Cloud computing giants are changing the cybersecurity market with their own offerings, acquisitions and software marketing deals, but Microsoft poses the biggest threat to incumbents in the sector as it sells multiple products to companies in discounted deals.
Microsoft’s growing slate of offerings competes with cybersecurity firms such as CrowdStrike Holdings, Okta, Splunk, startup Netskope and others. In addition, Microsoft is a rival of Palo Alto Networks, which has used acquisitions to build a cloud-based security platform.
Now, the software behemoth has told analysts that its security business now brings in $15 billion in annual revenue. It’s growing 40% each year. Microsoft bundles products at its Azure cloud computing business and Office 365 platform.
William Blair analyst Jonathan Ho says Microsoft has overcome a reputation for poor security tied to hacking attacks. “Historically, Microsoft was not viewed as being very good at security with the data breaches. Its products weren’t trusted by cybersecurity,” Ho said in an interview. “All that has changed. Microsoft has developed strong cloud native products. It scores very well with Gartner and third-party evaluation platforms.”
Cloud Computing: Giants Move Into Security
Microsoft isn’t the only cloud computing giant venturing into cybersecurity turf. Amazon Web Services has developed its own security products. Google’s Alphabet acquired Mandiant in an all-cash $5.4 billion deal.
Microsoft Strengths In Cybersecurity
Microsoft’s staggering security momentum is driven by its bundling strategy. In the same way that Microsoft was able to rapidly grow its Teams collaboration app by bundling it into Microsoft 365 agreements, Microsoft has been gradually adding security products to its premium Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
Most Microsoft security revenue comes from email and endpoint security. While basic Office 365 plans offer anti-spam and malware protection, Microsoft upsells advanced anti-phishing and threat prevention tools. Analysts say Microsoft has also gained traction in identity and access management, or IAM, vs. Okta and others.
Cloud Computing And A Cybersecurity Battleground
Analysts expect Microsoft and industry incumbents to duke it out in XDR – extended detection and response. Cloud computing will make it easier for companies to deploy XDR. Microsoft 365 Defender automatically collects, correlates, and analyzes signal, threat and alert data from across the Microsoft 365 environment, using artificial intelligence and automation to automatically stop attacks and initiate responses.
Source: How Cloud Computing Giant Microsoft Is Changing The Cybersecurity Market | Investor’s Business Daily
