Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Microsoft Sentinel

With many companies operating as mostly Microsoft Windows shops, it may seem easiest or like the cheapest option to consolidate vendors by adding Microsoft security to your package. But beware of bundling – the total cost of ownership can add up and end up blowing out your budget.

Are you debating whether you should consolidate your security with Microsoft? Here are some key criteria you need to consider before making a decision:

PRICING

Microsoft Sentinel’s pricing is based on data volume, making it hard to predict costs; it’s also not bundled into Microsoft 365 plans, so it’s an additional expense. Their 5MB/day data grant is likely not enough to meet your security monitoring needs, and only covers one application. 

Blumira is priced per user to give you predictable pricing that can be worked into any budget. We don’t charge based on data volume because we know it’s critical to monitor more data – across many different sources, not just Microsoft 365 – to detect any early signs of an attack in progress. Our integrations span across endpoint, identity providers, firewalls, remote devices, and more to provide a holistic view of your entire environment.

REQUIRED PERSONNEL

At least 1-2 full-time employees (FTEs) are required to set up and run Azure Sentinel for most smaller organizations, which many organizations without a dedicated security team cannot afford to hire, train or maintain. Many customers we speak to have 1-2 main IT resources that are juggling all of IT and security for their entire organization.

Blumira does not require any additional FTEs to deploy or run its service. As part of their package, customers receive dedicated onboarding with our Solution Architects – at no additional cost. Most customers are able to set up the platform in less than a day, using the existing team they already have. Going forward, tech and security support are available to help small IT teams understand their findings and assist with guided response as needed.

LIMITED COVERAGE

Most orgs have more than just Microsoft services that they need to monitor, including non- Microsoft third-party applications. But if you invest in Microsoft-only security, it can leave critical gaps in monitoring if you don’t collect and analyze logs from your non-Microsoft applications or devices. 

Blumira’s cloud and on-prem integrations give you more coverage and visibility across your entire environment, including firewalls. Our agent extends visibility into and control over the security of remote endpoints.

OPERATIONAL COSTS

Microsoft pushes customers to switch to their products, even if they don’t make sense for your needs. Their alerts are noisy and can make it difficult for small teams to prioritize their efforts, resulting in time-consuming triage and longer response times.

Blumira helps you get more value out of your existing investments by integrating with your third-party services (including ones that are not owned by Microsoft), parsing your data, writing detection rules, tuning them for noise to reduce false positives, and analyzing your data automatically for you.

Get a Demo or Free SIEM

Request a demo of Blumira’s SIEM + XDR platform to understand how we can provide more security value for your team, or sign up for our Free SIEM and set up security for Microsoft 365 in minutes.