Microsoft EOP is praised for its reliable email filtering capabilities, integration with Office 365, and customization options. Users appreciate the ease of setup but have concerns about mobile device management capabilities. Abnormal Security is known for its comprehensive email security capabilities, advanced threat detection, strong protection against phishing attacks, and behavioral AI engine.
The summary above is based on 46 interviews we conducted recently with Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) and Abnormal Security users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"The most valuable feature is the integration. It's a single console, so we don't have to switch around between multiple products. Another valuable feature is the ease of operations and maintenance."
"It gives us visibility into threats and, for endpoints, it helps us to prioritize threats. We used to have a lack of visibility, but now our time to detect and respond has decreased."
"It also gives me good visibility because, with Defender, I'm using a Microsoft product to defend Microsoft products. The integration was really seamless and I have wide visibility because it picks up almost everything. Literally, I can see almost every activity that happens, from the e-mail to the workstation itself."
"Microsoft Defender has a feature to protect each and every attachment. Even if it's an encrypted attachment, it will check for any potential threats."
"There are several features that I consider valuable."
"The risk level notifications are most valuable. We get to know what kind of intrusion or attack is there, and we can fix a problem on time."
"The email protection is excellent, especially in terms of anti-phishing policies."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365's most valuable feature is its performance."
"One of the things that I love about them is that the setup and installation are super easy. All you do is give them access to your Microsoft 365 tenant, and through APIs, they are able to do their work. They are doing all this through APIs, so you do not have to install the software and take a month to get it all set up to even see the value of the solution. You could be up and running in less than an hour."
"What I like about Abnormal Security is that it notifies me if any of my partners or suppliers are experiencing a security breach by analyzing their database and identifying potential cyber threats."
"Initial auto-remediation allows us to auto-remediate before the email lands in the end user's inbox for a split second."
"I have never encountered any stability issues with Abnormal."
"It does some really cool stuff that other tools aren't doing. We found it to be really effective, and the AI/ML functionality is really what differentiates them."
"Their ability to take things out of the mailbox and catch things much faster than users is excellent."
"The features that appeal to me most are the combination of auto-remediation and Detection 360."
"Ease of use is undoubtedly one of the most valuable features of Abnormal Security."
"In general, my company is happy with Microsoft support...My company hasn't faced any stability issues with the solution."
"It provides security to both on-premises and Azure infrastructures."
"The threat management feature includes policies and alerts that are valuable."
"The solution's stability is very, very good. I didn't face any problems in the last year."
"It's definitely scalable."
"It offers great security against malware and other threats."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of administration. Other solutions require complex administration, but Microsoft Exchange Online Protection is easier."
"The product's most valuable feature is third-party integrations."
"In one of the reports I can get the exact place where a vulnerable file resides. But for that, I need to explicitly go into the device and check. If they could include that file part in the report, without my having to go to the device itself, that would help."
"This product's effectiveness could be improved, in terms of detecting unwanted spam or even malware between the emails, compared to other products."
"Several simulation options are available within 365, and the phishing simulation could be better."
"About eight months ago, we started to measure the quantity of phishing and spam that we have been receiving, and it has been increasing a lot. That means that protection for our email is not as good as we were expecting."
"Microsoft security solutions work as expected. They are constantly updating the solutions to make them better. At the same time, the changes can impact a customer's environment, and we need to adjust settings. Sometimes we aren't aware of the changes, and nothing is pushed from the backend automatically."
"There's room for improvement regarding the time frame for retrieving emails."
"We need to be able to whitelist data at the backend."
"The only thing they should improve is the licensing model. They should stop changing it. A year ago, the five features I mentioned were included in one product. Now, three of them are bundled into one product, and you have to pay extra for the other two. I don't mind paying extra, but I don't want them to change it every year or every six months. I need to know what I'm looking at and not worry about it next year."
"The pricing for academic institutions and student mailboxes is challenging."
"The biggest pain point for us is the lack of support for on-premise email systems."
"I would like to have the ability to customize the auto-remediation feature."
"I, as such, do not have anything that I do not like or would like to add, but you could argue that because they are doing it API-based, there is a chance that something could slip through temporarily before they are able to pull it out. In theory, it could happen just because of the nature of the system. They are not in line with the delivery of the mail. They are kind of asynchronous, which is a pro as well as a con. If it is synchronous, then I know it would always stop them, but because it is asynchronous, things could get through temporarily or because of some system issues on the Microsoft side or their side. It is the nature of the beast, but it is a little bit of a con."
"One feature I'd love to see is outbound scanning."
"The ideal scenario would be for Abnormal Security to work in tandem with Microsoft to analyze incoming emails."
"There could be room for improvement in enhancing integration with other cybersecurity tools."
"When we're working on something as engineers, and we find an idea or a method of doing something that would be greatly improved by doing it another way, there should be an ability for me to click the ideas button, type in an idea that I have, and submit it to a product review team or developers to have them think through the process a little bit more."
"The reporting needs a little bit of improvement."
"The licensing can be on the expensive side, especially in the cloud space."
"Our company faces difficulty with Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) because it's too big, clunky, and difficult for a small client to implement quickly and easily."
"It would be helpful for customers if Plan 1 features were included with EOP."
"The solution lacks to elaborate on its spam policies."
"When you're using a Microsoft product solution, you can scale it, but if you're not, there are limitations."
"They should specify the difference between Defender for Office 365 and Exchange Online Protection."
"I think the implementation could be more streamlined."
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Abnormal Security is ranked 10th in Email Security with 8 reviews while Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is ranked 3rd in Email Security with 34 reviews. Abnormal Security is rated 9.6, while Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Abnormal Security writes "Provides comprehensive email security management, effective in detecting a wide range of email threats". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) writes "An effective email security solution that provides DLP, Safe Attachment, and Safe Links". Abnormal Security is most compared with Mimecast Email Security, Egress Intelligent Email Security, Cloudflare Area 1 Email Security, Avanan and Darktrace, whereas Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is most compared with Proofpoint Email Protection, Cisco Secure Email, Fortinet FortiMail, Mimecast Email Security and Trellix Collaboration Security. See our Abnormal Security vs. Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) report.
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