Azure Sentinel is a cloud-native security information and event management (SIEM) solution that provides real-time threat detection and incident response capabilities. It's designed to help organizations detect, investigate, and respond to cyber threats.
With Azure Sentinel, you can collect data from various sources, including Azure resources, on-premises systems, and third-party services. This data is then used to identify potential security threats and alert you to take action.
Azure Sentinel's advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities enable it to detect even the most sophisticated threats. It can also integrate with other Azure services, such as Azure Active Directory, to provide a more comprehensive security posture.
One of the key benefits of Azure Sentinel is its scalability and flexibility. It can handle large volumes of data and scale up or down as needed, making it an ideal solution for organizations of all sizes.
What Is Azure Sentinel
Azure Sentinel is a cloud-native security information and event management (SIEM) and security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) solution that operates on the Azure platform. It can collect data and detect, investigate and respond to threats.
Azure Sentinel helps businesses secure their IT operations and streamline workflows for better efficiency regardless of scale. It's a powerful tool that provides a birds-eye view across all the enterprises you have set up on Azure.
The four primary capabilities of Microsoft Sentinel are security data collection, threat detection, investigation and automated response, which you can perform from one central panel. This means you can collect data from users, devices, applications, and more, detect potential threats, investigate suspicious activities, and respond to incidents automatically.
Azure Sentinel secures your business against threats by working according to four security operations areas: Collect, Detect, Investigate, and Respond. Here's a breakdown of what each area does:
- Collect: Gathers security data across your business’s network infrastructure.
- Detect: Identifies threats with analytics and threat intelligence.
- Investigate: Uses machine learning and artificial intelligence technology to scrutinize suspicious activities.
- Respond: Provides proactive and customizable automation for everyday security actions.
Azure Sentinel collects data in real-time through connectors to data sources such as Office 365, Microsoft 365 Defender, or Azure Kubernetes Service. It also supports open standard formats like CEF and Syslog, making it easy to collect data from more places.
Features and Benefits
Azure Sentinel is a powerful tool that offers a wide range of features and benefits to help you strengthen your organization's security posture. It provides a cloud-native security information and event management (SIEM) and security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) solution that helps you collect data from various sources, analyze it for threats, and respond to incidents quickly and effectively.
Azure Sentinel offers a data grant of up to 5 MB per user/day to ingest Microsoft 365 data, including Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) sign-in and audit logs, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps shadow IT discovery logs, Microsoft Information Protection logs, and Microsoft 365 advanced hunting data.
The tool provides a wide range of features, including Activity Monitoring, Asset Management, Log Management, Threat Intelligence, Vulnerability Assessment, Advanced Analytics, Data Examination, and Service to service integration with other Azure services.
Azure Sentinel also allows users to create their own custom connectors to ingest data from any source and supports the use of APIs to integrate with third-party tools and services. Additionally, users can create custom workbooks and dashboards to visualize and analyze security data in ways that are relevant to their organization.
Here are some of the key benefits of using Azure Sentinel:
- Reduce alert fatigue & accelerate threat detection & response
- Harness Azure Sentinel's cloud-native SIEM – without overhead costs
- Hunt and respond with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE)
- Cost-effectively monitor both on-prem and cloud environments as your business scales
- Ongoing cost monitoring and evaluation for optimal budgeting
Azure Sentinel's features and benefits make it an ideal solution for companies that are in or transitioning to the cloud. Its scalability and customization capabilities allow it to adapt to the security needs of each moment, with the necessary infrastructure expansion and maintenance facilities.
Pricing and Options
Azure Sentinel offers a flexible pricing model that suits various needs and budgets. You can choose from two main billing types: Pay-as-you-go and Commitment tiers.
With Pay-as-you-go, you're billed per gigabyte (GB) for the volume of data ingested for security analysis in Microsoft Sentinel and stored in the Azure Monitor Log Analytics workspace. This model helps you reduce infrastructure costs by automatically scaling resources according to your business's needs and paying for only what you use.
You can also opt for the Commitment tiers, which enables you to commit a specific amount of GB that Logs Analytics can store daily. This model can save you up to 65% compared to pay-as-you-go, making it a cost-effective option for large-scale data storage.
Azure Sentinel also offers a free plan for the first 31 days, allowing you to try the service without any additional cost. During this trial period, you can ingest up to 10 GB/day of log data for free, subject to a 20 workspace limit per Azure tenant.
Here are the purchase tiers and discounts for pre-purchase plan Commit Units:
Pricing and Options
Microsoft Sentinel offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where you're billed per gigabyte (GB) for the volume of data ingested for security analysis and stored in the Azure Monitor Log Analytics workspace.
You can choose between two types of logs: Analytics Logs and Basic Logs, with Analytics Logs supporting all data types and providing comprehensive analytics, alerts, and limitless queries.
The pay-as-you-go pricing model is measured in GB, with no flat rate listed, but you can save up to 65% by committing to a specific amount of GB that Logs Analytics can store daily.
Microsoft Sentinel also offers a free plan for the first 31 days, with new workspaces able to ingest up to 10 GB/day of log data at no cost, subject to a 20 workspace limit per Azure tenant.
In addition to the free plan, Microsoft Sentinel offers a free data source for Azure Activity Logs, Office 365 Audit Logs, and Alerts from Microsoft Defender for Cloud and other services.
Here's a breakdown of the Microsoft Sentinel Commit Units pre-purchase plan:
Microsoft Sentinel also offers a 1-year pre-purchase plan, which can save you up to 25% on your Microsoft Sentinel Commit Units, and you can use these units at any time within 12 months of purchase.
Server Defender for P2 Customers
Microsoft Sentinel offers a special benefit for customers with Defender for Server Plan 2 enabled.
You'll get 500 MB per VM per day of free data ingestion, specifically for security data types collected by Defender for Cloud.
The allowed data types include SecurityAlert, SecurityBaseline, SecurityBaselineSummary, SecurityDetection, SecurityEvent, WindowsFirewall, SysmonEvent, ProtectionStatus, and Update and UpdateSummary.
Here are the specific data types that are included in the free allowance:
- SecurityAlert
- SecurityBaseline
- SecurityBaselineSummary
- SecurityDetection
- SecurityEvent
- WindowsFirewall
- SysmonEvent
- ProtectionStatus
- Update and UpdateSummary
Defender for Cloud billing is tied to Azure Monitor Log Analytics billing, so the free allowance applies to your entire Microsoft Sentinel bill.
Service Level Agreement
Microsoft Sentinel's Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a crucial aspect to consider when evaluating its pricing and options.
The SLA is reviewed in the SLA section, where you can find the details.
Microsoft Sentinel's SLA is designed to ensure high availability and performance of the service.
However, the specifics of the SLA, such as uptime and response times, can be found in the SLA section, so be sure to review it carefully.
Security and Monitoring
Azure Sentinel provides a comprehensive security solution that helps organizations monitor and respond to security threats. It centralizes log data in one place, allowing security teams to analyze and report on alerts across the entire IT infrastructure.
With Azure Sentinel, you can minimize the risk of missing critical threat alerts by organizing alerts into incidents, which are groups of connected alerts that point to a possible threat for investigation. This helps security teams tackle a high volume of security alerts and minimize alert fatigue.
Azure Sentinel's built-in connectors enable seamless collection of data from various sources, including Microsoft products like Office 365, and non-Microsoft solutions. This allows organizations to leverage a comprehensive cloud security solution and ecosystems.
Here are some key features of Azure Sentinel's security and monitoring capabilities:
- Log Management and data gathering from across the enterprise
- Enhanced Threat Detection
- Puts together Security Automation and Security Orchestration
- Automates repetitive tasks and Incident Response
- Integrates with other Azure services, such as Azure Active Directory and Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Why Organizations Need Security Monitoring
Organizations need security monitoring to stay one step ahead of cyber threats. Azure Sentinel is a critical component of an organization's cybersecurity strategy, providing advanced threat detection and response capabilities.
In today's digital age, security threats are evolving at an alarming rate. Log Management and gathering data from across your enterprise is crucial in identifying potential security threats. Azure Sentinel enables this by collecting data from various sources and providing comprehensive visibility.
A robust security monitoring system can help organizations identify and respond to security threats quickly. Enhanced Threat Detection is a key feature of Azure Sentinel, which uses advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities to detect potential security threats.
Azure Sentinel also automates repetitive tasks and incident response, freeing up security analysts to focus on more complex tasks. This can be a significant time-saver, allowing organizations to respond to security threats more efficiently.
Here are some key benefits of Azure Sentinel's security monitoring capabilities:
By implementing Azure Sentinel's security monitoring capabilities, organizations can enhance their security posture and effectively combat the evolving threat landscape.
Monitor Key Metrics
Monitoring key metrics is crucial for any security team. Azure Sentinel provides a bird's-eye view of your IT estate by centralizing your log data in one place.
With Azure Sentinel, you can perform analysis and reports on alerts across your entire IT infrastructure. This feature helps minimize the risk of missing critical threat alerts.
Monitoring key metrics from a central point allows your SOC team to track the resolution progress and manage threat response. Your team can also run real-time queries on event logs without affecting performance.
Incident Management
Azure Sentinel offers a unified incident management console that allows security analysts to track, prioritize, and manage security incidents from a central location. This console provides rich visualization capabilities, including interactive workbooks and dashboards, to facilitate in-depth investigation and analysis of security events.
Security analysts can collaborate, annotate, and share findings within the platform, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of incident response. This streamlined process helps organizations respond quickly to potential threats and minimize their impact.
Azure Sentinel's incident management capabilities include automated threat detection and response, which can detect and respond to threats automatically with its playbook feature and integration with Azure Logic Apps. This feature makes an incident whenever an alert is triggered, allowing for swift action to be taken.
Incident management is a critical aspect of security operations, and Azure Sentinel's features make it easier to manage and respond to incidents. By leveraging its capabilities, organizations can reduce the time and effort required to investigate and respond to security incidents.
Here's a breakdown of Azure Sentinel's incident management features:
- Assignment and incident status: Helps you set or change the status of an incident and assign it to your team member to investigate.
- Investigation functionality: Enables you to investigate multilayered attacks visually by mapping elements across incidents.
By utilizing Azure Sentinel's incident management capabilities, organizations can improve their security posture and reduce the risk of security breaches.
Security Data Integration
Security Data Integration is a crucial aspect of any security and monitoring solution. Azure Sentinel makes it easy to collect security data from various sources, including logs, events, and alerts generated by cloud resources, on-premises infrastructure, applications, devices, and third-party solutions.
With Azure Sentinel, you can collect data from multiple sources, including Microsoft services like Microsoft Threat Protection and Microsoft 365 solutions. This includes Office 365, Azure AD, Azure ATP, and Microsoft Cloud App Security.
Azure Sentinel also supports custom data connectors, enabling integration with a wide range of third-party solutions. This means you can collect data from a variety of sources, including non-Microsoft solutions.
Here are some of the data sources you can connect to with Azure Sentinel:
- Microsoft services like Microsoft Threat Protection and Microsoft 365 solutions
- Office 365
- Azure AD
- Azure ATP
- Microsoft Cloud App Security
- Third-party solutions via custom data connectors
With Azure Sentinel, you can collect data from various sources and analyze it in a centralized platform. This helps you to detect and investigate security threats more effectively.
Integrated Threat Search
Integrated Threat Search is a powerful tool that lets you examine security threats without waiting for automated detection. You can use built-in Microsoft Sentinel search queries to find threats that may have been missed by scheduled scans.
These queries can be performed on various data sources, giving you real-time insights into potential security threats. At Plain Concepts, we've seen firsthand how quickly these queries can help identify and address security threats.
By running these queries, you can design customized detection rules to deal with specific threats. This is especially useful for organizations with unique security needs or requirements.
With integrated threat search, you can proactively hunt for threats that may have evaded other detection measures. By forwarding Microsoft 365 logs to Azure Sentinel, you can enhance your threat protection scope and detect threats that may have gone unnoticed.
In-depth investigation resources in Microsoft Azure Sentinel enable you to quickly identify potential security threats' root causes. This can be a game-changer for organizations looking to eliminate connected threats and prevent future attacks.
Security Orchestration and Response
Azure Sentinel functions as a Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) solution, allowing organizations to automate and streamline security operations. It provides automation playbooks and workflows to execute predefined actions, such as alert enrichment, incident triaging, and response orchestration.
Azure Sentinel automates repetitive tasks, accelerating incident response and reducing manual effort, enabling security teams to focus on critical security activities. This helps organizations to stay ahead of cyber threats and protect their critical assets.
Azure Sentinel provides a comprehensive security solution by integrating with other Azure services such as Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, and Information Protection. It also allows users to create custom connectors to ingest data from any source and supports the use of APIs to integrate with third-party tools and services.
Here are some key features of Azure Sentinel's SOAR capabilities:
- Automation playbooks and workflows
- Alert enrichment
- Incident triaging
- Response orchestration
- Custom connectors
- API integration with third-party tools and services
By automating and streamlining security operations, Azure Sentinel helps organizations to quickly respond to security incidents, reduce the risk of data breaches, and improve their overall security posture.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Azure Sentinel called now?
Azure Sentinel is now known as Microsoft Sentinel, a cloud-native Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution.
What is the difference between Microsoft Defender and Azure Sentinel?
Microsoft Defender focuses on endpoint protection and threat intelligence, while Azure Sentinel is a cloud-native SIEM and SOAR solution for security monitoring and incident response. This difference in focus enables organizations to choose the best tool for their specific security needs.
Sources
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/microsoft-sentinel/
- https://www.nedigital.com/en/blog/azure-sentinel-for-your-business-top-10-benefits
- https://k21academy.com/microsoft-azure/az-500/sentinel/
- https://www.ilink-digital.com/services/cyber-security/azure-sentinel/
- https://www.plainconcepts.com/microsoft-sentinel/
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