Microsoft Defender, Sentinel, Entra ID and Intune, put into operation

Capability depends on the plan. Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3, E5 and the add-on security suites each include different parts of Defender, Entra ID, Intune and Purview, and some features sit only in higher Entra ID tiers. Microsoft revises plan contents, so any list must be checked against current Microsoft documentation. Microsoft Sentinel is separate: an Azure service billed on data volume, not per user. Our first step is an audit of what each license grants against what is enabled and enforced.

Defender XDR is the detection and response layer for Microsoft workloads. It correlates signals from Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Identity, Defender for Office 365 and Defender for Cloud Apps into incidents, and can take response actions in those products. Sentinel is the SIEM and SOAR: it collects logs from any source, including firewalls, other clouds and business applications, runs custom analytics and automates playbooks. Defender XDR incidents flow into Sentinel through a connector, so analysts work from one queue.

Yes. Few estates are Microsoft only. Sentinel ingests third-party firewalls, identity providers, other cloud platforms and endpoint tools through data connectors, syslog, the Common Event Format and APIs. Entra ID federates with other identity providers and applications through SAML and OpenID Connect. Where a non-Microsoft tool duplicates a licensed Microsoft capability, we lay out the overlap and leave the decision to you. That analysis can be extended into a full security architecture review.

Cost follows data volume, so control starts with deciding which logs serve a detection, an investigation or a retention duty. Logs that serve none are dropped. Data collection rules filter and trim events before they are stored. High-volume, low-value sources go to lower-cost log tiers or archive instead of the analytics tier. Commitment tiers are reviewed once volume is stable. A workbook tracks ingestion by table, so growth is noticed early. Tier names and billing rules change, so each design is checked against current Microsoft documentation.

Either your team or ours. For an in-house model we hand over documented policies, detection content in a repository, runbooks and training through joint working sessions. For a managed model, monitoring of Defender and Sentinel continues through our managed SOC with 24×7 coverage, while your administrators keep ownership of the tenant. A co-managed split is also possible, with your staff handling business hours. Access for our analysts is granted through least-privilege roles that you control.