Optimizing Microsoft Sentinel Costs with the Defender XDR Integration
As organizations increasingly adopt Microsoft Sentinel for cloud-native SIEM capabilities, cost optimization becomes a strategic priority. While Sentinel’s powerful analytics and automation features are key enablers of modern security operations, the associated data ingestion and retention costs can quickly add up. Fortunately, Microsoft continues to innovate in ways that help customers make the most of their investments—most notably through tighter integration with Microsoft Defender XDR.
Understanding Sentinel’s Cost Model
Sentinel’s pricing is primarily based on data ingestion. The more telemetry ingested—from sources like firewalls, servers, endpoint devices, and cloud platforms—the higher the cost. While this volume of data is necessary for effective threat detection and hunting, organizations must be smart about what they ingest, how they store it, and for how long.
Several tools and tactics exist to optimize costs within Sentinel:
- Data Filtering and Transformation - via Azure Monitor to reduce unnecessary noise before ingestion.
- Basic Logs and Archive Tables - to store less critical or infrequently accessed data at a lower price point.
- Scheduled Query Rules and Automation - to act on data in near real-time and eliminate the need to retain it longer than necessary.
The Role of Microsoft Defender XDR in Cost Reduction
One of Microsoft’s strategic moves to support cost optimization is the deeper integration between Sentinel and Microsoft Defender XDR. The goal is simple: bring together the best of detection and response without duplicating data or efforts.
Key highlights of this approach:
- Unified Security Operations Platform: Defender XDR acts as a centralized hub for telemetry from Microsoft’s own services—Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Identity, Defender for Office 365, and more. Rather than ingesting all this data into Sentinel, security teams can pivot from alerts in Sentinel into Defender XDR natively.
- Incident Sharing: Microsoft has rolled out capabilities that allow Sentinel to receive high-fidelity incidents from Defender XDR, drastically reducing the need to ingest raw telemetry. This allows analysts to focus on correlated alerts and actionable threats without incurring the same volume-based ingestion costs.
- Connector Efficiency: Improved and standardized connectors across Microsoft 365 Defender tools minimize duplication and enhance precision in what data gets ingested.
Best Practices to Keep Costs Under Control
Final Thoughts
Microsoft’s strategy is clear: enable customers to adopt a holistic, cloud-first approach to security operations without running up unnecessary costs. By embracing the power of native integrations between Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR, security teams can significantly cut down data ingestion expenses while still strengthening their detection and response posture.
Have you tested how much you could save by fine-tuning your connectors or relying more on Defender XDR’s high-fidelity incident sharing? If not, now might be the perfect time.
