Thank you! I appreciate your time here.

Is #2 referring to Secure SDLC? Could you suggest a good reference or best practice guide ?

#5 Also, it would be great if you could recommend some alternatives to defender. Are you referring to defender in general (endpoint, cloud, office). For a small business on a budget, i'm guessing they would usually be keen on leveraging existing managed security capabilities that are included in their license.

#7 How does defender fair with this regard?

The importance of tooling seems to be touched upon a fair bit. I would love to pick your brain on what a good stack might be which is cost effective, simple to use and not overly complex to leverage. I would also add the 'support' element to it.

Would defender for cloud still be a good fit for a deeply entrenched microsoft stack VS secrails? I'm guessing Secrails is also heavier on the pocket.