using simple KQL‑based transformations directly in the UI, you can filter low‑value events and intelligently route data, making ingestion optimization faster, more intuitive, and easier to manage at scale. Filtering at ingest time allows you to remove low‑value or benign events to reduce noise, lower unnecessary processing, and ensure high‑signal data drives detections and investigations. Splitting enables intelligent routing of data between the analytics tier and the data lake tier based on relevance and usage. Together, these capabilities help you balance cost and performance while scaling data ingestion sustainably as your digital estate grows. Learn more. Transition your Sentinel connectors to the Codeless Connector Framework (CCF) [Action required] Azure has announced that the legacy Azure Data Collection API will be deprecated on September 14, 2026. Sentinel recommends customers review existing connectors and upgrade to the latest Codeless Connector Framework (CCF) versions to ensure continued access to the newest Sentinel capabilities. CCF delivers a fully managed SaaS experience with built-in health monitoring, centralized credential management, and improved performance. This enables partners and customers to onboard new data sources faster and at scale. Microsoft Security Store Entra Verified ID partner integrations via Security Store [Generally available] Security Store helps organizations secure one of the most critical steps in incident response: safe account recovery after compromise. Once a SOC team detects and contains a potential account takeover (ATO), restoring access requires high confidence that the user is legitimate. Through partner integrations with IDEMIA, AU10TIX, CLEAR, 1Kosmos, and WhoAmI, customers can extend Entra Verified ID with high-assurance identity verification (such as document and biometric checks) to validate users during recovery, onboarding, or helpdesk workflows. This helps replace weaker fallback methods that attackers often exploit, enabling SOC and IT teams to safely restore access while reducing risk of re-compromise. Learn more. Purview Data Security Triage Agent in Defender [Public preview] Security Store powers how customers discover and activate data security agents across Defender and Microsoft Purview, starting with the Data Security Triage Agent. This capability delivers AI-generated summaries and prioritization of Data Loss Prevention (DLP) alerts directly into Defender XDR, helping security teams reduce noise and focus on the incidents that matter most. By unifying discovery and activation through Security Store, customers can deploy data security agents in fewer steps and enable more integrated workflows across threat and data protection surfaces. Learn more. Additional resources Blogs and documentation: From idea to production: Building Security Store Advisor with an agentic SDLC Upcoming webinars: June 4: End-to-End Security in the Age of Agentic AI June 10: Deploy, optimize, and implement threat protection with Sentinel June 10: Security Foundations for AI Adoption June 24: Modern Security Made Simple: Stay Ahead of Threats with Sentinel Upcoming events: June 2–3: Microsoft Build, San Francisco (and free online) CEO Satya Nadella Day 1 keynote 90+ sessions, Microsoft Security experts onsite Register: build.microsoft.com Stay connected Check back each month for the latest innovations, updates, and events to ensure you’re getting the most out of Microsoft Sentinel. We’ll see you in the next edition!
Agent 365 connector: Monitor, hunt, and investigate AI agent activity in Microsoft Sentinel
As enterprises scale the use of AI agents, SOC teams need visibility into AI agent behavior. The Agent 365 connector, now in public preview, streams rich agent telemetry from Agent 365 into Microsoft Sentinel data lake. Agent activity, such as agent data exposure or access drift, is surfaced alongside other security data, giving SOC teams a unified view across digital environments. AI Agent actions are correlated with agent identity, endpoint, and cloud signals, enabling analysts to run end‑to‑end investigations using KQL, graph, and MCP-powered workflows. Why this matters for organizations By centralizing security and AI agent telemetry in Sentinel data lake, organizations establish a unified control plane for securing AI agents. This enables security teams to analyze agent activity in context with broader signals and investigate using familiar Sentinel tools. This unlocks the ability for SOCs to detect risky or anomalous agent behavior early, understand impact quickly, and respond with speed and confidence. As AI agents take on real operational responsibility, this level of visibility is critical to prevent blind spots, reduce risk, and ensure agents operate safely at enterprise scale. End‑to‑end visibility into AI agent behavior: A centralized view of AI agent behavior allows AI agents to be treated as first-class entities alongside users, identities, endpoints, and workloads. Advanced hunting with KQL: Hunt using KQL to proactively uncover unusual AI agent execution patterns, sensitive actions, or activity without clear human context. These hunts help surface potential risk early using the same workflows already used for other security data. Analyzing blast radius and impact with Sentinel graph: Security teams can correlate AI agent activity with identities, endpoints, and cloud resources to understand blast radius and potential impact during an investigation. By pivoting across related entities in Sentinel, analysts can assess how agent actions connect to the broader environment and support deeper, end‑to‑end investigations. Querying agent data through MCP: Use MCP to surface agent observability data through AI assistants, letting analysts pull agent telemetry into investigation workflows alongside other Sentinel data. Agent 365 connector key capabilities Install the Agent 365 connector with a single click using Sentinel Content Hub in the Defender portal. Once enabled, two capabilities come online automatically: Unified agent telemetry across Agent 365 agent experiences: Rich Agent 365 agent telemetry streams into Sentinel data lake, ready to analyze alongside identity, endpoint, and cloud signals using familiar SOC workflows. ASIM unified schema for AI agent observability: Agent 365 agent observability data is normalized into an ASIM-aligned schema so it is consistent, queryable, and ready for analytics and detections. With the connector in place, Sentinel data lake becomes the system of record and the control plane for Agent 365 agent security—turning agent behavior into first-class security signals across SecOps workflows like hunting, investigation, detection engineering, and response. Use cases Prevent sensitive data exposure from misconfigured agents When an AI agent is granted broader access than intended, a crafted prompt could override safeguards and expose confidential data. With agent telemetry, security teams can trace the full execution path—from prompt to tools to data access—to quickly identify the root cause and contain the exposure. Detect and control agent access drift over time As agents take on new tasks, their permissions can expand beyond the original scope, often without clear visibility. Agent telemetry enables continuous behavioral baselining, making it easier to spot abnormal access patterns early and prevent privilege misuse before it escalates. Uncover hidden lateral movement across agent workflows Agents often collaborate and delegate tasks across systems, creating complex chains of execution that are difficult to track. Agent telemetry provides visibility into these interactions, mapping delegation paths and helping teams understand and limit the potential blast radius. Defend against prompt injection and manipulation attacks Attackers can craft prompts to override agent instructions and manipulate behavior. By capturing prompts and reasoning flows, agent telemetry enables detection of these attacks and provides the context needed to investigate and remediate quickly. Accelerate SOC investigations with end-to-end visibility When an agent is involved in a security alert, understanding its actions can be challenging. Agent telemetry correlates prompts, identities, tools, and data access into a unified timeline, giving SOC teams the clarity needed to investigate faster and respond with confidence. Strengthen governance and compliance for AI agents Organizations need visibility into what agents exist and what data they can access. Agent telemetry provides a comprehensive audit trail of agent activity and access patterns, supporting compliance reporting and policy enforcement. Enable proactive threat hunting on agent behavior Security teams need to stay ahead of emerging risks as agent usage grows. Agent telemetry enables advanced hunting across agent activity, helping detect anomalies, uncover patterns, and identify threats before they impact the organization. Get started with Agent 365 connector Getting started is straightforward. In the Microsoft Defender portal, navigate to Microsoft Sentinel Open Content hub and search for Agent 365 Install the Agent 365 Connector (if not already installed) Open the connector page and select Connect to begin ingestion Once connected, AI agent telemetry starts flowing into Sentinel, ready for hunting, investigation, and response. Data ingestion and analytics are billed using existing Sentinel meters. Learn more Find the Agent 365 data connector | Microsoft Learn Discover and manage Sentinel out-of-the-box content | Microsoft Learn Connect data sources to Sentinel by using data connectors | Microsoft Learn Sample KQL queries for Sentinel data lake | Microsoft Learn Watch the Sentinel data lake video playlist | Microsoft Security Get started with Sentinel data lake | Microsoft LearnWhat’s new in Microsoft Sentinel: April 2026
Welcome to the April 2026 edition of What's new in Microsoft Sentinel. April brings a broad set of updates, with RSAC 2026 announcements rolling out alongside new features. Highlights include cost limit enforcement to prevent runaway query costs, curated open-source intelligence in Threat Analytics, and new data connectors for CrowdStrike, Imperva, AWS, and Logstash. Together, these innovations help security teams control costs, stay ahead of emerging threats, and broaden visibility without added complexity. Read on to learn what's new with Sentinel. What's new OSINT reports in Threat Analytics [Preview] Customers can now consume curated OSINT articles alongside Microsoft-authored Threat Analytics reports, all in one place. (OSINT, or open-source intelligence, is any information readily available to the public.) These OSINT articles come enriched, as detailed in the following list, to help security teams move quickly from awareness to action. What’s included: Curated OSINT articles derived from trusted open-source research Clear summaries with links back to original sources Extracted indicators of compromise (IOCs) Mapped MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques Microsoft enrichment, analysis, and recommended actions (when available) By bringing OSINT directly into Threat Analytics, we’re reducing context switching, improving analyst efficiency, and helping customers operationalize open-source intelligence faster within their Defender workflows. Learn more. Cost limit enforcement for KQL queries and notebooks [Preview] Sentinel data lake cost policies do more than just send an alert when usage gets too high. You can set hard limits for KQL queries, jobs, and notebook sessions that block new work once a threshold is exceeded, eliminating surprise bills from runaway queries or heavy workloads. For example, instead of finding out about cost spikes after you run large queries against the data lake tier, enforcement stops further queries before the damage is done. Anything already running still finishes normally, and you get clear messaging about what happened and what to do next. You can lift guardrails temporarily, adjust thresholds, or disable enforcement on the fly. Learn more. Sentinel data connectors With 380 Sentinel data connectors, customers achieve broad visibility into complex digital environments and can expand their security operations effectively. Below are the latest updates. CrowdStrike API Connector [Generally Available] The CrowdStrike API Connector ingests logs from CrowdStrike APIs into Sentinel, fetching details on hosts, detections, incidents, alerts, and vulnerabilities from your CrowdStrike environment. Imperva Cloud WAF [Preview] The Imperva Cloud WAF data connector ingests Imperva logs into Sentinel through AWS S3 buckets, giving you visibility into web application traffic and threats detected by your Imperva deployment for monitoring, investigation, and threat hunting in Sentinel. AWS Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) [Preview] This connector allows you to ingest AWS Elastic Load Balancer (ALB, NLB, and GLB) logs into Sentinel. These logs contain detailed records for requests handled by your load balancers, including client IPs, latencies, request paths, and status codes. These logs are useful for monitoring traffic patterns, investigating anomalies, and ensuring security compliance. Logstash Output Plugin [Preview] For organizations that rely on Logstash to collect from on-premises, legacy, or air-gapped environments, the Sentinel Logstash Output Plugin has been rebuilt in Java to align with Microsoft's Secure Future Initiative (SFI) and provide improved security and long-term maintainability. The plugin uses the Azure Monitor Logs Ingestion API with Data Collection Rules (DCRs), giving you full schema control and the ability to ingest directly into Sentinel data lake as well as standard Sentinel tables. Learn more. Sentinel data federation [Preview] Sentinel data federation enables unified visibility and security analytics across federated and ingested data, without compromising data governance. Security teams can quickly query data in Microsoft Fabric, Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) Gen2, and Azure Databricks directly from Sentinel, no data movement required. This approach allows teams to explore data broadly through federation, then selectively ingest what matters most into Sentinel to unlock advanced detections, automation, and AI‑powered analytics. Learn more. Sentinel cost estimation tool [Preview] Customers and partners can confidently estimate Sentinel costs using the cost estimation tool. With meter-level guidance, you can model ingestion across analytics and data lake tiers, compare retention options, and estimate compute costs. Built‑in projections of up to three years offer transparency into spend, making it easier to plan, optimize, and share estimates. Try the Sentinel Cost Estimator. Microsoft Entra and Azure Resource Graph (ARG) connector enhancements [Preview] Enable new Entra assets (EntraDevices, EntraOrgContacts) and ARG assets (ARGRoleDefinitions) in existing asset connectors, expanding inventory coverage and powering richer, built‑in graph experiences for greater visibility. Create workbook reports directly from the data lake [Preview] Sentinel workbooks can directly run on the data lake using KQL, enabling you to visualize and monitor security data straight from the data lake. By selecting the data lake as the workbook data source, you can create trend analysis and executive reporting. Custom graphs [Preview] Custom graphs let you model relationships unique to your organization using data from Sentinel data lake, non-Microsoft sources, and federated data sources, all powered by Fabric. Instead of stitching together dozens of tables manually, you can build graphs that surface blast radius, trace attack paths, map privilege chains, and spot structural outliers like unusually broad access or anomalous email exfiltration. You can generate custom graphs using AI-assisted coding in the Microsoft Sentinel VS Code extension, persist them via a schedule job, and access them in the graphs experience in the Defender portal. Run Graph Query Language (GQL) queries, visualize results, and interactively traverse the graph to the next hop with a single click. These graphs also provide the knowledge context that enables AI-powered agent experiences to work more effectively, speeding investigations and helping you move from disconnected alerts to confident decisions at scale. Custom graph API usage for creating and querying graphs is billed according to the Sentinel graph meter. Learn more. MCP entity analyzer [General availability] Entity analyzer provides reasoned, out-of-the-box risk assessments that help you quickly understand whether a URL or user identity represents potential malicious activity. It analyzes data across threat intelligence, prevalence, and organizational context to generate clear, explainable verdicts you can trust. Entity analyzer integrates with your agents through Sentinel MCP server connections to first-party and third-party AI runtime platforms, or with your SOAR workflows through Logic Apps. It also serves as a trusted foundation for the Defender Triage Agent, delivering more accurate alert classifications and deeper investigative reasoning. Entity analyzer is billed based on Security Compute Units (SCU) consumption. Learn more about entity analyzer and MCP billing. Claude MCP connector [Preview] Anthropic Claude can connect to Sentinel through a custom MCP connector, giving you AI-assisted analysis across your Sentinel environment. Microsoft provides step-by-step guidance for configuring a custom connector in Claude that securely connects to a Sentinel MCP server. With this connection you can summarize incidents, investigate alerts, and reason over security signals while keeping data inside Microsoft's security boundary. Access to large language models (LLMs) is managed through Microsoft authentication and role-based controls, supporting faster triage and investigation workflows while maintaining compliance and visibility. CVEs of interest in the Threat Intelligence Briefing Agent [Preview] The Threat Intelligence Briefing Agent delivers curated intelligence based on your organization’s configuration, preferences, and unique industry and geographic needs. The agent surfaces Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) of interest, highlighting vulnerabilities actively discussed across the security landscape and assessing their potential impact on your environment for more timely threat intelligence insights. The agent automatically incorporates internet exposure data powered by the Sentinel platform to surface threats targeting technologies exposed in your organization. Together, these enhancements help you focus faster on the threats that matter most, without manual investigation. Additional resources Blogs and documentation: Featured blog: App Assure launches its Sentinel Advisory Service Agentic use cases for developers on Microsoft Sentinel The Unified SecOps Transition: Why It Is a Security Architecture Decision, Not Just a Portal Change What's new in Microsoft Defender – April 2026 Webinars and training: Featured webinar: Powering the Agentic SOC with Scott Woodgate, General Manager, Microsoft Threat Protection Featured training: Introducing the Microsoft Sentinel Training Lab. Hands-On Security Operations in Minutes Beyond KQL – Unlocking SOC Insights with Sentinel data lake Jupyter Notebooks Hyper scale your SOC: Manage delegated access and role-based scoping in Microsoft Defender Stay connected Check back each month for the latest innovations, updates, and events to ensure you’re getting the most out of Microsoft Sentinel. We’ll see you in the next edition!
Enforce Cost Limits on KQL Queries and Notebooks in the Microsoft Sentinel Data Lake
Security teams face a constant tension: run the advanced analytics you need to stay ahead of threats, or hold back to keep costs predictable. Until now, Microsoft Sentinel let you set alerts to get notified when data lake usage approached a threshold — useful for awareness, but not enough to prevent budget overruns. Today, we're excited to announce threshold enforcement for KQL queries and notebooks in the Microsoft Sentinel data lake. With this release, you can go beyond notifications and automatically block new queries and jobs when your configured usage limits are exceeded. Your analysts keep working confidently, and your budgets stay protected. What's new Previously, the Configure Policies experience in Microsoft Sentinel let you set threshold-based alerts for data lake usage. You'd receive an email notification when consumption approached a limit — but nothing stopped usage from continuing past that point. Now, you can enable enforcement on those same policies. When enforcement is turned on and a threshold is exceeded, Microsoft Sentinel blocks new queries, jobs, and notebook sessions with a clear "Limit exceeded" error. No more surprise cost spikes from runaway queries or analysts who mistakenly run heavy workloads against data lake data. Enforcement is supported for two data lake capability categories: Data Lake Query — interactive KQL queries and KQL jobs (scheduled and ad hoc) Advanced Data Insights — notebook runs and notebook jobs How it works Consistent controls across KQL queries and notebooks Cost controls are enforced consistently across Sentinel data lake workloads, regardless of how analysts access the data. The same policy applies whether someone is running a quick investigation or executing a long-running job. Controls apply to: Interactive KQL queries in the data lake explorer in the Defender portal KQL jobs, including scheduled and ad-hoc jobs Notebook queries run through the Microsoft Sentinel VS Code extension Notebook jobs running as background or scheduled workloads This ensures advanced analytics remain powerful — but predictable and governed. Clear enforcement without disruption Enforcement is applied at execution and validation boundaries — not retroactively. This means: Queries or jobs already running are not interrupted. In-flight work completes normally. New queries, jobs, or notebook sessions are blocked once limits are exceeded. Failures occur early (for example, during validation), avoiding wasted compute. From an analyst's perspective, enforcement is explicit and consistent. Clear messaging appears in query editors, job validation responses, and notebooks when limits are reached — so your team always understands what happened and what to do next. How to set it up Prerequisites To configure enforcement policies, ensure you have the necessary permissions that are outlined here: Manage and monitor costs for Microsoft Sentinel | Microsoft Learn. Where to access Navigate to Microsoft Sentinel > Cost management > Configure Policies in the Microsoft Defender portal (https://security.microsoft.com). Step-by-step configuration In Microsoft Sentinel > Cost management, select Configure Policies. Select the policy you want to edit (Data Lake Query or Advanced Data Insights). Enter the total threshold value for the policy. Enter an alert percentage to receive email notifications before the threshold is reached. Enable the Enforcement toggle to block usage after the threshold is exceeded. Review your settings and select Submit. Once enforcement is active, administrators receive advance notifications as usage approaches the threshold. If circumstances change — for example, during an active breach — you can adjust the threshold, disable enforcement temporarily, or modify the policy to give your SOC the room it needs to respond without being blocked. Real-world scenario: Preventing unexpected cost spikes Consider a large SOC that ingests roughly 6 TB of data per day, with 1 TB going to the Sentinel Analytics tier and the remaining 5 TB going to the Sentinel data lake. Analysts are proactively hunting for threats, performing investigations, and running automation. Tier 3 analysts are also running Jupyter Notebooks against the Sentinel data lake to build graphs, execute queries, and automate incident investigation and remediation with code. Last month, the SOC experienced a cost spike after a newly hired analyst ran large, frequent queries against data lake data — mistakenly thinking it was Analytics tier. The SOC manager needs to prevent this from happening again. With enforcement now available, the SOC manager can navigate to Microsoft Sentinel > Cost management > Configure Policies in the Defender portal and set up two policies: A Data Lake Query policy to cap data processing for KQL queries An Advanced Data Insights policy to cap notebook compute consumption With these policies in place, the SOC manager gets notified in advance when consumption approaches the threshold while having confidence that the thresholds set will be enforced to prevent unexpected consumption and cost. Analysts can continue their day-to-day work without worrying about accidental overages. Should a breach scenario demand more capacity, the SOC manager can quickly adjust or temporarily disable the policies — keeping the team unblocked while maintaining overall budget governance. Outside of a breach scenario, should the same SOC analyst generate large amounts of data scanned, the threshold will take action and prevent queries from being performed. Learn more With enforceable KQL and notebook guardrails, Microsoft Sentinel data lake helps security teams scale advanced analytics with confidence. You can control usage in production and keep investigations moving — without tradeoffs between visibility, analytics, and budget. To get started, visit the documentation: Manage and monitor costs for Microsoft Sentinel | Microsoft Learn We'd love to hear your feedback. Share your thoughts in the comments below or reach out through your usual Microsoft support channels.Estimate Microsoft Sentinel Costs with Confidence Using the New Sentinel Cost Estimator
One of the first questions teams ask when evaluating Microsoft Sentinel is simple: what will this actually cost? Today, many customers and partners estimate Sentinel costs using the Azure Pricing Calculator, but it doesn’t provide the Sentinel-specific usage guidance needed to understand how each Sentinel meter contributes to overall spend. As a result, it can be hard to produce accurate, trustworthy estimates, especially early on, when you may not know every input upfront. To make these conversations easier and budgets more predictable, Microsoft is introducing the new Sentinel Cost Estimator (public preview) for Microsoft customers and partners. The Sentinel Cost Estimator gives organizations better visibility into spend and more confidence in budgeting as they operate at scale. You can access the Microsoft Sentinel Cost Estimator here: https://microsoft.com/en-us/security/pricing/microsoft-sentinel/cost-estimator What the Sentinel Cost Estimator does The new Sentinel Cost Estimator makes pricing transparent and predictable for Microsoft customers and partners. The Sentinel Cost Estimator helps you understand what drives costs at a meter level and ensures your estimates are accurate with step-by-step guidance. You can model multi-year estimates with built-in projections for up to three years, making it easy to anticipate data growth, plan for future spend, and avoid budget surprises as your security operations mature. Estimates can be easily shared with finance and security teams to support better budgeting and planning. When to Use the Sentinel Cost Estimator Use the Sentinel Cost Estimator to: Model ingestion growth over time as new data sources are onboarded Explore tradeoffs between Analytics and Data Lake storage tiers Understand the impact of retention requirements on total spend Estimate compute usage for notebooks and advanced queries Project costs across a multi‑year deployment timeline For broader Azure infrastructure cost planning, the Azure Pricing Calculator can still be used alongside the Sentinel Cost Estimator. Cost Estimator Example Let’s walk through a practical example using the Cost Estimator. A medium-sized company that is new to Microsoft Sentinel wants a high-level estimate of expected costs. In their previous SIEM, they performed proactive threat hunting across identity, endpoint, and network logs; ran detections on high-security-value data sources from multiple vendors; built a small set of dashboards; and required three years of retention for compliance and audit purposes. Based on their prior SIEM, they estimate they currently ingest about 2 TB per day. In the Cost Estimator, they select their region and enter their daily ingestion volume. As they are not currently using Sentinel data lake, they can explore different ways of splitting ingestion between tiers to understand the potential cost benefit of using the data lake. Their retention requirement is three years. If they choose to use Sentinel data lake, they can plan to retain 90 days in the Analytics tier (included with Microsoft Sentinel) and keep the remaining data in Sentinel data lake for the full three years. As notebooks are new to them, they plan to evaluate notebooks for SOC workflows and graph building. They expect to start in the light usage tier and may move to medium as they mature. Since they occasionally query data older than 90 days to build trends—and anticipate using the Sentinel MCP server for SOC workflows on Sentinel lake data—they expect to start in the medium query volume tier. Note: These tiers are for estimation purposes only; they do not lock in pricing when using the Microsoft Sentinel platform. Because this customer is upgrading from Microsoft 365 E3 to E5, they may be eligible for free ingestion based on their user count. Combined with their eligible server data from Defender for Servers, this can reduce their billable ingestion. In the review step, the Cost Estimator projects costs across a three-year window and breaks down drivers such as data tiers, commitment tiers, and comparisons with alternative storage options. From there, the customer can go back to earlier steps to adjust inputs and explore different scenarios. Once done, the estimate report can be exported for reference with Microsoft representatives and internal leadership when discussing the deployment of Microsoft Sentinel and Sentinel Platform. Finalize Your Estimate with Microsoft The Microsoft Sentinel Cost Estimator is designed to provide directional guidance and help organizations understand how architectural decisions may influence cost. Final pricing may vary based on factors such as deployment architecture, commitment tiers, and applicable discounts. We recommend working with your Microsoft account team or a Security sales specialist to develop a formal proposal tailored to your organization’s requirements. Try the Microsoft Sentinel Cost Estimator Start building your Microsoft Sentinel cost estimate today: https://microsoft.com/en-us/security/pricing/microsoft-sentinel/cost-estimator.Introducing the New Microsoft Sentinel Logstash Output Plugin (Public Preview!)
Many organizations rely on Logstash as a flexible, trusted data pipeline for collecting, transforming, and forwarding logs from on-premises and hybrid environments. Microsoft Sentinel has long supported a Logstash output plugin, enabling customers to send data directly into Sentinel as part of their existing pipelines. The original plugin was implemented in Ruby, and while it has served its purpose, it no longer meets Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative (SFI) standards and has limited engineering support. To address both security and sustainability, we have rebuilt the plugin from the ground up in Java, a language that is more secure, better supported across Microsoft, and aligned with long-term platform investments. To ensure a seamless transition, the new implementation is still packaged and distributed as a standard Logstash Ruby gem. This means the installation and usage experience remains unchanged for customers, while benefiting from a more secure and maintainable foundation. What's New in This Version Java‑based and SFI‑compliant Same Logstash plugin experience, now rebuilt on a stronger foundation. The new implementation is fully Java‑based, aligning with Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative (SFI) and providing improved security, supportability, and long-term maintainability. Modern, DCR‑based ingestion The plugin now uses the Azure Monitor Logs Ingestion API with Data Collection Rules (DCRs), replacing the legacy HTTP Data Collection API (For more info, see Migrate from the HTTP Data Collector API to the Log Ingestion API - Azure Monitor | Microsoft Learn). This gives customers full schema control, enables custom log tables, and supports ingestion into standard Microsoft Sentinel tables as well as Microsoft Sentinel data lake. Flexible authentication options Authentication is automatically determined based on your configuration, with support for: Client secret (App registration / service principal) Managed identity, eliminating the need to store credentials in configuration files Sovereign cloud support: The plugin supports Azure sovereign clouds, including Azure US Government, Azure China, and Azure Germany. Standard Logstash distribution model The plugin is published on RubyGems.org, the standard distribution channel for Logstash plugins, and can be installed directly using the Logstash plugin manager, no change to your existing installation workflow. What the Plugin Does Logstash plugin operates as a three-stage data pipeline: Input → Filter → Output. Input: You control how data enters the pipeline, using sources such as syslog, filebeat, Kafka, Event Hubs, databases (via JDBC), files, and more. Filter: You enrich and transform events using Logstash’s powerful filtering ecosystem, including plugins like grok, mutate, and Json, shaping data to match your security and operational needs. Output: This is where Microsoft comes in. The Microsoft Sentinel Logstash Output Plugin securely sends your processed events to an Azure Monitor Data Collection Endpoint, where they are ingested into Sentinel via a Data Collection Rule (DCR). With this model, you retain full control over your Logstash pipeline and data processing logic, while the Sentinel plugin provides a secure, reliable path to ingest data into Microsoft Sentinel. Getting Started Prerequisites Logstash installed and running An Azure Monitor Data Collection Endpoint (DCE) and Data Collection Rule (DCR) in your subscription Contributor role on your Log Analytics workspace Who Is This For? Organizations that already have Logstash pipelines, need to collect from on-premises or legacy systems, and operate in distributed/hybrid environments including air-gapped networks. To learn more, see: microsoft-sentinel-log-analytics-logstash-output-plugin | RubyGems.org | your community gem hostWhat’s new in Microsoft Sentinel: RSAC 2026
Security is entering a new era, one defined by explosive data growth, increasingly sophisticated threats, and the rise of AI-enabled operations. To keep pace, security teams need an AI-powered approach to collect, reason over, and act on security data at scale. At RSA Conference 2026 (RSAC), we’re unveiling the next wave of Sentinel innovations designed to help organizations move faster, see deeper, and defend smarter with AI-ready tools. These updates include AI-driven playbooks that accelerate SOC automation, Granular Delegated Admin Privileges (GDAP) and granular role-based access controls (RBAC) that let you scale your SOC, accelerated data onboarding through new connectors, and data federation that enables analysis in place without duplication. Together, they give teams greater clarity, control, and speed. Come see us at RSAC to view these innovations in action. Hear from Sentinel leaders during our exclusive Microsoft Pre-Day, then visit Microsoft booth #5744 for demos, theater sessions, and conversations with Sentinel experts. Read on to explore what’s new. See you at RSAC! Sentinel feature innovations: Sentinel SIEM Sentinel data lake Sentinel graph Sentinel MCP Threat Intelligence Microsoft Security Store Sentinel promotions Sentinel SIEM Playbook generator [Now in public preview] The Sentinel playbook generator delivers a new era of automation capabilities. You can vibe code complex automations, integrate with different tools to ensure timely and compliant workflows throughout your SOC and feel confident in the results with built in testing and documentation. Customers and partners are already seeing benefit from this innovation. “The playbook generator gives security engineers the flexibility and speed of AI-assisted coding while delivering the deterministic outcomes that enterprise security operations require. It's the best of both worlds, and it lives natively in Defender where the engineers already work.” – Jaime Guimera Coll | Security and AI Architect | BlueVoyant Learn more about playbook generator. SIEM migration experience [General availability now] The Sentinel SIEM migration experience helps you plan and execute SIEM migrations through a guided, in-product workflow. You can upload Splunk or QRadar exports to generate recommendations for best‑fit Sentinel analytics rules and required data connectors, then assess migration scope, validate detection coverage, and migrate from Splunk or QRadar to Sentinel in phases while tracking progress. “The tool helps turn a Splunk to Sentinel migration into a practical decision process. It gives clear visibility into which detections are relevant, how they align to real security use cases, and where it makes sense to enable or prioritize coverage—especially with cost and data sources in mind.” – Deniz Mutlu | Director | Swiss Post Cybersecurity Ltd Learn more about SIEM migration experience. GDAP, unified RBAC, and row-level RBAC for Sentinel [Public preview, April 1] As Sentinel environments grow for enterprises, MSSPs, hyperscalers, and partners operating across shared or multiple environments, the challenge becomes managing access control efficiently and consistently at scale. Sentinel’s expanded permissions and access capabilities are designed to meet these needs. Granular Delegated Admin Privileges (GDAP) lets you streamline management across multiple governed tenants using your primary account, based on existing GDAP relationships. Unified RBAC allows you to opt in to managing permissions for Sentinel workspaces through a single pane of glass, configuring and enforcing access across Sentinel experiences in the analytics tier and data lake in the Defender portal. This simplifies administration and improves operational efficiency by reducing the number of permission models you need to manage. Row-level RBAC scoping within tables enables precise, scoped access to data in the Sentinel data lake. Multiple SOC teams can operate independently within a shared Sentinel environment, querying only the data they are authorized to see, without separating workspaces or introducing complex data flow changes. Consistent, reusable scope definitions ensure permissions are applied uniformly across tables and experiences, while maintaining strong security boundaries. To learn more, read our technical deep dives on RBAC and GDAP. Sentinel data lake Sentinel data federation [Public preview, April 1] Sentinel data federation lets you analyze security data in place without copying or duplicating your data. Powered by Microsoft Fabric, you can now federate data from Fabric, Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS), and Azure Databricks into Sentinel data lake. Federated data appears alongside native Sentinel data, so you can use familiar tools like KQL hunting, notebooks, and custom graphs to correlate signals and investigate across your entire digital estate, all while preserving governance and compliance. You can start analyzing data in place and progressively ingest data into Sentinel for deeper security insights, advanced automation, and AI-powered defense at scale. You are billed only when you run analytics on federated data using existing Sentinel data lake query and advanced insights meters. les for unified investigation and hunting Sentinel cost estimation tool [Public Preview, April 9] The new Sentinel cost estimation tool offers all Microsoft customers and partners a guided, meter-level cost estimation experience that makes pricing transparent and predictable. A built-in three-year cost projection lets you model data growth and ramp-up over time, anticipate spend, and avoid surprises. Get transparent estimates into spend as you scale your security operations. All other customers can continue to use the Azure calculator for Sentinel pricing estimates. See the Sentinel pricing page for more information. Sentinel data connectors A365 connector [Public preview, May 5] Bring AI agent telemetry into the Sentinel data lake to investigate agent behavior, tool usage, prompts, reasoning and execution using hunting, graph, and MCP workflows. GitHub audit log connector using API polling [General availability, March 6] Ingest GitHub enterprise audit logs into Sentinel to monitor user and administrator activity, detect risky changes, and investigate security events across your development environment. Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) connector [General availability, March 6] Collect Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) audit and workload logs in Sentinel to monitor cluster activity, analyze workload behavior, and detect security threats across Kubernetes environments. Microsoft Entra and Azure Resource Graph (ARG) connector enhancements [Public preview, April 15] Enable new Entra assets (EntraDevices, EntraOrgContacts) and ARG assets (ARGRoleDefinitions) in existing asset connectors, expanding inventory coverage and powering richer, built‑in graph experiences for greater visibility. With over 350 Sentinel data connectors, customers achieve broad visibility into complex digital environments and can expand their security operations effectively. “Microsoft Sentinel data lake forms the core of our agentic SOC. By unifying large volumes of Microsoft and third-party data, enabling graph-based analysis, and supporting MCP-driven workflows, it allows us to investigate faster, at lower cost, and with greater confidence.” – Øyvind Bergerud | Head of Security Operations | Storebrand Learn more about Sentinel data connectors. Sentinel connector builder agent using Sentinel Visual Studio Code extension [Public preview, March 31] Build Sentinel data connectors in minutes instead of weeks using the AI‑assisted Connector Builder agent in Visual Studio Code. This low‑code experience guides developers and ISVs end-to-end, automatically generating schemas, deployment assets, connector UI, secure secret handling, and polling logic. Built‑in validation surfaces issues early, so you can validate event logs before deployment and ingestion. Example prompt in GitHub Copilot Chat: @sentinel-connector-builder Create a new connector for OpenAI audit logs using https://api.openai.com/v1/organization/audit_logs Get started with custom connectors and learn more in our blog. Data filtering and splitting [Public preview, March 30] As security teams ingest more data, the challenge shifts from scale to relevance. With filtering and splitting now built into the Defender portal, teams can shape data before it lands in Sentinel, without switching tools or managing custom JSON files. Define simple KQL‑based transformations directly in the UI to filter low‑value events and intelligently route data, making ingestion optimization faster, more intuitive, and easier to manage at scale. Filtering at ingest time allows you to remove low-value or benign events to reduce noise, cut unnecessary processing, and ensure that high-signal data drives detections and investigations. Splitting enables intelligent routing of data between the analytics tier and the data lake tier based on relevance and usage. Together, these two capabilities help you balance cost and performance while scaling data ingestion sustainably as your digital estate grows. Create workbook reports directly from the data lake [Public preview, April 1] Sentinel workbooks can now directly run on the data lake using KQL, enabling you to visualize and monitor security data straight from the data lake. By selecting the data lake as the workbook data source, you can now create trend analysis and executive reporting. Sentinel graph Custom graphs [Public preview, April 1] Custom graphs let you build tailored security graphs tuned to your unique security scenarios using data from Sentinel data lake as well as non-Microsoft sources. With custom graph, powered by Fabric, you can build, query, and visualize connected data, uncover hidden patterns and attack paths, and help surface risks that are hard to detect when data is analyzed in isolation. These graphs provide the knowledge context that enables AI-powered agent experiences to work more effectively, speeding investigations, revealing blast radius, and helping you move from noisy, disconnected alerts to confident decisions at scale. In the words of our preview customers: “We ingested our Databricks management-plane telemetry into the Sentinel data lake and built a custom security graph. Without writing a single detection rule, the graph surfaced unusual patterns of activity and overprivileged access that we escalated for investigation. We didn't know what we were looking for, the graph surfaced the risk for us by revealing anomalous activity patterns and unusual access combinations driven by relationships, not alerts.” – SVP, Security Solutions | Financial Services organization Custom graph API usage for creating graph and querying graph will be billed starting April 1, 2026, according to the Sentinel graph meter. Creating custom graph Using the Sentinel VS Code extension, you can generate graphs to validate hunting hypotheses, such as understanding attack paths and blast radius of a phishing campaign, reconstructing multi‑step attack chains, and identifying structurally unusual or high‑risk behavior, making it accessible to your team and AI agents. Once persisted via a schedule job, you can access these custom graphs from the ready-to-use section in the graph experience in the Defender portal. Graphs experience in the Microsoft Defender portal After creating your custom graphs, you can access them in the graphs section of the Defender portal under Sentinel. From there, you’ll be able to perform interactive graph-based investigations, such as using a graph built for phishing analysis to help you quickly evaluate the impact of a recent incident, profile the attacker, and trace its paths across Microsoft telemetry and third-party data. The new graph experience lets you run Graph Query Language (GQL) queries, view the graph schema, visualize the graph, view graph results in tabular format, and interactively travers the graph to the next hop with a simple click. Sentinel MCP Sentinel MCP entity analyzer [General availability, April 1] Entity analyzer provides reasoned, out-of-the-box risk assessments that help you quickly understand whether a URL or user identity represents potential malicious activity. The capability analyzes data across modalities including threat intelligence, prevalence, and organizational context to generate clear, explainable verdicts you can trust. Entity analyzer integrates easily with your agents through Sentinel MCP server connections to first-party and third-party AI runtime platforms, or with your SOAR workflows through Logic Apps. The entity analyzer is also a trusted foundation for the Defender Triage Agent and delivers more accurate alert classifications and deeper investigative reasoning. This removes the need to manually engineer evaluation logic and creates trust for analysts and AI agents to act with higher accuracy and confidence. Learn more about entity analyzer and in our blog here. Entity analyzer will be billed starting April 1, 2026, based on Security Compute Units (SCU) consumption. Learn more about MCP billing. Sentinel MCP graph tool collection [Public preview, May 20] Graph tool collection helps you visualize and explore relationships between identities and device assets, threats and activities signals ingested by data connectors and alerted by analytic rules. The tool provides a clear graph view that highlights dependencies and configuration gaps, which makes it easier to understand how content interacts across your environment. This helps security teams assess coverage, optimize content deployment, and identify areas that may need tuning or additional data sources, all from a single, interactive workspace. Executing graph queries via the MCP tools will trigger the graph meter. Claude MCP connector [Public preview, April 1] Anthropic Claude can connect to Sentinel through a custom MCP connector, giving you AI-assisted analysis across your Sentinel environment. Microsoft provides step-by-step guidance for configuring a custom connector in Claude that securely connects to a Sentinel MCP server. With this connection you can summarize incidents, investigate alerts, and reason over security signals while keeping data inside Microsoft's security boundary. Access to large language models (LLMs) is managed through Microsoft authentication and role-based controls, supporting faster triage and investigation workflows while maintaining compliance and visibility. Threat Intelligence CVEs of interest in the Threat Intelligence Briefing Agent [Public preview in April] The Threat Intelligence Briefing Agent delivers curated intelligence based on your organization’s configuration, preferences, and unique industry and geographic needs. CVEs of interest which highlights vulnerabilities actively discussed across the security landscape and assesses their potential impact on your environment, delivering more timely threat intelligence insights. The agent automatically incorporates internet exposure data powered by the Sentinel platform to surface threats targeting technologies exposed in your organization. Together, these enhancements help you focus faster on the threats that matter most, without manual investigation. Microsoft Security Store Security Store embedded in Entra [General availability, March 23] As identity environments grow more complex, teams need to move faster and extend Entra with trusted third‑party capabilities that address operational, compliance, and risk challenges. The Security Store embedded directly into Entra lets you discover and adopt Entra‑ready agents and solutions in your workflow. You can extend Entra with identity‑focused agents that surface privileged access risk, identity posture gaps, network access insights, and overall identity health, turning identity data into clear recommendations and reports teams can use immediately. You can also enhance Entra with Verified ID and External ID integrations that strengthen identity verification, streamline account recovery, and reduce fraud across workforce, consumer, and external identities. Security Store embedded in Microsoft Purview [General availability, March 31] Extending data security across the digital estate requires visibility and enforcement into new data sources and risk surfaces, often requiring a partnered approach. The Security Store embedded directly into Purview lets you discover and evaluate integrated solutions inside your data security workflows. Relevant partner capabilities surface alongside context, making it easier to strengthen data protection, address regulatory requirements, and respond to risk without disrupting existing processes. You can quickly assess which solutions align to data security scenarios, especially with respect to securing AI use, and how they can leverage established classifiers, policies, and investigation workflows in Purview. Keeping integration discovery in‑flow and purchases centralized through the Security Store means you move faster from evaluation to deployment, reducing friction and maintaining a secure, consistent transaction experience. Security Store Advisor [General availability, March 23] Security teams today face growing complexity and choice. Teams often know the security outcome they need, whether that's strengthening identity protection, improving ransomware resilience, or reducing insider risk, but lack a clear, efficient way to determine which solutions will help them get there. Security Store Advisor provides a guided, natural-language discovery experience that shifts security evaluation from product‑centric browsing to outcome‑driven decision‑making. You can describe your goal in plain language, and the Advisor surfaces the most relevant Microsoft and partner agents, solutions, and services available in the Security Store, without requiring deep product knowledge. This approach simplifies discovery, reduces time spent navigating catalogs and documentation, and helps you understand how individual capabilities fit together to deliver meaningful security outcomes. Sentinel promotions Extending signups for promotional 50 GB commitment tier [Through June 2026] The Sentinel promotional 50 GB commitment tier offers small and mid-sized organizations a cost-effective entry point into Sentinel. Sign up for the 50 GB commitment tier until June 30, 2026, and maintain the promotional rate until March 31, 2027. This promotion is available globally with regional variations in pricing and accessible through EA, CSP, and Direct channels. Visit the Sentinel pricing page for details and to get started. Sentinel RSAC 2026 sessions All week – Sentinel product demos, Microsoft Booth #5744 Mon Mar 23, 3:55 PM – RSAC 2026 main stage Keynote with CVP Vasu Jakkal [KEY-M10W] Ambient and autonomous security: Building trust in the agentic AI era Tue Mar 24, 10:30 AM – Live Q&A session, Microsoft booth #5744 and online Ask me anything with Microsoft Security SMEs and real practitioners Tue Mar 24, 11 AM – Sentinel data lake theater session, Microsoft booth #5744 From signals to insights: How Microsoft Sentinel data lake powers modern security operations Tue Mar 24, 2 PM – Sentinel SIEM theater session, Microsoft booth #5744 Vibe-coding SecOps automations with the Sentinel playbook generator Wed Mar 25, 12 PM – Executive event at Palace Hotel with Threat Protection GM Scott Woodgate The AI risk equation: Visibility, control, and threat acceleration Wed Mar 25, 1:30 PM – Sentinel graph theater session, Microsoft booth #5744 Bringing knowledge-driven context to security with Microsoft Sentinel graph Wed Mar 25, 5 PM – MISA theater session, Microsoft booth #5744 Cut SIEM costs without reducing protection: A Sentinel data lake case study Thu Mar 26, 1 PM – Security Store theater session, Microsoft booth #5744 What's next for Security Store: Expanding in portal and smarter discovery All week – 1:1 meetings with Microsoft security experts Meet with Microsoft Defender and Sentinel SIEM and Defender Security Operations Additional resources Sentinel data lake video playlist Explore the full capabilities of Sentinel data lake as a unified, AI-ready security platform that is deeply integrated into the Defender portal Sentinel data lake FAQ blog Get answers to many of the questions we’ve heard from our customers and partners on Sentinel data lake and billing AI‑powered SIEM migration experience ninja training Walk through the SIEM migration experience, see how it maps detections, surfaces connector requirements, and supports phased migration decisions SIEM migration experience documentation Learn how the SIEM migration experience analyzes your exports, maps detections and connectors, and recommends prioritized coverage Accenture collaborates with Microsoft to bring agentic security and business resilience to the front lines of cyber defense Stay connected Check back each month for the latest innovations, updates, and events to ensure you’re getting the most out of Sentinel. We’ll see you in the next edition!Microsoft partners with DataBahn to accelerate enterprise deployments for Microsoft Sentinel
Enterprise security teams are collecting more telemetry than ever across cloud platforms, endpoints, SaaS applications, and on-premises infrastructure. Security teams want broader data coverage and longer retention without losing control of cost and data quality. This post explains the new DataBahn integration with Microsoft Sentinel, why it matters for SIEM operations, and how to think about using a security data pipeline alongside Sentinel for onboarding, normalization, routing, and governance. DataBahn joins Microsoft Sentinel partner ecosystem This integration reflects Microsoft Sentinel’s open partner ecosystem, giving customers choice in the partners they use alongside Microsoft Sentinel to manage their security data pipelines. DataBahn joins a broader set of complementary partners, enabling customers to tailor solutions for their unique security data needs. DataBahn is available through Microsoft Marketplace and is eligible for customers to apply existing Azure Consumption Commitments toward the purchase of DataBahn. Why this matters for security operations teams Security teams are under relentless pressure to ingest more data, move faster through SIEM migrations, and preserve data fidelity for detections and investigations, all while managing costs effectively. The challenge isn’t just ingesting data, but ensuring the right telemetry arrives in a consistent, governed format that analysts and detections can trust. This is where a security data pipeline, alongside Microsoft Sentinel’s native connectors and DCRs, can add value. It helps streamline onboarding of third-party and custom sources, improve normalization consistency, and provide operational visibility across diverse environments as deployments scale. What DataBahn integration is positioned to do with Microsoft Sentinel Security teams want broader coverage and need to ensure third-party data is consistently shaped, routed, and governed at scale. This is where a security data pipeline like DataBahn complements Microsoft Sentinel. Sitting upstream of ingestion, the pipeline layer standardizes onboarding and shaping across sources while providing operational visibility into data flow and pipeline health. Together, the collaboration focuses on reducing onboarding friction, improving normalization consistency, enabling intentional routing, and strengthening governance signals so teams can quickly detect source changes, parser breaks, or data gaps—while staying aligned with Sentinel analytics and detection workflows. This model gives Sentinel customers more choice to move faster, onboard data at scale, and retain control over data routing. Key capabilities Bidirectional data integration The integration enables seamless delivery of telemetry into Sentinel while aligning with Sentinel detection logic and schema expectations. This helps ensure telemetry pipelines remain consistent with: Sentinel detection formats Custom analytics rules Sentinel data models and schemas Automated table and DCR management As detections evolve, pipeline configurations can adapt to maintain detection fidelity and data consistency. Advanced management API DataBahn provides an advanced management API that allows organizations to programmatically configure and manage pipeline integrations with Sentinel. This enables teams to: Automate pipeline configuration Manage operational workflows Integrate pipeline management into broader security or DevOps automation processes Automatic identification of configuration conflicts In complex environments with multiple telemetry sources and routing rules, configuration conflicts can arise across filtering logic, enrichment pipelines, and detection dependencies. The integration helps automatically: Detect conflicts in filtering rules and pipeline logic Identify clashes with detection dependencies Highlight missing configurations or coverage gaps This visibility allows SOC teams to quickly identify issues that could impact detection reliability. Centralized pipeline management The integration enables centralized management of data collection and transformation workflows associated with Sentinel telemetry pipelines. This provides unified visibility and control across telemetry sources while maintaining compatibility with Sentinel analytics and detections. Centralized management simplifies operations across large environments where multiple telemetry pipelines must be maintained. Flexible data transformation and customization Security telemetry often arrives in inconsistent formats across vendors and platforms. The platform supports flexible transformation capabilities that allow organizations to: Normalize logs into standard or custom Sentinel table formats Add or derive fields required by Sentinel detections Apply filtering or enrichment rules before ingestion Configuration can be performed through a single-screen workflow, enabling teams to modify schemas and define filtering logic without disrupting downstream analytics. The platform also provides schema drift detection and source health monitoring, helping teams maintain reliable telemetry pipelines as environments evolve. Closing Effective security operations depend on how quickly a SOC can onboard new data, scale effectively, and maintain high‑quality investigations. Sentinel provides a cloud‑native, AI-ready foundation to ingest security data from first- and third‑party data sources—while enabling economical, large‑scale retention and deep analytics using open data formats and multiple analytics engines. DataBahn’s partnership with Sentinel is positioned as a pipeline layer that can help teams onboard third-party sources, shape and normalize data, and apply routing and governance patterns before data lands in Sentinel. Learn more DataBahn for Microsoft Sentinel DataBahn Press Release - Databahn Deepens Partnership with Microsoft Sentinel Microsoft Sentinel data lake overview - Microsoft Security | Microsoft Learn Microsoft Sentinel—AI-Ready Platform | Microsoft Security Connect Microsoft Sentinel to the Microsoft Defender portal - Unified security operations | Microsoft Learn Microsoft Sentinel data lake is now generally available | Microsoft Community HubWhat’s New in Microsoft Sentinel: March 2026
March brings a set of updates to Microsoft Sentinel focused on helping your SOC automate faster, onboard data with less friction, and detect threats across more of your environment. This month's updates include natural-language playbook generation for more flexible SOAR workflows, streamlined real-time data ingestion with CCF Push, and expanded Kubernetes visibility with a dedicated GKE connector. Together, these innovations help security teams simplify operations, move faster, and strengthen coverage without added complexity. And if you're heading to RSAC 2026, check out how to join us for Microsoft Pre-Day below. What’s new Microsoft Sentinel playbook generator brings natural-language automation to SOC workflows The Microsoft Sentinel playbook generator lets you design and generate fully functional, code-based playbooks by describing what you need in natural language. Instead of relying on rigid templates and limited action libraries, you describe the workflow you want, and the generator produces a Python playbook with documentation and a visual flowchart. This has been a top ask from enterprise customers looking for more flexible automation in their SIEM workflows. The playbook generator works across Microsoft and third-party tools. By defining an Integration Profile with a base URL, authentication method, and credentials, it can create dynamic API calls without predefined connectors. That means you can automate tasks like team notifications, ticket updates, data enrichment, or incident response across your environment, then validate playbooks against real alerts and refine through chat or manual edits. You keep full transparency into the generated code and full control to customize it. Watch a demo and learn more. CCF Push delivers seamless, real-time security data to Microsoft Sentinel (public preview) The Codeless Connector Framework (CCF) Push feature allows you to send security data directly to a Sentinel workspace in real time. Instead of configuring Data Collection Endpoints (DCE), Data Collection Rules (DCR), Entra app registrations, and RBAC assignments, you press "Deploy" and Sentinel sets up all the resources for you. Built on the Log Ingestion API, CCF Push supports high-throughput ingestion, data transformation before ingestion, and direct delivery to system tables to speed up SOC detection and response and to enable more flexible access to critical security telemetry. This opens pathways to advanced scenarios, including data lake integrations and agentic AI use cases. Sentinel solution developers can begin leveraging CCF Push immediately. Partners like Keeper Security, Obsidian Security, and Varonis are already using CCF Push to stream security data into Sentinel. Learn more and check out the getting started guide. Detect threats across GKE clusters in Microsoft Sentinel with a dedicated CCF connector (general availability) A dedicated data connector for Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is available in the Microsoft Sentinel content hub, built on the Codeless Connector Framework (CCF). The connector ingests GKE cluster activity, workload behavior, and security events into the GKEAudit Log Analytics table, bringing GKE monitoring in line with how Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters are monitored in Sentinel today. It includes Data Collection Rule (DCR) support, data lake-only ingestion, and workspace transformation support so you can filter or modify incoming data before it reaches its destination. For security teams running workloads on GKE, this means you can apply Sentinel analytics, workbooks, and hunting queries across your GKE signals alongside the rest of your environment, giving you consistent visibility into Kubernetes threats whether your clusters run on Azure or Google Cloud. Get the GKE data connector Solve hybrid identity challenges with an RSA agent on Microsoft Sentinel data lake and Security Copilot RSA has built an agentic solution that combines RSA ID Plus telemetry with Microsoft Sentinel's data lake and Security Copilot agents. The integration ingests administrative identity telemetry from RSA ID Plus into the Sentinel data lake for cost-effective, long-term retention, then uses Security Copilot agents to assess that data and surface anomalous or risky admin behavior automatically. For security teams managing complex hybrid identity environments, this means identity risk signals from RSA are analyzed alongside your broader Sentinel telemetry without manual correlation. Admin accounts remain one of the highest-value targets for attackers, and having agentic AI continuously assessing identity patterns helps your SOC detect compromised credentials earlier and reduce investigation time. Learn more Join Microsoft Security at RSAC 2026 Pre-Day If you are heading to RSAC™ 2026 in San Francisco, join Microsoft Security for Pre-Day on Sunday, March 22 at the Palace Hotel. Hear from Vasu Jakkal, CVP of Microsoft Security Business, and other Microsoft Security leaders on how AI and autonomous agents are reshaping defense strategy. Product leaders will share what they are focused on for security operations, threat intelligence experts will discuss emerging trends, and Microsoft researchers will highlight the newest areas of security R&D. Register for Microsoft Pre-Day Explore all Microsoft experiences at RSAC 2026 Evaluate your SIEM platform for the agentic era with our strategic buyer's guide Our buyer’s guide from Microsoft Security helps security leaders evaluate what a modern SIEM platform should deliver. The Strategic SIEM Buyer's Guide walks through three essentials: building a unified foundation that is future-proof, accelerating detection and response with AI, and maximizing ROI with faster time to value. Whether you are assessing migration from a legacy on-premises SIEM or benchmarking your current platform, the guide offers practical buyer's tips and capability checklists grounded in real outcomes, including how organizations using Sentinel have achieved a 44% reduction in total cost of ownership and 93% faster deployment times. Learn more Additional resources Sign up for upcoming events: Mar 11: Microsoft Security Day (in-person, Mumbai) Mar 18: Tech brief: Next‑Generation Security Operations with Microsoft Mar 19: Microsoft Security Immersion Event: Shadow Hunter (in-person, Toronto) Mar 23-26: Microsoft Security at RSAC 2026 (in-person, San Francisco) Mar 25: Microsoft Tech Brief: Modernize security operations with a unified platform Apr 2: Master SecOps in the AI Era: Kickstart Your SC-200 Certification Challenge Stay connected Check back each month for the latest innovations, updates, and events to ensure you’re getting the most out of Microsoft Sentinel. We’ll see you in the next edition!
