Security
Microsoft Defender
Most organisations have more Defender than they have configured, and fewer people watching it than they think. Valto deploys, tunes and helps you run Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Endpoint, Identity and Cloud Apps. We start by establishing which parts your licences already include, configure them properly rather than at default, tune out the noise that stops alerts being read, and agree who acts on what. Where your licensing genuinely does not cover what you need, we will tell you and show you the options.
Trusted by organisations like yours
Threat protection that somebody is actually acting on
Microsoft Defender is a family of products rather than a single one, and most organisations own an inconsistent slice of it. Some of it arrives with Business Premium. Very little of it arrives with E3. Nearly all of it arrives with E5. Almost nobody can say from memory which parts they have. What follows is predictable. The products that are licensed get switched on at default settings, policies cover part of the estate, alerts go to a shared mailbox, and after a fortnight of false positives people stop opening them. The tooling is present and the protection is theoretical. Valto starts with coverage: which Defender products your licences include, what they are protecting today, and where the gaps are. We then configure and tune them properly, reduce the noise until the alerts that remain are worth reading, and agree explicitly who acts on what and within what hours. Where your licensing genuinely does not cover what you need, we will say so and set out the options, including the honest comparison between add-ons, moving to E5, and a third-party product. We do not resell security software, so we have no reason to prefer one answer.
What Defender do you already have?
Defender is licensed in pieces, and the pieces are not obvious. This is roughly where most organisations stand, and confirming your actual position is the first thing we do.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Protects email and collaboration: anti-phishing, impersonation protection, safe links, safe attachments and automated investigation. Plan 1 is included with Business Premium. Plan 2, which adds threat hunting, attack simulation and automated response, comes with E5 or as an add-on.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
Protects devices: detection and response, attack surface reduction, and vulnerability management. Defender for Business is included with Business Premium. Plan 1 and Plan 2 differ substantially in detection and investigation capability, and Plan 2 is the one most people assume they have.
Microsoft Defender for Identity
Watches your identity infrastructure for the attack patterns that precede a breach: reconnaissance, credential theft, lateral movement. Requires E5 or a standalone licence, and is the product organisations most often do not realise they are missing.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
Sees and controls what cloud applications your people are actually using, including the ones nobody approved, and applies policy to the data moving through them. E5 or standalone.
Microsoft Defender XDR
The layer that correlates signals across Office 365, endpoints, identity and cloud apps into single incidents rather than four separate alert queues. This is where the value of holding several Defender products compounds, and it is the argument for consolidating onto Defender rather than running one product from each vendor.
Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management
Identifies and prioritises unpatched software and misconfiguration across your devices. Partly included with Defender for Endpoint P2, with an add-on for the full capability.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Protects Azure and hybrid infrastructure workloads rather than Microsoft 365. Priced by resource.
Our Microsoft Defender services
Establish what you have before buying anything
We confirm which Defender products your licences include, what they are currently protecting, which parts of the estate they do not reach, and where the real gaps are. Where additional licensing is genuinely needed, you get the options costed. Most reviews find a mixture: capability paid for and not switched on, and one or two genuine gaps worth closing.
Hear from our experts
Watch: From reactive to proactive: Securing Microsoft 365 for AI
In this episode, Rob Thomas (Head of Modern Work), Will Jones (Senior Consultant) and James Belsey (Project Manager) discuss why a proactive security strategy is becoming essential, how Microsoft 365 security has evolved, and what organisations should consider before rolling out AI tools like Microsoft Copilot.
Turn Defender into actual protection
Owning Defender and being protected by it are different things. These are the outcomes the work is for.
How we deliver Defender projects
From establishing what your licences already cover, through to a configured, tuned estate with agreed ownership of what it produces.
1Coverage review
Establish what you have and what it reaches
We confirm which Defender products your licences include, how they are currently configured, and which parts of the estate they do not cover. Where additional licensing is genuinely needed, you get the options costed rather than assumed.
2Design
Agree the policy set and the ownership model
We define the policies, baselines and automated response actions appropriate to your organisation, and agree at this stage who acts on what, within what hours, and what gets escalated.
3Deployment
Configure and roll out in phases
We configure the products and apply policies in controlled waves, piloting anything that could affect mail flow or device behaviour before it reaches everybody.
4Tuning
Reduce the noise until the alerts are worth reading
We work through false positives, adjust policy against real activity, and consolidate signals through Defender XDR. This continues for a period after go-live, because tuning cannot be completed in advance.
5Operation
Review coverage, policy and Microsoft's changes
Ongoing monitoring where that is part of your service, and periodic review of coverage, policy and new Defender capability, which Microsoft adds frequently.
We're one of the UK's few Microsoft partners to hold all Microsoft Solution Partner designation badges, across all Solution Partner designation pathways. For our clients, that means working with specialists who understand how identity, devices, email and data fit together rather than treating threat protection as a product to install. Whether you're enabling Defender for the first time, tuning an estate that generates more noise than it should, or working out what your licences already cover, we help organisations get real protection from tools they largely already own.
WHY ORGANISATIONS CHOOSE VALTO
Connected, across Microsoft
Defender is only as good as the identity model underneath it
Defender detects and responds. What it can prevent depends on conditional access, device compliance, privileged access and how content is shared, none of which are Defender. An organisation with well-tuned detection and standing global administrator accounts has bought a better view of an avoidable problem. Valto brings together expertise across Microsoft 365, Azure, Entra ID, Intune, Purview and Microsoft 365 Copilot. That lets our consultants configure Defender in the context of the identity and access model it is protecting, and recognise when the right answer is a configuration change elsewhere rather than another detection rule. The result is threat protection that sits on top of an estate designed to give it less to detect.
The team driving your forward
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20 July 2026Questions, answered plainly
Practical answers on which Defender products your licences include, what happens to alerts, whether Defender replaces your existing security tools, and who acts on what.
FREE DEFENDER COVERAGE REVIEW
Find out what you already have, and what it is actually covering
Whether you are enabling Defender for the first time, weighing an E5 move against add-ons, paying separately for protection you may already own, or dealing with an alert queue nobody reads, start by establishing your actual position.
Microsoft security specialists
Speak directly with consultants who configure and tune these environments every day.
Clear about who does what
Monitoring commitments state the hours, the response actions and the escalation path.