What is Microsoft Defender for Cloud?

Important

Attention: All Microsoft Defender for Cloud features will be officially retired in Azure in China region on August 18, 2026 per the announcement posted by 21Vianet.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP), which is a unified solution that combines multiple cloud security tools to protect applications across their entire lifecycle. The solution provides a comprehensive view of your security posture across your cloud and on-premises resources. It also helps you secure multicloud and hybrid environments and integrates security into DevOps workflows. There are three core components:

Defender for Cloud uses its broader Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) capabilities to unify protections into one experience. Defender for Cloud embeds security early in the development lifecycle.

Note

For pricing information, check out the Defender for Cloud pricing page. You can also estimate costs with the Defender for Cloud cost calculator.

Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP)

Conceptual image of CNAPP and how the Defenders for Cloud's plans protect all of your resources in their environments.

After the Defender for Cloud solution is enabled on your Azure subscription, the system collects security data from your environments. Defender for Cloud uses the data to give insights, recommendations, and actions that help you protect your cloud workloads and resources. You can enable extra plans to get more advanced security features, such as Defender for Databases, and Defender for Containers.

Defender for Cloud's available plans and their CNAPP benefits include:

Defender for Cloud plan CNAPP benefits Relevant links
Foundational CSPM Provides advanced security posture capabilities including data-aware security posture, the cloud security graph, and advanced threat hunting. Check out the differences between the CSPM plans.
Defender for Containers Provides environment hardening, vulnerability assessment, run time protection of Kubernetes nodes and clusters. Overview of Container security in Microsoft Defender for Containers

Protect your Azure, IaaS containers with Defender for Containers
Defender for Resource Manager Detects unusual and potentially harmful activity by automatically monitoring the resource management operations. Overview of Microsoft Defender for Resource Manager

Protect your resources with Defender for Resource Manager
Defender for App Service Identifies attacks that target applications running over App Service. Overview of Defender for App Service to protect your Azure App Service web apps and APIs

Protect your applications with Defender for App Service
Defender for Databases Protects your entire database estate with attack detection and threat response for the various database types in Azure. Overview of Microsoft Defender for Azure SQL

Protect your databases with Defender for Databases

What is Microsoft Defender for open-source relational databases

You can also check out the E-book "From plan to deployment: Implementing a Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) strategy", to learn more about implementing CNAPP in Defender for Cloud.

Cloud security posture management (CSPM)

The security of your cloud and on-premises resources relies on proper configuration and deployment. Defenders for Cloud recommendations identify steps to secure your environment.

Defender for Cloud includes free Foundational CSPM capabilities. Enable advanced CSPM capabilities with the Defender CSPM plan.

Capability What problem does it solve? Get started Defender plan
Centralized policy management Define the security conditions that you want to maintain across your environment. The policy translates to recommendations that identify resource configurations that violate your security policy. The Azure cloud security benchmark is a built-in standard that applies security principles with detailed technical implementation guidance for Azure . Customize a security policy Foundational CSPM (Free)
Secure score Summarize your security posture based on the security recommendations. As you remediate recommendations, your secure score improves. Track your secure score Foundational CSPM (Free)
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Use the dashboard to see weaknesses in your security posture. Enable CSPM tools Foundational CSPM (Free)
Advanced Cloud Security Posture Management Get advanced tools to identify weaknesses in your security posture, including:
- Governance to drive actions to improve your security posture
- Regulatory compliance to verify compliance with security standards
- Cloud security explorer to build a comprehensive view of your environment		 Enable CSPM tools Defender CSPM

Cloud workload protection platform (CWPP)

Proactive security principles require implementing security practices to protect your workloads from threats. Cloud workload protection platforms (CWPP) provide workload-specific recommendations to guide you to the right security controls to protect your workloads.

When your environment is threatened, security alerts immediately indicate the nature and severity of the threat so you can plan your response. After identifying a threat in your environment, respond quickly to limit the risk to your resources.

Capability What problem does it solve? Get started Defender plan
Protect cloud databases Protect your entire database estate with attack detection and threat response for the most popular database types in Azure to protect the database engines and data types, according to their attack surface and security risks. Deploy specialized protections for cloud and on-premises databases - Defender for Azure SQL Databases
- Defender for SQL servers on machines
- Defender for Open-source relational databases
- Defender for Azure Cosmos DB
Protect containers Secure your containers so you can improve, monitor, and maintain the security of your clusters, containers, and their applications with environment hardening, vulnerability assessments, and run-time protection. Find security risks in your containers Defender for Containers
Infrastructure service insights Diagnose weaknesses in your application infrastructure that can leave your environment susceptible to attack. - Identify attacks targeting applications running over App Service
- Get alerted on suspicious Resource Manager operations
- Expose anomalous Domain Name System (DNS) activities		 - Defender for App Service
- Defender for Key Vault
- Defender for Resource Manager
- Defender for DNS
Security alerts Get informed of real-time events that threaten the security of your environment. Alerts are categorized and assigned severity levels to indicate proper responses. Manage security alerts Any workload protection Defender plan
Security incidents Identify attack patterns by correlating alerts and integrate with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR), and IT classic deployment model solutions to respond to threats and reduce risk to your resources. Export alerts to SIEM, SOAR, or ITSM systems Any workload protection Defender plan

Important

  • As of August 1, 2023, customers with an existing subscription to Defender for DNS can continue to use the service as a standalone plan.
  • There's no change to the protection scope: Defender for DNS continues to protect all Azure resources connected to Azure's default DNS resolvers. The change affects how DNS protection is billed and bundled, not what resources are covered.

Learn More

For more information about Defender for Cloud and how it works, see:

Next steps

Enable Microsoft Defender plans