UPDATE, 8.12.2021: Preview now available: Microsoft Defender for Business preview now available
The new product “Microsoft Defender for Business” is aimed at organizations with up to 300 employees. In Switzerland, this makes the target audience very large. Thanks to the attractive price of ≈ 3 CHF/$ (or included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium), this version of Defender also competes with conventional/classic antivirus programs, while offering much more extensive protection.
A definitive release date is not yet known, but the preview is planned to launch still this year, with the final product following a few weeks later.
Management and enrollment will be identical to Defender for Endpoint, and the features are almost identical as well. However, the Threat Hunting log won’t be available going back 6 months, and the Threat Experts are not included.
On the other hand, there will be a Microsoft 365 Lighthouse integration, which is very attractive for partners. This lets you view and manage all customers from a single interface.
Microsoft already introduced the product at this year’s Ignite: Introducing Microsoft Defender for Business
Yesterday, the more detailed features and product scope were published. The portal is the same as for Defender for Endpoint. The features “Endpoint Detection and Response”, “Automated Investigation and Response” and “Threat Analytics” are optimized for SMB customers and can be managed with a simplified client management (if Intune is not used).
Feature overview
| Endpoint capabilities\SKU | Microsoft Defender for Business | Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 1 | Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Centralized management | x | x | |
| Simplified client configuration | x | x | |
| Threat and Vulnerability Management | x | x | |
| Attack Surface Reduction | x | x | x |
| Next-Gen Protection | x | x | x |
| Endpoint Detection and Response | x | x | |
| Automated Investigation and Response | x | x | |
| Threat Hunting (incl. 6mo retention) | x | ||
| Threat Analytics | x | x | |
| Cross platform support for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android | x | x | x |
| Microsoft Threat Experts | x | ||
| Partner APIs | x | x | x |
| Microsoft 365 Lighthouse for viewing security incidents across customers | x |