Unified Security Posture Management across Clouds using Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Abstract

As organizations embrace hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, ensuring consistent security and compliance across diverse cloud platforms has become increasingly complex. Disparate security controls, telemetry sources, and compliance frameworks often create fragmented visibility and reactive threat management. Microsoft’s Defender for Cloud addresses this challenge through Unified Security Posture Management (USPM) a centralized system that integrates with AWS, Google Cloud, and on-premises workloads to deliver continuous assessment, protection, and governance. This paper explores the architecture, automation workflows, and AI-driven capabilities of Defender for Cloud in multi-cloud environments. It demonstrates how unified policy enforcement, threat detection, and risk analytics reduce operational overhead, strengthen compliance, and enhance resilience.