Microsoft Defender for Cloud combines Cloud Security Posture Management and Cloud Workload Protection Platform capabilities to secure Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, and hybrid environments. It provides continuous security assessments, vulnerability scanning across workloads like VMs and containers, attack path analysis to prioritize risks, and infrastructure-as-code template scanning to prevent misconfigurations. The platform uses AI/ML for threat detection against malware and phishing while offering compliance management aligned with standards like HIPAA and GDPR. It integrates identity/access controls with multi-factor authentication and role-based access while unifying security insights across DevOps pipelines. Defender for Cloud collects telemetry from network metadata, event logs, partner solutions like firewalls and antimalware tools, correlates alerts via Microsoft 365 Defender, and reduces management overhead through native Azure service integrations.
