Every category where a model named Microsoft Defender for IoT for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.

Category	Function	Share	Rank	Negative rate	Labels	Quadrant	Since September 2026
OT and IoT security	Security operations	21%	1 of 107	21%	42	accepted challenger

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for Microsoft Defender for IoT yet. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment and per category, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.

By model

How each model treated Microsoft Defender for IoT across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.

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Model	First choice	Alternative	Mention	Negative	Labels
Claude Haiku 4.5	0	1	1	0	2
GPT-5.4 mini	0	0	0	0	0
Gemini 3.5 Flash	1	3	0	1	5
Perplexity Sonar	0	0	0	2	2
Grok 4.1 Fast	1	1	0	2	4
Mistral Small	0	0	0	1	1
DeepSeek V4 Flash	1	2	1	0	4
Llama 4 Maverick	0	1	1	0	2
Qwen 3.7 Flash	0	0	0	2	2
Kimi K2	2	2	1	0	5
GLM 4.7 FlashX	2	0	2	0	4
MiniMax M2.5	1	1	2	0	4
GPT-6 Luna	1	1	0	1	3
Muse Glimmer 30B	1	3	0	0	4

By framing

Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.

FramingLabels by classFirst choices

Direct15 labels7

Paraphrase24 labels11

Comparative33 labels9not counted in share

Budget-constrained24 labels18

Scale-constrained13 labelsNone

Negative27 labels3not counted in share

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative136 labels in all, every segment counted; 36 of the 48 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.

What the models said for it

Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.

“For most mid-market B2B companies, Microsoft Defender for IoT (if you are a Microsoft shop) or Fortinet (if you use their network hardware) are the most successful starting points” Gemini 3.5 Flash · OT/IoT security · direct prompt · first choice

“For a small company with one OT site and up to 100 devices, I'd start by evaluating Microsoft Defender for IoT's XS site license.” GPT-6 Luna · OT/IoT security · budget prompt · first choice

“I'd suggest starting with Microsoft Defender for IoT ($70-250/month) as the most cost-effective commercial solution” Kimi K2 · OT/IoT security · budget prompt · first choice

“Microsoft Defender for IoT (OT tier) stands out as one of the most affordable commercial OT security platforms” Grok 4.1 Fast · OT/IoT security · budget prompt · first choice

And against it

Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.

“Avoid if budget is tight: Nozomi Networks and Microsoft Defender for IoT” Perplexity Sonar · OT/IoT security · budget prompt · hard negative

“I'd avoid starting a new deployment that depends on this console... That's a caution about the legacy console, not a blanket warning against Microsoft Defender for IoT.” GPT-6 Luna · OT/IoT security · negative prompt · soft negative

“These are IT-security vendors extending into OT. Their effectiveness depends on how well their OT findings integrate with your existing SOC” Mistral Small · OT/IoT security · negative prompt · soft negative

“Microsoft (Sentinel on Stack) and Splunk increasingly have strong OT apps, though often requiring more assembly effort.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · OT/IoT security · scale prompt · soft negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as Microsoft Defender for IoT, over the 134 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Microsoft Defender for IoT was named but was not.

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ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

Claroty xDome108 of 13430Compare →

Nozomi Networks Guardian96 of 13416Compare →

Dragos Platform90 of 13413Compare →

Armis Centrix82 of 1347Compare →

Tenable OT Security43 of 1340Compare →

Forescout Vistaro Platform40 of 1341Not among the top eight

Fortinet OT Security Platform38 of 1344Compare →

Palo Alto Networks15 of 1340Compare →

AWS IoT Device Defender14 of 1340Not among the top eight

Palo Alto Networks IoT/OT Security14 of 1340Not among the top eight

A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.

What carried it into the answer

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Microsoft Defender for IoT. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 133 of the 134 answers that named Microsoft Defender for IoT and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

networkintelligence.ai67

us.fitgap.com56

g2.com55

netwitness.com55

sourceforge.net53

gartner.com42

ciopages.com39

learn.microsoft.comYour site39

opsiocloud.com39

elisity.com37

443 of the 482 domain citations in answers naming Microsoft Defender for IoT came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

networkintelligence.ai/blogs/best-ot-security-services67

netwitness.com/blog/top-operational-technology-security-providers51

ciopages.com/buyer-guides/ot-ics-security39

opsiocloud.com/blogs/ot-security-vendor-selection-guide38

elisity.com/blog/leading-vendors-securing-ot-industrial-control-systems37

guideflow.com/blog/iot-security-solutions33

us.fitgap.com/search/ot-security-tools-software/small-business31

reliamag.com/guides/best-industrial-cybersecurity-platforms-ot-ics-security-202630

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Search and answers

Where Microsoft Defender for IoT stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.

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In search

Google, US estimates

Searches for its name, Google: 140 a month (“microsoft defender for iot”)
AI search demand for its name, est.: 4 a month
Its own site: It sits on Microsoft's site (microsoft.com), so there are no site figures for it alone

In answers

This edition

Share of first choices

21%

rank 1 of 107 in ot/iot security

First choices

across its categories

Named in: 134 answers
Its own site cited: in 133 of the answers that named it

Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read October 5, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.

Names read as Microsoft Defender for IoT

What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Microsoft Defender for IoT; a claim can dispute any of them.

Microsoft 2Microsoft (Sentinel on Stack) 1Microsoft Defender for IoT (OT tier) 1Microsoft Defender for IoT (formerly CyberX) 1

Follow Microsoft Defender for IoT

An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.

Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.

The company

Microsoft is the company behind Microsoft Defender for IoT.

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On record

Company records

Also from Microsoft: Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Admin Center, Microsoft 365 Administration, Microsoft 365 Backup, Microsoft 365 Compliance Center, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, Microsoft 365 DSC and 164 more

Is this your product?

Claim this page

Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Microsoft Defender for IoT's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Microsoft Defender for IoT, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.

What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives

A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for Microsoft Defender for IoT by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:

where Microsoft Defender for IoT is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
who was chosen in the answers that did not name Microsoft Defender for IoT, and every reason the record gives;
a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.

Badges

Wins only: a badge exists where Microsoft Defender for IoT is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.

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AI models recommend Microsoft Defender for IoT first in OT and IoT security this edition. Each badge says so in the buyer's words, names the edition, and links to the standing. The next edition issues a new badge; this one stays true as a record of October 2026.

Wide · 320 × 104 Website, beside other badges

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/security/ot-and-iot-security/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/microsoft-defender-for-iot--ot-and-iot-security-wide.svg" alt="AI models' first choice in OT and IoT security, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="320" height="104"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the OT and IoT security standing, where the claim can be checked.

Square · 240 × 240 LinkedIn, slides

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/security/ot-and-iot-security/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/microsoft-defender-for-iot--ot-and-iot-security-square.svg" alt="AI models' first choice in OT and IoT security, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="240" height="240"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the OT and IoT security standing, where the claim can be checked.

Compact · 200 × 56 Email signature, footer

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/security/ot-and-iot-security/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/microsoft-defender-for-iot--ot-and-iot-security-compact.svg" alt="AI models' first choice in OT and IoT security, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="200" height="56"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the OT and IoT security standing, where the claim can be checked.

Badges read on light and dark pages. Alt text carries the claim, the category, the edition and the index, so it stays a citation where the image does not load.