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Alterion and
Microsoft Agent 365
Agent 365 extends Microsoft's controls to agents in the Microsoft 365 tenant. Alterion governs what every agent does at runtime, on any cloud or device, with zero data egress and no code changes.
Updated November 2026
How our principles create differences with products like this.
Alterion was designed around six of them from day one, purely for AI agents. Add-ons bolt agent features onto suites built for something else, and point tools handle one slice; Alterion covers the whole job as a single system.
Comparison
These principles create some differences with Microsoft Agent 365
Discover, not register
No SDK
Reduce friction
Under 100 ms
Keep data sovereignty
Zero data egress
Shadow agents, governed from day one
Alterion finds every agent where it runs, with no code changes. Agent 365 covers agents enrolled with Microsoft; the rest need its SDK first.
Risky actions stopped before they run
Alterion checks every prompt, action and response in line, before it runs. Agent 365 relies on Defender, with some protections still in preview.
Source code stays inside the enterprise
Alterion installs on-prem or air-gapped, so prompts and agent activity never leave enterprise infrastructure. Agent 365 runs in Microsoft's cloud.
The first principle
Never slow productivity down
Having led development teams, the founders made this non-negotiable. Security that slows teams down gets bypassed or switched off, so Alterion keeps up with agents with no SDKs or code changes.
01Discover, not register
Single-point tools watch one checkpoint and see only the agents that pass it. Alterion's sensors find every agent where it runs, so shadow and vendor agents are covered from day one.
02Follow behavior
Fixed rules overlook an agent misusing valid access. Alterion's Helix models learn each agent's usual patterns and stop one acting out of character before the action runs.
03Reduce friction
Slow checks get switched off. Alterion's checks finish in under 100 ms and need no code changes, so protection remains on and developers ship at full pace.
04Keep data sovereignty
Cloud inspection sends prompts outside the company. Alterion installs on-prem or air-gapped with zero data egress, so IP and customer records stay in-house, which regulated industries often require.
05Unify the controls
Another console adds another rulebook. One Alterion policy spans the endpoint, SaaS, gateway and identity controls already in place, so every agent answers to the same standard.
06Be complete
Point products handle one slice and leave the seams to the buyer. Alterion puts discovery, enforcement, audit and cost in one platform, so auditors get evidence on request and spend is always in view.
Side by side
A feature-by-feature comparison
Alterion and Microsoft Agent 365 on all eleven points.
Alterion
365Microsoft Agent 365
What it is
Control plane for agents, managed in the Microsoft 365 admin center
Strongest in
Agents across AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, SaaS, containers and employee devices
Microsoft-built and prebuilt agents in the Microsoft 365 tenant
Other agents
Governed with no code changes or SDKs
Agent 365 SDK; governance depth for LangChain and CrewAI more limited at launch
Shadow agents
Multi-sensor fabric across devices, SaaS, containers and serverless, each agent tied to a host and owner
Microsoft-built, partner and self-registered agents; agents built elsewhere need extra steps
Existing tools
Unifies the endpoint, SaaS, gateway and identity controls already in place into one control plane
Extends Microsoft's own Entra, Purview and Defender to agents
Intelligence
Helix small language models run inside enterprise infrastructure and learn the environment; customer data never trains Alterion's models
Microsoft Defender threat detection, run in Microsoft's cloud
Runtime
Real-time guardrails on every prompt, action and response, including MCP and function calls
Defender detects and blocks unsafe actions; some protections still in preview
Drift
Learns each agent's purpose and baseline, and flags divergence before it executes
Usage analytics and threat detection through Defender
Devices
Aquila covers coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor), browser AI and local agents
Defender protection for local agents on Windows, in public preview
Deployment
VPC, on-prem, data center or air-gapped, with zero data egress
Microsoft cloud tenant
Compliance
Live posture mapped to SOC 2, ISO 42001, NIST AI RMF, HIPAA and the EU AI Act
Purview audit, DLP and sensitivity labels
Microsoft details from Microsoft's public documentation and announcements, as of October 2026.
The verdict
Which one fits the estate
Choose Alterion when
- Agents already run across clouds, vendors and employee devices
- Every prompt, action and response needs a decision before it runs
- Prompts and agent data have to stay inside the enterprise, with zero data egress
Running both
Enterprises with agents beyond Microsoft keep Entra, Purview and Defender in place and add Alterion as the one runtime policy over every agent.
In productionAlterion runs alongside Microsoft 365 and Copilot Studio at Fortune 500 manufacturers. At a Fortune 100 manufacturer it found more than 15,000 shadow agents in 24 hours, and in a regulated enterprise Helix and a kill switch stop IP leakage and agent drift.
Choose Agent 365 when
- Agents live almost entirely in the Microsoft 365 tenant
- Copilot Studio and Foundry are the only build platforms in use
- Governance in the Microsoft 365 admin center is enough
Microsoft 365
Already invested in Microsoft 365?
Alterion works alongside it. Identity, DLP and security tools stay authoritative, and Alterion adds one runtime policy that holds Microsoft agents and every other agent to the same rules, wherever they run.
In production
Already running at Fortune 500 enterprises.
In regulated industries, on live agent traffic.
Production deployments
Fortune 500 manufacturers, financial institutions, and healthcare companies trust Alterion
Alterion has discovered tens of thousands of agents that were never registered across SaaS, containers, and endpoints, including 20,000 Co-pilot agents in a single estate.
3 days
Average time to deploy Alterion
24 hours
Average time to discover first agents
0
Agent code changes or SDKs
Why this matters
What the principles deliver in practice.
Control shadow agents
An unregistered agent is found, mapped to an owner and brought under policy while it acts.
The full agent estate
Sanctioned, third-party and never registered, in one inventory with permissions and blast radius.
Enforced at runtime
Each action is evaluated as it begins and gets a verdict: allow, escalate or block.
Sovereign by design
Payloads, logs and risk signals stay inside the enterprise and leave only with its consent.
Keep reading
The full comparison
In depth
Choosing an AI Agent Control Plane: Alterion and Microsoft Agent 365 Compared
Every difference in detail: what each product is, the seven areas where they diverge, total cost of ownership, and which leaders each one serves.
All comparisons
How Alterion compares
Alterion side by side with the platforms enterprises already run, one page per vendor.
Before deciding
Frequently asked questions
What is Alterion?
Alterion is an independent runtime control plane for AI agents. It discovers every agent in the enterprise, including shadow agents, and governs what each one does at execution time across clouds, SaaS platforms and employee devices.
How does Alterion find shadow agents?
Alterion uses a multi-sensor fabric across devices, SaaS, containers and serverless workloads. It attributes each agent to a host and an owner with no agent code changes or SDK integrations needed. Customers have seen the first undeclared agents within two days of deployment.
How does Alterion enforce policy at runtime?
Alterion applies real-time preventative guardrails on every prompt, action and response including the MCP and function-calling step. It blocks the bad action, not the whole agent, so everything else the agent is allowed to do keeps running. Responses escalate through a ladder: flag, quarantine the session, block the user, block the agent, notify incident response.
Can Alterion govern Microsoft 365 agents?
Yes. Alterion governs Microsoft 365 agents alongside agents on other clouds and identity providers, holding them all to one policy.
How does Alterion work with my existing security tools?
Alterion fits in alongside the tools you already run, including identity providers, DLP, SIEM, SOAR and GRC.
It pulls their signals into one view and adds runtime enforcement where they leave gaps. Nothing gets ripped out or replaced.
Does Alterion govern AI on employee devices?
Yes. Aquila enforces Alterion policies on employee devices, covering coding agents like Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, browser AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity, and local agents.
For coding agents, evaluation runs on-device and raw prompts and source code never leave the device by default.
How is Alterion priced?
Alterion uses custom enterprise pricing. Talk to the team for a quote.
Does Alterion require code changes or an SDK?
No. Alterion discovers and governs agents with no code changes, SDKs or agent rewrites, so agent owners don't have to do anything differently.
Where does Alterion run?
Alterion deploys on-prem, in your own environment. It runs air-gapped, with zero data egress. Its Helix models learn your environment over time, and nothing reaches an external provider or returns to Alterion for model training.
Which compliance frameworks does Alterion support?
Alterion generates audit-ready evidence mapped to SOC 2, ISO 42001, NIST AI RMF, HIPAA and the EU AI Act, and integrates with GRC, SIEM and SOAR tools.
