Microsoft ($MSFT), CrowdStrike ($CRWD), Palo Alto ($PANW) & SentinelOne ($S) – Another Breach – July 06, 2024
Another week, another high profile Microsoft security breach. This time, state-sponsored hackers from Russia were able to breach employee endpoints and steal email credentials. This impacted the Texas Department of Transportation and several other state-level agencies. These breaches have routinely fed endpoint (and identity) disruptors key customer wins as players deploy their managed breach protection products to clean up messes and expose clients to what good security systems actually look like.
Microsoft is a world-class entity. It has arguably the stickiest enterprise subscription on the planet. Its leadership is elite. But? Not all of its products in isolation are best-in-class. Microsoft Defender is a key example. Microsoft will not surrender its share and will remain a prominent player in this space. Still, its struggles have paved the way for CrowdStrike to emerge as another giant in endpoint and for SentinelOne and Palo Alto to take strong market share there as well. It’s superior product efficacy that these disruptors offer… and that’s what is required here. It’s not enough to be on par with Microsoft as it can simply cross-sell 30 other compelling solutions to stand out from the pack. Companies need to be convincingly better than Microsoft to win in security, and these breaches continue to flow in to offer evidence that “convincingly better” is what they are.
