AZURE CONSULTING · SECURITY

Azure security, measurable and maintained.

Posture hardening, identity governance, and compliance for UK organisations running on Microsoft Azure. Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Sentinel, Entra ID, and Zero Trust — implemented, tuned, and handed over with the runbooks to keep them working.

Defender for Cloud Microsoft Sentinel Entra ID Governance Zero Trust UK GDPR · ISO 27001
THE ENGAGEMENT

Security as a posture,
not a project.

An Azure security review that produces a 200-row spreadsheet of findings and disappears does not change the posture. We deliver work that closes findings, codifies the controls that prevent them recurring, and leaves your team able to maintain the result.

Posture assessment. We start with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Secure Score, the regulatory baselines that apply to you (UK GDPR, ISO 27001, NCSC Cyber Essentials, FCA-aligned controls where relevant), and a manual review of identity, network, key management, and data protection. The output is prioritised by risk and exploitability, not by control catalogue order.

Identity hardening. Most Azure incidents start with identity. We design and implement Entra ID Conditional Access, Privileged Identity Management for elevated roles, passwordless authentication where it fits, identity protection risk policies, and admin tier separation. Break-glass accounts are documented and tested.

Detection and response. Microsoft Sentinel deployed with content packs aligned to your stack, custom analytics rules for the threats that actually apply, automation playbooks for the incident types your team handles repeatedly, and a tested runbook for the ones you escalate. We do not leave you with a SIEM that nobody reads.

Compliance evidence. Azure Policy and Microsoft Purview configured to evidence the controls your auditors care about, automatically. Drift detection and exception management built into the platform, not maintained on a spreadsheet.

DELIVERABLES

What you get.

01

Posture assessment

Findings prioritised by exploitability, mapped to the regulatory baselines that apply to you, with a remediation plan and effort estimate per item.

02

Identity & access hardening

Entra ID Conditional Access, PIM for privileged roles, passwordless authentication where applicable, and tested break-glass procedures.

03

Sentinel SOC platform

Microsoft Sentinel deployed with relevant content, tuned analytics rules, response playbooks, and runbooks your team will actually use during incidents.

04

Compliance automation

Azure Policy initiatives, Purview labels, and Defender regulatory compliance dashboards configured to evidence controls without manual tracking.

TYPICAL ENGAGEMENT

A UK healthcare data platform,
under regulatory scrutiny.

The brief. An Azure-hosted clinical data platform with patient-identifiable information, an upcoming external audit, and a Defender for Cloud Secure Score in the low forties. Identity drift, public storage endpoints flagged, and no centralised SIEM.

The work. Eight weeks of focused remediation. Conditional Access redesigned around named user personas; PIM rolled out for all subscription Owner and Contributor roles; private endpoints for storage and SQL; key rotation automated through Azure Key Vault. Microsoft Sentinel deployed with the Microsoft 365 Defender, Azure Activity, and Entra ID connectors, and tuned to the platform's normal traffic.

The result. Secure Score raised into the high eighties on the in-scope subscriptions. Audit completed without findings on identity, network exposure, or logging. The platform team was the first responder for every Sentinel alert during the engagement — no findings escalated to us in the final two weeks.

+45
Secure Score uplift
100%
Privileged roles via PIM
0
Audit findings, in-scope
8 weeks
Engagement length

Anonymised illustrative engagement. Numbers reflect typical scope and outcomes for an engagement of this size; specifics vary by environment.

QUESTIONS

Frequently asked.

Is this an audit, a pen test, or a remediation engagement?

Primarily remediation. We will tell you what is wrong, but our value is in fixing it — Conditional Access policies that work, Sentinel that produces signal, Policy that prevents the next misconfiguration. Independent penetration testing is a separate discipline; we will recommend partners we trust if you need one.

Do you cover UK GDPR, ISO 27001, FCA, NHS DSPT, Cyber Essentials?

Yes — using Azure's built-in regulatory compliance baselines as the technical control set, mapped to whichever framework you need to evidence. We will not write your statement of applicability or sit with the auditor, but the technical controls will be in place and demonstrably operating.

Will Microsoft Sentinel be too expensive for our environment?

It depends on data volume and table tier. We size Sentinel during scoping, tier ingestion appropriately (analytics versus basic versus auxiliary logs), and only enable connectors that earn their cost. Most mid-size UK environments come in well below the headline-pricing fears.

Can you help if we have already had an incident?

For active incidents the right call is your incident response retainer or Microsoft DART. We come in afterwards — root-cause work, posture remediation, and the controls needed to keep the same incident from recurring.

What certifications do your engineers hold?

Our principal engineer holds Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate alongside Azure Solutions Architect Expert and DevOps Engineer Expert. The full credential list is on our about page.

Do you support Microsoft 365 / Defender XDR alongside Azure?

Yes. Most Azure security work is incomplete without Microsoft 365 — Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Identity, and Defender for Office signal feeds Sentinel. We will help you turn on what you already pay for and tune it for your environment.

Ready to harden your posture?

A 30-minute call to scope your environment and the audit or threat model that is driving the work.

Get in touch