Engineering Resilience: EPAM & Microsoft’s Unified Security Approach
In today’s complex threat landscape, cybersecurity must be intelligent and adaptive enough to match the demands of the ever-evolving technical landscape. For global enterprises navigating this reality, the collaboration between EPAM Systems and Microsoft represents a critical combination of deep industry expertise and cutting-edge platform innovation that is designed to help organizations build a truly resilient defense.
Below, Karl Ots, Head of Cloud Security at EPAM, shares more about EPAM’s recent membership in the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA), the benefits of a unified, engineering-led security approach in fostering enterprise resilience and the expanding role of AI in modern defense strategies. A patented inventor, author and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in Security, Ots has been working with Microsoft Azure since 2011.
A Globally Recognized Partnership Built on EPAM Engineering DNA
Ots emphasizes the core value of EPAM and Microsoft’s approach lies in how technology is approached. "EPAM engineers Microsoft Security as a platform built to scale, recover and evolve with the business," he explained. It’s a philosophy that moves beyond implementing an individual security tool and focuses instead on deep integration across the entire technology stack.
He stressed that EPAM helps clients transform their security posture. "We help clients turn Microsoft Security into an integrated, enterprise-scale security platform," Ots said. This means guiding organizations away from disjointed point solutions that create noise and complexity. The goal is to create a unified ecosystem where every component works together to support broader business objectives, delivering clarity and strength.
What does this partnership look like in action for clients? A large global financial services institution engaged EPAM after regulatory audit findings exposed gaps in its Azure cloud security posture. EPAM was brought in to redesign and extend the security reference architecture to the cloud, harmonizing policies, establishing clear security guardrails and defining operational procedures that met CISO requirements without adding operational friction. The result was a unified, production‑ready cloud security platform that enabled secure end‑user computing at scale and allowed the client to successfully close its regulatory audit findings.
An Ecosystem of Trust: EPAM Joins MISA
As part of our commitment, EPAM recently became a member of Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA), an ecosystem of trusted security vendors. Ots highlighted the deeper alignment it signifies: "MISA reinforces EPAM’s role as a Microsoft-aligned partner that helps clients engineer and operate security as a unified system," he noted. "For customers, it signals closer ecosystem alignment and a partner focused on long-term, real-world security outcomes."
This membership is a testament to EPAM's capability to integrate deeply with Microsoft's security fabric. It assures clients that EPAM is working within the inner circle of the ecosystem to deliver optimized protection.
"MISA membership reflects the world-class maturity of EPAM’s security services," Ots stated. "It combines deep Microsoft expertise with the ability to design, rebuild, and operate security platforms at scale." He underscored that this recognition identifies EPAM as a partner that delivers security engineered for resilience, not just for the initial deployment. While many partners can set up a solution, EPAM’s focus is on ensuring that the solution remains robust and effective as the threat landscape evolves.
Leveraging Microsoft Security Solutions for Unified Defense
A key part of the strategy involves how EPAM utilizes and integrates specific Microsoft Security solutions like Sentinel and Microsoft Defender XDR. Ots described a holistic approach. "We engineer Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender XDR as part of a unified security platform. We do this by connecting detection, response, automation and threat intelligence so signals translate into faster, more confident action at scale."
By applying security engineering and AI-assisted automation to these platforms, EPAM optimizes detections, accelerates migrations from legacy systems, and enables measurable improvements in response effectiveness. Treating these powerful tools as connected parts of a whole reduces alert fatigue and allows security teams to focus on what truly matters: stopping threats.
A Forward Look at AI and Emerging Threats
The conversation naturally shifted to the future, particularly how the EPAM-Microsoft partnership will address the next wave of sophisticated cyber threats powered by AI. "AI-driven threats change the game," Ots asserted. "They demand engineered security platforms instead of governance and checklists. You cannot manual-process your way out of an automated attack."
EPAM helps enterprises design security systems that can learn, scale and recover, ensuring that their defenses keep pace with AI-powered attackers. This is more important than ever as AI reshapes how software is built and operated. The accelerated engineering velocity and increased code volume from AI-assisted development create a surge in vulnerabilities and alerts.
"Security processes, however, were designed for a slower world and have not scaled at the same pace," Ots continued, "leading to growing backlogs, increased exposure and developer friction."
"At EPAM, we believe the only viable path forward is letting security move at the same speed, using AI," he stated. "We treat AI as a baseline capability of modern security operations that reduces toil, automates high-volume work and allows human experts to focus on real risk." At events like RSAC 2026, EPAM is demonstrating how this principle comes to life across autonomous SOC operations and agent-driven application security, showing how security can scale with AI without sacrificing control or governance.
Ots offered a final piece of advice for organizations looking to strengthen their security posture with Microsoft technologies. "After major incidents, restoring systems isn’t enough. Organizations should use the moment to rebuild security foundations; this is where an engineering-led security platform makes the difference.” He recommended using these opportunities to consolidate onto Microsoft’s platform and build a security posture that is secure by design from the ground up.
