Turning off Azure Security Centre to cut monthly operations cost

EnterpriseArchitect 5,036 Reputation points
2020-07-22T07:41:07.79+00:00

How much does it cost for the Azure Security Centre access per month?

My security team has already deployed IBM Q-Radar SIEM and wanted to cut the cost of operating Azure cloud, hence I wonder:

  1. How much does it cost monthly to run Azure Security Centre? [no Azure Sentinel]
  2. What options or method can I turn off, so no data is sent through Azure Security Centre, since all of the VM and services, is forwarded using Azure EventHub to the IBM-QRadar SIEM appliance.

Thank you in advance.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
An Azure service that provides threat protection for workloads running in Azure, on-premises, and in other clouds. Previously known as Azure Security Center and Azure Defender.
1,250 questions
Microsoft Sentinel
Microsoft Sentinel
A scalable, cloud-native solution for security information event management and security orchestration automated response. Previously known as Azure Sentinel.
1,041 questions
Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft Entra ID
A Microsoft Entra identity service that provides identity management and access control capabilities. Replaces Azure Active Directory.
20,366 questions
0 comments

2 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. soumi-MSFT 11,761 Reputation points Microsoft Employee
    2020-07-22T07:58:30.893+00:00

    @EnterpriseArchitect , You can use the Azure Security Center price calculator to get a price estimate based on.

    In order to turn off, you can try disabling the monitoring for the services for which you want it to get disabled. That should prevent the Azure Security Center from Monitoring that service and prevent the cost.

    Another option is you can also change the Pricing tier to "Free" and that would also prevent you from getting charged for Azure Security Center.

    Hope this helps.

    Do let us know if this helps and if there are any more queries around this, please do let us know so that we can help you further. Also, please do not forget to accept the response as Answer; if the above response helped in answering your query.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
  2. Ken Golitin 21 Reputation points
    2020-07-22T08:20:25.377+00:00

    Hi,

    Security Center has 2 tier, the free & the standard tier.

    Go to Security Center then Pricing & Settings. You will see management groups & subscriptions. Some can use the free tier some can use the standard tier.
    If you don't want to pay, downgrade all subscription to the free tier.
    Click on a subscription with the standard tier, on the "Pricing tier" page select "Free" & save.

    Check the calculator to calculate the cost depending on your cloud usage:
    https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/?service=security-center

    Check the pricing of Security Center pricing page as well:
    https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/security-center/

    I don't think it is possible to disable the "Free" part of security center.
    You might be able to disable azure policies used by Security center but i really don't recommend that:
    https://video2.skills-academy.com/en-us/azure/security-center/tutorial-security-policy

    Note, Security Center is not a SIEM like Sentinel. The free tier is totally free and give you some security tips based on policies. You can switch between the free & the standard tier. I don't recommend to try to disable it as it is free and It provides integrated security monitoring.

    When you are in the pricing page and you select the Standard tiers you have some pricing info by resource as well.
    13293-sc.jpg
    Please mark this as answered if it solve your issue.
    Thank you very much.
    Ken

    1 person found this answer helpful.