Cutting Through the Noise: EDR, XDR, MDR, and SIEM Explained

Is AI automation really more efficient than manual work? We break down the costs, time savings, and long-term benefits of AI-driven processes compared to traditional methods to help you make an informed decision.

EDR

Endpoint Detection and Response

Security focused on endpoints (laptops, servers, mobile devices). Detects malicious activity and gives tools to investigate/respond.

✅ Advantages	❌ Disadvantages
Strong visibility into device specific attacks	Limited to endpoints (no email, cloud, or identity visibility)
Provides strong basic level security for organizations	Visibility / detections can vary greatly between vendors
	Behavioral detections may require some expertise to confirm

XDR

Extended Detection & Response

Evolving from EDR that integrates multiple security datasets to include endpoint, identity, cloud, and network into a single platform.

✅ Advantages	❌ Disadvantages
Unified visibility across different attack surfaces	Usually heavily tied into a single vendor’s ecosystem
Helps reduce false positives by through correlation of multiple datasets	Less flexible than a SIEM (think “walled garden”)
	May need analysts to interpret detections or configure

MDR

Managed Detection & Response

A managed service (often built on top of EDR/XDR tooling) where a provider monitors, investigates, and responds to security detections on behalf of your team.

✅ Advantages	❌ Disadvantages
24/7 monitoring without need for security personnel	Outsourced detections (great for small teams)
Faster incident response & with expert analysts	Quality and tooling varies widely between MDR providers
Cheaper than hiring hiring internal team	Not all integrations are accepted by all MDR providers

SIEM

Security Information and Event Management

A centralized platform that ingests and analyzes logs from multiple datasources to include endpoint, cloud, firewall, etc. This platform is much more customizable than XDR and includes custom detection capabilities.

✅ Advantages	❌ Disadvantages
Broadest visibility - you can log virtually anything	Manual setup and tuning effort, will need security expertise
Highly customizable for detections, reporting, and querying	Some detections out of the box but will need tuning
Typically needed for any business that needs compliance	Will grow with data volume and can become costly

*DR

Other Detection and Response

Other Detection & Response platforms to include Cloud Detection & Response (CDR), Network Detection & Response (NDR), and Identity Threat Detection & Response (ITDR) are more specific solutions for their attack surface

✅ Advantages	❌ Disadvantages
Highly specific detections for their attack surface	Sometimes bundled into XDR platforms and are no longer add-ons
Detects misconfigurations along with suspicious activity	Need to insure that it integrates with current security stack
	May begin to overlap with other tooling that you pay for

Forging Your Path

Businesses evolve and so do your threats. As the business expands your security stacks needs to evolve with it. Where you begin today won’t be where you need to be tomorrow.