Microsoft Defender expands its reach, now supports Google Cloud as well as AWS

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What you need to know

Microsoft Defender for Cloud now supports Google Cloud.
The security tool already supported Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft has invested heavily into security, including several acquisitions.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud recently added support for Google Cloud. The solution, which is for cloud security posture management (CSPM) and cloud workload protection (CWP), already worked with Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. Microsoft's chief

Managing cloud platforms can become quite complicated, especially when having to work with products from different companies.

"Today most of our customers have AWS and they have Azure and they have Google Cloud and they have different workloads around and then they have security solutions which are native to each of these," said Microsoft Vice President of Security, Compliance, and Identity Vasu Jakkal (via WSJ). "Think about the security practitioners sitting in a Security Operations Center looking at these alerts in this pane of glass — they're dealing with three if not more."

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With the newly added support, Microsoft now has a single security offering that works with the most popular cloud platforms, including Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and AWS. Security professionals will have the option to use a single tool for overseeing cloud security rather than splintering between different products to cover separate clouds.

Microsoft has invested heavily in software security. The company acquired cybersecurity software maker RiskIQ, IoT security-focused ReFirm, and CloudKnox Security in 2021. Recent reports suggest that Microsoft may purchase cybersecurity firm Mandiant as well.

Microsoft also hired Charlie Bell last year. Bell was an Amazon "S-team" executive that led AWS for 15 years. He served on the senior leadership team of Amazon and was a corporate vice president. Now, Bell is an executive vice president at Microsoft over security, compliance, identity, and management. Bell has a LinkedIn blog post discussing Microsoft Cloud Defender supporting AWS.

Sean Endicott is a News Writer at Windows Central, where he covers Windows 11, Surface hardware, Microsoft 365, AI, apps, and the broader PC ecosystem. Since joining the site in 2017, he has written well over a thousand articles across the Microsoft landscape, covering breaking news, analysis, and feature reporting.

He writes Windows Wrap, a weekly column covering the biggest stories in Windows and the PC industry, and what they mean for the platform going forward.

Before joining Windows Central full-time, Sean worked in journalism and media production after earning a First Class degree in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University. Outside of tech, he is an award-winning American football coach based in Nottingham, England, and was named BAFCA Youth Coach of the Year in 2024.