The aim of this article is to give you a better understanding of the Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management capabilities available to Microsoft Defender for Cloud customers, as well as information on some recent changes in behavior, which enables these capabilities only to eligible devices.
Defender Vulnerability Management premium capabilities are included in Defender for Servers Plan 2 and available for eligible server devices via the Microsoft 365 Defender portal.
Customers that wish to benefit from these Defender Vulnerability Management premium capabilities on their client devices, can either trial Defender Vulnerability Management Standalone or the Defender Vulnerability Management Add-on license for their Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 devices.
Background:
Defender Vulnerability Management is integrated in Defender for Endpoint and Defender for Servers.
For client devices, Defender Vulnerability Management capabilities are available in the following offerings:
- Core capabilities in Defender for Endpoint Plan 2.
- Premium capabilities via Defender Vulnerability Management Add-On license on top of Defender for Endpoint Plan 2.
- Core and premium capabilities via Defender for Vulnerability Management Standalone license, currently available as a free trial while in public preview.
For server devices, Defender for Endpoint and Defender Vulnerability Management integrates seamlessly with Defender for Servers. You can onboard servers automatically and have servers monitored by Defender for Cloud appear in Defender for Endpoint and Defender Vulnerability Management dashboard.
- Defender for Servers Plans 1 includes Defender Vulnerability Management Core capabilities.
- Defender for Server Plan 2 includes both Core and Premium capabilities.
Initially, when Defender Vulnerability Management premium capabilities were rolled out in Defender for Servers Plan 2, they were enabled across all devices (both clients and servers) for customers with Defender for Servers Plan 2.
Update:
Following a recent update, the Defender Vulnerability Management premium capabilities are only available to eligible client devices for customers that:
- Purchased the Defender Vulnerability Management Add-on
- Started an Defender Vulnerability Management Add-on trial.
Detailed messaging describing this change was made available in the Defender Vulnerability Management portal in addition to online documentation.
How does this affect me?
Customers who are interested in continuing to use these premium capabilities on their client devices, which are not covered by Defender for Servers Plan 2, are encouraged to start a Defender Vulnerability Managment Standalone or Defender Vulnerability Management Add-on trial and regain access to the premium capabilities for their client devices, with their previous data saved (e.g., Security baselines profiles).
With this update, Defender for Servers Plan 2 customers will be able to use the Block vulnerable applications capability on their eligible server devices.
Learn more
If you’re interested in learning more about Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management visit our website to take advantage of our free 90-day trial, check out our interactive guide, and read more information in our product documentation.
