Microsoft Defender for Cloud - Issue #6
Hi, all! Welcome to our 6th issue of this newsletter. You may notice that the title has changed somewhat - and for good reason. Unless you were living under rock this past week, you should have heard about the Ignite announcements that we've waved the rebranding wand again. One of those is that we've combined Azure Defender and Azure Security Center into a new product name which is Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
Periodically, Microsoft rebrands products and services. That’s just a fact. For many customers and partners it’s become almost comical how often this happens. But, I think you’ll see that this most recent effort is really just a completion of the rebranding we started last quarter. And its logical, I think. I usually laugh these off myself, but this one – to me – makes sense.
But, more important than the names, are the reasons behind the changes. Azure is our cloud service. The security tools that we make available to our customers are intended to support monitoring and protecting their entire environment. All of the recent name updates represent services that are both multi-cloud and hybrid solutions. Our customers’ environments are diverse. With our investment in security at Microsoft, our customers should be able to secure their entire environment no matter what lingering legacy apps, services, and devices they use, or no matter what cloud platform they are required to use. So, removing the “Azure” branding, we feel that this better represents the message and better represents our services.
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There's a special Ignite section in this issue of the newsletter with a link to the product team's announcements of feature updates. I highly recommend reading it. But, if you're like me and just want a quick update, you can catch up on all the Defender for Cloud news in less than 4 minutes with the Security News Now - Microsoft Ignite 2021 Defender for Cloud Edition.
My team here at Microsoft is steadily working on an official, weekly news show. This week we're providing samples of what's coming in a couple Ignite specials, including one for Azure <ahem> Microsoft Sentinel.
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This week there's a product team survey to highlight for those with the time and drive to participate. The survey was created prior to the Ignite announcements, so it still bears the old product name.
From the product team
The Azure Security Center Design team is looking for participants for a User Experience evaluation.
Specifically we would like to better understand how Azure Security Center is being used and collect feedback on a few planned UX improvements.
The survey is short and its available here: ASC Recommendations- User Experience
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Virtual Ninja trainings are being planned, but, Sr. Program Manager at Microsoft, Heike Ritter needs your help determining how best to accomplish them - specifically how often and how long each session should be.
If this interests you, please supply your thoughts here: https://cda.ms/35V
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That's it from me for this week. We'll talk again in 2 weeks time...
-Rod
Things To Read
Microsoft Defender For Cloud? – The Edge of Ingite – Azure Cloud & AI Domain Blog — azurecloudai.blog Azure Defender and ASC. The hot topic of recent months, and one that I have been asked about more than any other product or topic. Yesterday, a rebrand annoucement was made to try and address some of the confusion in terms of what it is and how it fits. I think this is a smart move, changing the conversation from a ‘how do I plug this solution into my workloads‘ to a ‘this is a pattern and group of concepts which fit together in this way‘ type of conversation. This makes adoption and the learning gap a lot smoother. Part of this announcement included many changes I have compiled below, which I’ve been super excited to see. It also is the perfect time to start this blog with some more unpacking on Defender For Cloud, and it’s place in the Microsoft security portfolio.
Microsoft Defender For Cloud? – The Edge of Ingite – Azure Cloud & AI Domain Blog — azurecloudai.blog Microsoft Defender For Cloud? - The Edge of Ingite
Things to Watch/Listen To
Security News Now - Microsoft Ignite 2021 Defender for Cloud Edition — www.youtube.com Catch up on the breadth of Microsoft security announcements for Microsoft Defender for Cloud from Microsoft Ignite 2021 and get a taste of our upcoming Secur...
Preventing Misconfigurations with Azure Security Center — www.youtube.com Preventing Misconfigurations with Azure Security Center --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------🔔 ...
HTTP Actions in Security Automation — www.youtube.com In this video you will learn how to leverage the HTTP action to invoke a Azure Rest API in Logic Apps. You will explore Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Logic A...
Things to Have
Microsoft-Defender-for-Cloud/Labs at main · Azure/Microsoft-Defender-for-Cloud · GitHub — github.com Our labs project help you get ramped up with Microsoft Defender for Cloud and provide hands-on practical experience for product features, capabilities, and scenarios. The labs are divided into 3 main tracks, a beginner (level 100/200) and an advanced (level 300+) track. The labs contain several modules cover different pillars such as Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) to Cloud Workload Protection (CWP). To start using our labs, you will need to create Azure Trial Subscription which provides you all capabilities for 30 days – so you have to finish this lab at this point to take advantage of the free trial. We continually update the content to include the latest capabilities – please feel free to submit issue for any changes and suggestions.
Ignite Things
Ignite 2021: Microsoft Defender for Cloud news — techcommunity.microsoft.com Secure any cloud platform with Microsoft Defender for Cloud
New and Updated Things
Anomaly detection alerts in Defender for Kubernetes Public Preview | Microsoft Docs — docs.microsoft.com A description of what's new and changed in Azure Security Center