Trellix vs. Microsoft

Broadest Hybrid Security Platform

Platform

Powerful, performant native, and open platform
Comprehensive and open with a broad set of security controls—endpoint, server, email, network, data, and XDR. Specific differences include Network Detection and Response (NDR), Network Data Loss Prevention (DLP), web proxy, and sandboxing.

Microsoft’s way or the highway
Lack of integration flexibility, complex scripting needs, threat intelligence that is limited in sensor scope, lacking network telemetry, web proxy, and sandboxing.

Deployment

Security where you need it
Meets everyone where they are: on-premises, industrial, air-gapped, hybrid, cloud.

Cloud focused
Driven to provide solutions that force you into cloud consumption rather than focusing on security excellence.

Management

Simple, scalable effective management
Highly scalable management architecture with common policies across OSes and devices. Extensive, customizable reporting shortens responses, and reduces risk.

Coverage for legacy and end of life OSes and broadest device estate, along with critical infrastructures such as OT and SCADA.

Complex and fragmented
Microsoft won’t support or service EOS and EOL systems and won't provide security updates. You will need to upgrade your OS according to Microsoft’s schedule to protect your organization.

Critical Asset Protection

Available protection for critical assets
Specialized, mission critical system protection, broadest certified protection on OT, industrial and SCADA.

Claims, not reality
Unclear vendor relationships and lack of focus on specialized environments incompatible with OT environment reality of legacy systems.

Industry Leading Detection and Response

Protection Efficacy

Multi-layered protection
Broader visibility that prioritizes high fidelity alerts with fewer false alarms, reducing analyst workload.¹

OS dependencies limit efficacy
Must be on current versions of OSes to see protection.

Threat Intel

Global and open perspective
Industry-leading intelligence from hundreds of millions of sensors, public-private sector partnerships, as well as our Advanced Research Center empowers Trellix customers to confidently understand and face threats through integrated operational intelligence—because understanding, not fear, is key to effective protection.

Narrow focus
Microsoft's threat intel falls short: Limited campaigns (480 vs. Trellix's 4,400+); costly threat intel add-ons; and no tailored country, region, or industry insights, real-time search, graphical visualization, hybrid support, or customer intel integration.

Detection

Defense in depth across the attack chain
AI-powered threat detection at multiple layers: email, network, cloud, identity, sandbox, and endpoint, leveraging both native and open telemetry sources to detect and remediate at the earliest possible opportunity, reducing MTTD.

Demonstrable gaps in detection
Endpoint and email detections are lacking compared to Trellix; as a result, attacks slip through more frequently.

Remediation

Rapid response and recovery
Enhanced rollback and remediation with complete SOAR platform, AI guided playbooks and manual option to ensure fastest response and recovery.

“Rollback” is really “rebuild”
Requires OS-level backups and can’t roll back ransomware as it attempts to encrypt—leading to complex, lengthy recovery.

Forensics

Deep insights where you need them
Scalable cloud and on-premises endpoint and network forensics, powering bulk investigation, bulk forensics, and bulk remediation. Works even when endpoints are offline.

Singular focus on OS, not all of your needs
Complex, expert-level knowledge and integration required to derive forensics. Myopically focused on OS and not other vectors for true impact evaluation.

Purpose Built Artificial Intelligence

AI Built for Security

10+ years of highly effective advanced analytics
Full automation with Trellix Wise, using ML, AI, and GenAI across endpoint, email, network, data security, and cloud.

AI assistant for “work”
Microsoft Copilot lacks a dedicated security focus and the depth of experience that Trellix has with ML and AI on security use cases.

Alert Triage

No alert left behind
GenAI powered alert triage for 100% of alerts that dynamically crafts investigations and prioritizes them to tell a human when there’s a critical incident.

Microsoft-only focus
Copilot's reliance on predefined partnerships raises concerns for organizations needing highly customizable threat intel pipelines to address complex, dynamic threat environments effectively.

GenAI That Understands Intent

Human-level situational awareness
Trellix Wise is better than humans at decoding and understanding what is happening in customer environments, such as what embedded commands are suspicious for which job roles.

Chatbot of limited value
Copilot performs limited scope of work and requires expert level knowledge to create prompts.

Resilient by Design Architecture

Product Design

Efficient and effective
Layered, efficient security provides additional risk mitigation and provides better security posture.

Trellix is modular and de-coupled from productivity and cloud services—unlike Microsoft.

All your eggs in one basket
Microsoft’s one-size-fits-all security offers blanket protection but leaves specialized vulnerabilities exposed, turning “built-in security” into “built-in vulnerabilities.”

The recent high-profile cyber attack on Microsoft, leading to the exfiltration of sensitive emails and documents, exemplifies the vulnerability within its ecosystem.

Microsoft is not a resilient architecture because it is tightly coupled with all services. Dependence on a single vendor for a vast array of services increases the potential impact of a successful attack on the organization's operations.

OS Independence

Free from OS vulnerabilities
Not impacted by OS vulnerabilities. Trellix is independent of the underlying OS for greater resiliency.

Built-in vulnerability
Microsoft reports record-high CVEs, averaging 120+ monthly, with Windows OS flaws like CVE-2022-21894 enabling malware to bypass Defender and compromise endpoints.

Defender may be embedded, but it also embeds risk, tied to Microsoft’s OS updates, placing companies in a cycle of constant updates and exposure.

Ecosystem Risk

Security first
With Trellix, customers can protect their Microsoft environment, ensuring they get the productivity they expect and the security they deserve.

Why settle for security as an afterthought when you can rely on Trellix to make it a priority?

Lack of guardrails
If attackers bypass Defender because of a vulnerability in Windows, threat actors have the run of the place. This puts the onus on customers to worry about their security software.