CIO article for Tanium by Jason Bloomberg
Adversaries will always seek to target the weak points in any organization’s protections. Combining Microsoft with ecosystem partners like Tanium strengthens those weak points while giving organizations the power to respond to threats in real time.
Since Satya Nadella took the helm in 2014, Microsoft has doubled down on its support for non-Microsoft technologies. Its commitment to Linux turned what might have been a Windows Server-based cloud computing backwater into the Microsoft Azure powerhouse, the only public cloud to give the AWS juggernaut a serious run for its money.
This “plays well with others” strategy has proved wildly successful for Microsoft across its entire product line, even though it has always been strongest when delivering Microsoft software for Microsoft customers.
The key to balancing these two strengths is a comprehensive partner strategy. Partnerships are especially important in the cybersecurity realm, as Microsoft’s core strengths in its own technologies reinforce long-standing “Microsoft shop” silos. And if there’s one weakness that bad actors love to exploit, it’s technology silos.
Modern enterprise threat surfaces are diverse, extensive, and dynamic—and most certainly extend well beyond any single vendor’s offerings. Microsoft understands this sobering reality, even though establishing vendor dominance within its enterprise customer base has long been its bread and butter.
Hence the critical importance of partnerships with cybersecurity vendors that address joint customers’ dynamic threat surfaces, while simultaneously empowering them to leverage Microsoft’s market-leading cybersecurity offerings.
Better endpoint protection with Microsoft Defender
Microsoft Defender is a suite of products for integrated threat protection across many different types of endpoints for many different types of businesses and individuals.
The most familiar Defender products include Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Defender for Business, and Microsoft Defender for individuals.
In addition, the company offers Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) – a version of Defender that Microsoft has targeted specifically at endpoint devices across multi-platform enterprises.
Offering managed services for MDE are service providers like BlueVoyant, which leverages its 24×7 team of experts to enrich MDE behavioral data with threat intelligence and security expertise.
Tanium’s Converged Endpoint Management (XEM) offering ensures that organizations have properly deployed MDE across every endpoint, including endpoints not included in Microsoft Entra ID (MEI), formerly Azure Active Directory.
