January 30, 2025
Organisations today face an increasingly complex and volatile cyber threat landscape. Many must decide between a best-of-suite security approach, like Microsoft’s integrated ecosystem or a multi-vendor strategy that combines specialised tools from various providers. While a multi-vendor model has been the conventional approach, growing security challenges, operational inefficiencies and evolving compliance requirements highlight the advantages of a unified security architecture.
Here’s why Microsoft’s best-of-suite approach offers a more effective, scalable and cost-efficient security strategy.
1. Unified Security That Works Together
Security is no longer about individual tools but a cohesive defence system. Microsoft’s ecosystem—Defender XDR, Sentinel and Entra ID—is designed to function as a single security architecture rather than a collection of disparate solutions. Identity, endpoints, cloud workloads, data and applications are all protected under one framework.
A multi-vendor approach, on the other hand, often results in siloed security controls that require extensive custom integration, manual correlation and ongoing maintenance to achieve the same level of visibility. This fragmentation can lead to detection delays and misconfigurations—two major factors in breach escalation.
A real-world example: Using Microsoft’s best-of-suite approach, organisations benefit from cross-signal intelligence. If an attacker gains access through a compromised identity, Entra ID flags the anomaly, Defender XDR correlates it with endpoint behaviours and Sentinel triggers an automated response—all without requiring manual intervention.
Demonstrating Value Through Reporting
One of the key advantages of Microsoft’s ecosystem is built-in security reporting and analytics. Organisations can use:
- Microsoft Secure Score to track security improvements over time.
- Sentinel dashboards to visualise real-time threat trends and incident response efficiency.
- Compliance Manager to measure regulatory alignment and security posture.
CyberOne has helped organisations streamline operations by leveraging Microsoft’s integrated security model, reducing security alert noise by up to 40% while improving response times through automation.
2. Reducing Complexity Without Sacrificing Security
Security teams today are stretched thin, balancing daily operations, compliance, and incident response. A multi-vendor approach often complicates security management, requiring analysts to navigate multiple dashboards, alerts and policy configurations, leading to higher workloads and increased risk of human error.
Microsoft simplifies this with a unified security platform, allowing security teams to:
- Monitor identity, endpoint and cloud security from a single pane of glass.
- Automate security policy enforcement across users and devices.
- Generate compliance and risk reports with built-in tools.
As an NCSC Cyber Incident Response (Level 2) provider, CyberOne has observed many breaches stem from gaps between siloed security tools—a problem significantly reduced by Microsoft’s native integrations.
3. Cost Efficiency Without Hidden Overheads
One of the biggest misconceptions about security is that a multi-vendor approach is more cost-effective because it allows organisations to select “best-in-class” tools. However, this doesn’t factor in:
- Licensing and subscription duplication across vendors.
- Integration expenses to enable cross-platform communication.
- The operational overhead required to maintain and manage multiple security vendors (e.g. supplier management, resources, training)
Microsoft’s E5 and the Security & Compliance add-on provide enterprise-grade security without costly third-party tools. Organisations that leverage Microsoft’s best-of-suite security often report:
- Up to 52% cost savings compared to multi-vendor security stacks.
- Lower resource overhead due to automated security enforcement.
- A simplified vendor relationship, reducing contract management complexities.
CyberOne’s Microsoft Secure Score Rapid Remediation service helps organisations maximise their existing investments by aligning configurations with best practices, often achieving a 30% improvement in security posture within weeks.
4. AI-Powered Threat Detection and Automated Response
Speed is a critical factor in cyber security, the faster an attack is detected, the lower the impact. Microsoft’s security stack leverages AI and machine learning to analyse trillions of signals daily, enabling:
- Behavioural anomaly detection to identify suspicious activity before an attack escalates.
- Automated investigation and response to contain threats in real-time.
- Advanced threat intelligence correlation across identity, endpoints and cloud workloads.
This AI-driven approach is not just theoretical—in a recent Forrester study, organisations using Microsoft Defender XDR and Sentinel reduced threat mitigation time by 88% and saw a 60% lower risk of material breaches.
Multi-vendor solutions often require custom rule writing and integration to achieve the same level of automation, delaying response times and increasing reliance on manual intervention.
As a CREST-accredited SOC provider, CyberOne has deployed Microsoft’s AI-driven threat response capabilities to help organisations reduce mean-time-to-detect (MTTD) from hours to minutes.
5. Future-Proof Security with Continuous Innovation
The security landscape evolves rapidly and state-of-the-art solutions may be obsolete tomorrow. Microsoft continuously enhances its security suite with:
- Threat intelligence updates from billions of security signals daily.
- AI-driven policy recommendations and adaptive security baselines.
- Automated compliance tracking for evolving regulatory requirements.
This ensures organisations stay ahead of threats rather than reacting to them. With new innovations such as Copilot for Security, Microsoft is leading the way in real-time security automation and analyst augmentation.
CyberOne, a Microsoft Advanced Specialisation partner in Threat Protection, works closely with organisations to implement these advancements, ensuring long-term resilience without constant vendor switching.
When Does a Multi-Vendor Approach Make Sense?
There are scenarios where a best-of-breed approach may be warranted—such as industries with highly specific compliance requirements that demand niche solutions. However, these cases are becoming increasingly rare as Microsoft expands its security capabilities.
Organisations heavily invested in legacy security architectures may require a gradual migration strategy rather than a full transition overnight.
CyberOne has successfully helped organisations navigate phased migrations, ensuring continuity while progressively integrating Microsoft’s security solutions to reduce complexity and enhance resilience.

Security Without Compromise
Cyber security is no longer about stacking tools—it’s about building a cohesive, intelligent defence system that is efficient, scalable and adaptable to emerging threats.
Microsoft’s best-of-suite approach offers:
- Integrated security across identity, endpoints, cloud and data.
- Reduced operational complexity and misconfiguration risks.
- AI-driven automation for faster threat detection and response.
- Cost-effective security with no hidden integration expenses.
- Continuous innovation to keep pace with evolving threats.
For organisations looking to simplify security, improve resilience and reduce costs, a Microsoft-powered strategy—combined with expert implementation and management from CyberOne—is the clear choice.
CyberOne: Helping organisations achieve security excellence with Microsoft
Or for an informal discussion on how a best-of-suite approach can optimise your security strategy, contact the CyberOne team.