CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Cayosoft vs CrowdStrike

Cayosoft sells products for managing and protecting Microsoft environments, covering security and control across Active Directory, Azure AD, Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online. CrowdStrike sells the Falcon platform, a set of security products and services that the company says combines security data, AI intelligence, automation and expertise to stop breaches. CISO Tribune files both under Identity threat detection and response. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Cayosoft
  • CrowdStrike
Cayosoft vs CrowdStrike: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
CayosoftCayosoft sells products for managing and protecting Microsoft environments, covering security and control across Active Directory, Azure AD, Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online.cayosoft.comCrowdStrikeCrowdStrike sells the Falcon platform, a set of security products and services that the company says combines security data, AI intelligence, automation and expertise to stop breaches.crowdstrike.com
What it sells
  • Cayosoft Guardian Audit & Restore[5]Monitors all directory changes and lets administrators roll back those changes.
  • Guardian Protector[4][5]A free, agentless tool for continuous monitoring and real-time threat detection.
  • Cayosoft Management and Protection Suite[6]A suite that includes Cayosoft Administrator and Cayosoft Guardian standard.
  • Cayosoft Group Policy Management[12]Governs, documents and restores GPO changes across every domain.
  • Endpoint Security[1][5]Combines adversary intelligence and AI to stop breaches.
  • Next-Gen Identity Security[1][5]Continuous identity security for human, non-human and AI identities.
  • Cloud Security[1][5]A CNAPP with unified agent and agentless protection, from code to cloud.
  • SaaS Security[5]SSPM with visibility into identities and misconfigurations.
  • Exposure Management[5]Unified exposure management with attack surface visibility and vulnerability management.
  • Falcon Complete[5]24/7 managed detection and response (MDR).
Categories
Headquarters
Westerville, United States[1]Austin, United States[4]
Founded
Not stated on its pages2011[3]
Ownership and funding
Privately held[4]Public (NASDAQ: CRWD)[2][9]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
Not stated on its pages
  • November 4, 2026CrowdStrike launched a sovereign cloud deployment in Saudi Arabia, bringing the Falcon platform to the Kingdom with in-country data residency.[19]
  • November 2, 2026CrowdStrike appointed Roland Stritt as vice president, Europe alliances.[20]
  • August 31, 2026CrowdStrike announced the launch of its Falcon IQ product.[6]
  • August 5, 2026CrowdStrike announced a $100,000 AI security challenge run in collaboration with Amazon Web Services.[7]
  • July 15, 2026CrowdStrike appointed AJ Shipley as its Chief Product Officer.[8]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 5, 2026[9]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
Not written yetFrom its own pages, CrowdStrike addresses organisations with fragmented security tools that it proposes to replace with the Falcon platform. Falcon Go is presented for businesses that want AI-powered antivirus against ransomware and breaches. CrowdStrike services are presented for organisations preparing for, responding to and recovering from breaches, and for teams that want to advance their security maturity. Charlotte AI is presented for SOC analysts who need unified cross-domain context to investigate. CrowdStrike also addresses organisations deploying AI agents, from deployment to runtime.
Last verified
September 27, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Cayosoft and CrowdStrike are both filed under Identity threat detection and response.
  • Both are headquartered in the United States.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Cayosoft's primary category is Directory backup and recovery; CrowdStrike's is EDR and XDR.
  • Cayosoft is also filed under Identity governance and administration. CrowdStrike is also filed under Cloud-native application protection (CNAPP).
  • Cayosoft lists Cayosoft Guardian Audit & Restore, Guardian Protector, Cayosoft Management and Protection Suite and Cayosoft Group Policy Management. CrowdStrike lists Endpoint Security, Next-Gen Identity Security, Cloud Security, SaaS Security, Exposure Management and 1 more.
  • Cayosoft is headquartered in Westerville, United States. CrowdStrike is headquartered in Austin, United States.
  • CrowdStrike was founded in 2011.
  • Cayosoft is privately held. CrowdStrike is a public company listed on NASDAQ as CRWD.

What it sells: Cayosoft

What Cayosoft Guardian Audit & Restore does[5]
Cayosoft Guardian Audit & Restore monitors all directory changes and lets administrators roll back those changes. Cayosoft Guardian Audit & Restore is for recovering and protecting Active Directory and hybrid AD data.
What Cayosoft Management and Protection Suite does[6]
The Cayosoft Management and Protection Suite includes Cayosoft Administrator and Cayosoft Guardian standard, to manage, monitor and recover hybrid Microsoft directories, users, groups and other critical objects and settings. The suite can be expanded by adding Cayosoft Guardian Forest Recovery, which protects Active Directory from ransomware and other full forest directory outages.
What Cayosoft Group Policy Management does[12]
Cayosoft Group Policy Management governs, documents and restores GPO changes across every domain. Each GPO moves through edit, check-in, submit, approve and deploy steps so that only approved policy reaches Active Directory. Each checked-in version is archived rather than overwritten, supporting comparison, documentation, rollback to a known-good state and audit review.

What it sells: CrowdStrike

What Next-Gen Identity Security does[1][5]
Next-Gen Identity Security is continuous identity security. It covers human, non-human and AI identities.
What Cloud Security does[1][5]
Cloud Security is a CNAPP. It offers unified agent and agentless protection, from code to cloud.
What SaaS Security does[5]
SaaS Security is SSPM. It delivers deep visibility into identities and misconfigurations.
What Exposure Management does[5]
Exposure Management is unified exposure management. It offers complete attack surface visibility and AI-powered vulnerability management.
What Falcon Complete does[5]
Falcon Complete is a managed detection and response (MDR) service. It runs 24/7 and is described as stopping breaches across the entire attack surface.

Questions about Cayosoft and CrowdStrike

What do Cayosoft and CrowdStrike sell?
Cayosoft sells Cayosoft Guardian Audit & Restore, Guardian Protector, Cayosoft Management and Protection Suite and Cayosoft Group Policy Management. CrowdStrike sells Endpoint Security, Next-Gen Identity Security, Cloud Security, SaaS Security, Exposure Management and 1 more.
Are Cayosoft and CrowdStrike in the same category?
They share Identity threat detection and response. Cayosoft's primary category is Directory backup and recovery and CrowdStrike's is EDR and XDR.
Where are Cayosoft and CrowdStrike headquartered?
Cayosoft is headquartered in Westerville, United States. CrowdStrike is headquartered in Austin, United States.
When were Cayosoft and CrowdStrike founded?
CrowdStrike was founded in 2011.
Who owns Cayosoft and CrowdStrike?
Cayosoft is privately held. CrowdStrike is a public company listed on NASDAQ as CRWD.
Who are Cayosoft and CrowdStrike sold to?
From its own pages, CrowdStrike addresses organisations with fragmented security tools that it proposes to replace with the Falcon platform.
What have Cayosoft and CrowdStrike announced recently?
November 4, 2026: CrowdStrike launched a sovereign cloud deployment in Saudi Arabia, bringing the Falcon platform to the Kingdom with in-country data residency.

About Cayosoft

Cayosoft sells products for managing and protecting Microsoft environments, covering security and control across Active Directory, Azure AD, Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online. Cayosoft products are designed for any step in the journey to Microsoft 365. Cayosoft solutions are purpose-built to help manage and protect Microsoft environments that are on-premises, hybrid or Microsoft 365-only. Cayosoft licenses its products by subscription.[5][6]

Cayosoft Administrator offers role-based delegation, rule-based automation, self-service and Microsoft 365 license optimization. Cayosoft Administrator enables IT teams to manage hybrid environments through a single interface. Cayosoft Administrator is a unified TrueHybrid management solution for control over administrators and help desk staff who make changes to Microsoft enterprise systems. Granular Roles and Rules limit administrators to authorized tasks.[5][7]

Cayosoft Administrator comes with more than 125 pre-built templates and requires no extra SQL, LDAP or synchronization. Administrators can run real-time reports on Office 365 or schedule those reports for e-mail delivery, local storage or shared storage. Cayosoft provides pre and post-collection filtering, and reports can be viewed in email, Excel or CSV. Cayosoft offers user-enabled password resets so that users can remedy lockouts without IT assistance. Direct report management lets users update their own attributes and those of subordinates in a web-based self-service portal. Cayosoft puts on-premises AD and Office 365 into one interface for help desk admins, with filtered access to only the necessary tasks.[8][9]

Inclusion Rules define the list of users that must be in a group, and Exclusion Rules define the list of users who should never be in it. Group membership updates can be triggered by events like user provisioning or user deprovisioning, or run on a schedule. Built-in group membership queries can be added to group membership rules to update any Microsoft group type, from Active Directory and Exchange to Azure AD and Microsoft 365 Groups. Self-service group management lets distribution list, application and data owners manage who has access to their resources. Cayosoft Administrator brings Teams administration with delegation, automatically updated groups and Teams membership, telephony management and policy assignment control. Cayosoft manages the available phone numbers, reclaims numbers when users leave and assigns Teams user policies required for Direct Routing. Cayosoft can alert and roll back undesired changes when they are detected.[10][11]

Cayosoft Guardian Audit & Restore monitors all directory changes and lets administrators roll back those changes. Recovery scenarios covered include AD object and attribute, partition, domain controller and forest recovery. Cayosoft supports cutting over to a clean, isolated, standby forest. Guardian Protector is a free, agentless tool that delivers continuous monitoring, real-time threat detection and audit-ready visibility across Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID and key Microsoft 365 services, without time limits or object caps. Cayosoft monitors human and non-human identity activity and supports rollback.[2][5]

The Cayosoft Management and Protection Suite is purpose-built for modern Microsoft environments. The Cayosoft Management and Protection Suite includes Cayosoft Administrator and Cayosoft Guardian standard, to manage, monitor and recover hybrid Microsoft directories, users, groups and other critical objects and settings. The suite can be expanded by adding Cayosoft Guardian Forest Recovery, which protects Active Directory from ransomware and other full forest directory outages.[5][6]

Cayosoft Group Policy Management governs, documents and restores GPO changes across every domain. Each GPO moves through edit, check-in, submit, approve and deploy steps so that only approved policy reaches Active Directory. Active Directory remains unchanged until an approved version is explicitly deployed. Each checked-in version is archived rather than overwritten, supporting comparison, documentation, rollback to a known-good state and audit review. Editing, approval and export or deployment rights can be assigned to different users or groups. Microsoft ended support for Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) on April 14, 2026, with no direct successor. Cayosoft provides a supported approach to Group Policy management with check-in and check-out, approvals, version control, role delegation, analysis, rollback and multi-domain governance.[12]

Cayosoft serves school districts and universities of all sizes, for students, faculty and staff. Cayosoft Administrator provides automated account provisioning and deprovisioning, group management, role-based delegation and group-based license assignment. A large U.S. state replaced a legacy AD management tool with Cayosoft Administrator. The IRS consolidated multiple identity management tools into Cayosoft.[2][3][13][14]

Cayosoft on the record

Sources

Cayosoft full record

  1. [1]AboutCayosoft · cayosoft.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]cayosoft.comCayosoft · cayosoft.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Cayosoft achieves record sales company growthCayosoft · cayosoft.com · published April 17, 2024 · Tier A
  4. [4]Cayosoft – Hybrid Active Directory Management & Recovery PlatformCayosoft · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Products - CayosoftCayosoft · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Manage and Protect Microsoft AD and O365 for EnterprisesCayosoft · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Hybrid Active Directory and Office 365 AdministrationCayosoft · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Active Directory Reporting - Unified AD ReportingCayosoft · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Hybrid Microsoft AD Self-Service and Help DeskCayosoft · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Dynamic Groups - CayosoftCayosoft · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Microsoft Teams ManagementCayosoft · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Group Policy Management That Controls Every Change | Cayosoft Group Policy ManagementCayosoft · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Manage and Protect Microsoft AD and O365 for K-12 school districts and higher educationCayosoft · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Manage and Protect Microsoft AD and O365 for state, local and federal governmentCayosoft · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

CrowdStrike full record

  1. [1]En usCrowdStrike · crowdstrike.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Crowdstrike named leader proactive security platformsCrowdStrike · crowdstrike.com · published September 24, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]57ccf214 5349 45de bac1 644b5d2ae0a5CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. via SEC EDGAR · ir.crowdstrike.com · published June 4, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]717b7579 e6fc 4864 af98 9523d5d4fecbCrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. via SEC EDGAR (Form 10-K) · ir.crowdstrike.com · published March 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]CrowdStrike: We Stop Breaches with AI-native CybersecurityCrowdStrike · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]CrowdStrike Launches Falcon IQ to Operationalize Project QuiltWorks at Machine SpeedCrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. · published August 31, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]CrowdStrike Announces $100,000 International AI Security ChallengeCrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. · published August 5, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]CrowdStrike Appoints AJ Shipley as Chief Product OfficerCrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. · published July 15, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]CrowdStrike Falcon Endpoint Protection PlatformG2 · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier C
  10. [10]The CrowdStrike Falcon® Platform | Unified Agentic SecurityCrowdStrike · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]AI Agent Security | Secure Autonomous AI Agents | CrowdStrikeCrowdStrike · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Falcon Observe | CrowdStrikeCrowdStrike · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Charlotte AI: Agentic Analyst for CybersecurityCrowdStrike · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Threat Intelligence & Hunting | CrowdStrikeCrowdStrike · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Managed and On-Demand Cybersecurity Services | CrowdStrikeCrowdStrike · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]Cybersecurity Consulting Services | CrowdStrikeCrowdStrike · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]CrowdStrike Falcon® Operational Support ServicesCrowdStrike · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  18. [18]CrowdStrike Deployment FAQ | CrowdStrikeCrowdStrike · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  19. [19]CrowdStrike Launches Sovereign Cloud in Saudi Arabia, Bringing AI-Native Cybersecurity to the KingdomCrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. · published November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  20. [20]CrowdStrike Appoints Cybersecurity Industry Veteran Roland Stritt to Accelerate European Alliance GrowthCrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. · published November 2, 2026 · Tier A

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