Microsoft Copilot For Security Is Generally Available, Adding AI To Cyber Fight

Microsoft took some different approaches with Copilot for Security compared to its Copilot for Microsoft 365.

Microsoft’s Copilot for Security offering became generally available Monday, giving partners and users an artificial intelligence tool that promises faster cyberthreat responses, risk assessment and signal processing.

Incident summarization, reverse engineering of scripts and guided step-by-step instructions for incident responses are among the capabilities of Copilot for Security, according to Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.

Microsoft took some different approaches with Copilot for Security compared to its Copilot for Microsoft 365 – including the pricing model and allowing Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner program members to sell Copilot for Security at the same time it went GA.

Microsoft Copilot For Security GA

Corey Kirkendoll, CEO and president of 5K Technical Services, a Plano, Texas-based member of CRN’s 2024 MSP 500, told CRN in an interview that he is among the Microsoft solution providers eager to see what Copilot for Security can do to help his business keep up with all the measures monitored to keep customers cyber secure.

“It gives some people a leg up when it comes to how we handle that piece from a Microsoft security aspect,” Kirkendoll said.

Still, Kirkendoll said that using Copilot for Security’s consumption-based pricing could take getting used to as opposed to Copilot for Microsoft 365’s per-license price model. His hope is that the copilots’ capabilities stand out enough for customers to not sweat the prices.

“The per-user model is easier for us to bake in and to go down that path,” he said. “But in this day, it is really going to come down to not really focusing on the price, where it comes back is really continuing to push hard on what we do from value selling, why you're doing this. Then the price becomes a moot point.”

Andrew Hodges, vice president of service delivery for Oakville, Ontario-based Microsoft solution provider Difenda – which was part of the partner private preview period for Copilot for Security – told CRN in a recent interview that the AI tool should help with information sharing with junior employees, giving senior employees time back for more complex tasks.

“We see huge opportunities to really enhance the way we operate – more consistency, higher quality, that sort of thing,” Hodges said. “We don't feel like this is going to be replacing the people, per se, it's really helped supplement and increase consistency, quality and speed at which we deliver our services.”

As for Copilot for Security’s pricing model, he said that he sees pros and cons to per-license and consumption-based pricing, but for consumption he does like that users will save money during periods of lower activity.

“It makes sense,” he said. “It's scalable. You can dip your toe in the water and then scale. You can get pretty predictable once you model in a few use cases.”

Differences With Past Copilot Releases

While Copilot for Security is available in CSP the same day it goes GA, CSP members had to wait until Jan. 16 to sell Copilot for M365 even though it became GA for enterprise customers Nov. 1. A minimum seat requirement also limited smaller organizations’ use of Copilot for M365 until eliminated by Microsoft

Copilot for Sales and Copilot for Service became GA on Feb. 1, but did not become available through CSP new commerce experience (NCE) until March 1. These two copilots are $50 a user a month or a $20 add-on to Copilot for M365.

While Copilot for M365 is $30 a user a month with an annual commitment, Copilot for Security is $4 per security compute unit (SCU) per hour. Customers receive a monthly bill for the number of SCUs provisioned hourly to run Copilot for Security workloads, according to Microsoft. SCU consumption depends on the number of queries run and the complexity of each query – not the number of analysts or devices.

In another difference, Copilot for M365 requires that users have M365 E3, E5, Business Standard or Business Premium or Office 365 E3, O365 E5. The only prerequisite for Copilot for Security is an Azure account, according to Microsoft.

Also starting Monday is a Security workspace in Microsoft’s Partner Center that aims to help
“partners evaluate their security situation and take the required actions to enhance their security posture,” according to a post by the vendor. “The workspace will make the user experience easier, provide learning resources, and serve as a single place for all security-related matters in Partner Center.“

Monday also marks the start of public preview for Copilot in Intune, according to Microsoft. Other copilot tools in preview include Copilot for Finance and Copilot for Azure.