With AI-powered threats on the rise, managed service providers (MSPs) and managed intelligence providers (MIPs) need to act accordingly to bolster their clients’ cybersecurity. But in the AI era, which is best: EDR, MDR or XDR security? In this blog, we’ll explore what each of these forms of managed security entails.
What Is EDR security?
EDR (endpoint detection and response) security was first coined by Gartner analyst Anton Chuvakin a decade ago and has become a valuable cybersecurity solution for many businesses ever since because because it offers a comprehensive view of the endpoint environment (meaning computers, mobile devices, sensors, etc.). With real-time visibility into the endpoint’s behavior and activity, EDR can detect and respond to advance threats that previously could elude traditional security solutions. EDR solutions are designed to respond to threats quickly and effectively and can automatically quarantine or isolate infected endpoints to contain the spread of the threat and remediate affected systems.
In addition, EDR solutions are highly configurable and can be tailored to meet specific security requirements. This allows organizations to customize the solution to meet their unique security needs.
By providing detailed analytics and reporting that can help organizations understand the threat landscape, these organizations can make more informed decisions about their security posture at an endpoint level. It also offers great telemetry about suspected threats and easy actions to quarantine and remove the root cause, allowing for effective device security posture if managed well by expert humans.
It’s easy to see why EDR threat detection solutions became popular and why they continue to furnish businesses with valuable risk reduction. The global EDR market reached roughly $5 billion in 2025 and could exceed $15 billion by 2030, highlighting the growing importance of endpoint threat detection and automated response capabilities.
How Does EDR work?
EDR is purpose-built to go beyond detection-based, reactive cyber defense. Instead, it enables security analysts to be able to proactively identify these threats. Here’s how:
- Improved visibility: EDR collects data and analytics continuously, then reports that data to a centralized system to ensure full visibility into the state of the network’s endpoints from a single console.
- More efficient action: The data and collection processes allow an organization’s security team to act quickly, a critical benefit because with most cybersecurity threats, time is of the essence. The faster a single endpoint compromise can be detected and stopped, the quicker the damage can be reduced, allowing the business to continue its operations.
- Threat hunting and analytics: EDR enables advanced threat hunting, which actively searches for vulnerabilities and security threats instead of waiting to be triggered, and real-time analytics, which provide instant analysis to assess what damage was done or whether the alert actually broke a preconfigured rule. Modern EDR solutions also increasingly leverage AI and machine learning to identify suspicious behavior and help security teams prioritize threats more efficiently. While automation can accelerate detection and response, your expertise remains critical for investigation and remediation.
- Automation: Businesses can activate pre-configured incident rules to restrict suspicious activity, which can also automatically handle specific incident response tasks. This enables the solution to remediate certain incidents, which, in turn, reduces the load on security analysts. These pre-configured “blast radius” reduction rules and actions can augment defensibility and help MSPs show due diligence in their role to protect clients’ sensitive data as well as their own.
Fast-spreading, self-propagating attacks that move rapidly between hosts, or botnets that harness the power of multiple hosts to fuel a Distributed Denial of Service attack targeting another victim network, are now entrenched realities of the cybersecurity world. Worse, however, is a growing class of actors that are actively trying to bypass EDR and security controls. Attackers are also increasingly targeting user identities, cloud applications, and both sanctioned and unsanctioned shadow AI tools, creating risks that may extend beyond the endpoint itself.
Although all endpoint threat detection systems possess automated functions, they still require close supervision and handling by trained in-house cybersecurity personnel. The skills gap across numerous areas of IT (including security) complicates this, and can make it difficult for EDR to achieve the pinnacle of threat protection and risk reduction. In the current cyber threat landscape, tools like EDR can result in vast capabilities and posture — or severe limitations — for organizations, based upon the skills and capabilities of the humans managing the EDR console.
What Is MDR?
Managed detection and response (MDR) is not a single solution but rather a suite of security services. Often, this includes EDR software and some elements that EDR users might find familiar, plus a few additions: proactive threat hunting tools, systems to prioritize and amplify the most urgent cyberthreat alerts, integration into the MSP ticketing system for appropriate SLA Management, and more. Specifics depend on what a given MDR company has to offer, the maturity of their platform and the depth of integration with the partner delivering it.
Most important of all, MDR is best defined by the first word of its unabbreviated form: “Managed.” Through the MSP, the vendor providing the MDR service offers continuous monitoring and response to the organization from a dedicated team of cybersecurity experts, allowing the MSP’s own staff to focus on the needs of their partner.
The solution’s component parts give the end user considerable visibility into the threat and vulnerability landscape, surrounding it without worrying about directly controlling its security operations. These factors separate MDR from SOC-as-a-service (security operations center), which doesn’t necessarily offer as much visibility — often only a basic portal for certain interactions. Demand for MDR continues to grow as organizations face increasingly sophisticated threats, ongoing cybersecurity skills shortages, and the need for 24/7 monitoring and response. Recent estimates put the global MDR market at approximately $4 billion to $6 billion, with double-digit annual growth expected through the end of the decade.
Another pervasive problem that plagues IT teams is managing the massive amount of cybersecurity alerts that they must confront on a day-to-day basis. The challenge is compounded by evolving attack techniques, including AI-assisted phishing, social engineering, and identity-based attacks that can generate more alerts and require faster analysis. As endpoints proliferate in the forms of IoT, remote workers, connected supply chain partners and hybrid networks, the problem becomes that much more pervasive.
Establishing how best to respond to each alert requires the kind of large-scale scope and expertise that many organizations simply cannot sustain in-house and can lead to “alert fatigue” for organizations who do not use MDR. These companies must have the right skillsets, leveraging the right technology at the right time to remediate it before it evolves into a potentially serious breach, no matter when it happens.
That’s where MDR steps in.
How Does MDR Work?
With this service, organizations can provide 24/7 coverage and access to expertise that would be extremely difficult to find and staff independently. And they can do it remotely. As the word “continuous” implies, MDR experts are available nearly around the clock and are equipped to rapidly respond based on their know-how and experience to prevent, contain and mitigate compromise.
Many MDR providers now incorporate AI-assisted analysis and workflow automation to help security analysts investigate incidents faster and focus attention on the threats that matter most. Combined with 24/7 monitoring, these capabilities help organizations improve response times without significantly expanding internal security teams.
One of the key benefits of MDR oversight is that it frees up internal security team members and resources to go toward ongoing efforts of improving the company’s broader security posture, while MSPs can focus on growing the business.
XDR: What’s Next in cybersecurity
Extended detection and response (XDR) is the next logical step in the evolution of cybersecurity technology for modern businesses. XDR widens the scope to look at all critical vectors across an organization’s attack surface, ranging from host devices and other endpoints to network switches and potential cloud security issues. It additionally considers the shift from a device-centric, walled-garden security method to an identity-centric one.
An identity-centric position conveys that an individual’s network ends wherever their fingerprints land. This identity focus considers the reality that modern work is migrating to the cloud, which means one’s identity can be made vulnerable far beyond their fingertips.
As attackers increasingly target credentials instead of devices, organizations need visibility across identities, endpoints, cloud environments and network activity. XDR helps connect these signals to provide a more complete picture of suspicious activity and potential compromise.
How Does XDR Work?
Certain implementations of XDR combat this risk by pairing the user’s identity and their device holistically and concurrently, both on-prem and in the cloud. This conjoining can enhance broader decisions about security cloud workloads and how to evaluate next steps after a device has been compromised.
Unlike past security tools that focused on devices regardless of the identity of the user, XDR is equipped to use identity and how it correlates to this continuous device posture, echoing key principles of the zero-trust security framework that’s emerged in recent years — specifically, how the true identity of a user can be uncertain, which is why the integration of XDR can be a critical step in assessing trust.
XDR also comes in handy when it comes to implementing an ever-more complex security stack consisting of multiple solutions delivering multiple alerts. An XDR strategy allows MSPs and clients to take advantage of a multilayered security approach while helping to close gaps between siloed products.
This has the combined effect of allowing an organization’s security team to have a complete picture of the attack surface at virtually any time, giving clients the peace of mind of knowing the MDR/XDR’s security experts have things under control, and can give concise actionable instructions for the MSP and client to take.
Growth in the emerging XDR market isn’t far behind that of EDR. One estimate sees the global XDR market growing from approximately $7.9 billion in 2025 to $30.9 billion by 2030, reflecting strong demand for integrated detection and response capabilities.
Finally, MSPs are particularly well-equipped to expand to an XDR approach — and offer it to their small- and medium-sized business (SMB) customers — precisely because SMBs are less organizationally complex than large enterprises.
Which Approach Should MSPs and Their Clients Take?
Which approach MSPs and clients should take depends on their individual needs.
EDR is best for organizations who:
- Want to go beyond antivirus protection.
- Have an in-house team that can act on security alerts.
- Are still early in their cybersecurity journey and want to build a solid foundation before expanding on it.
- Need foundational endpoint visibility and response capabilities.
- Are beginning to formalize their cybersecurity program.
MDR is best for those who:
- Don’t yet have a mature detection and response program.
- Want new skills without building out staff.
- Need to fill skills gaps within their IT team.
- Want to stay up to date on current security threats.
- Need 24/7 monitoring but lack dedicated security operations staff.
- Want access to security expertise without building an internal SOC.
XDR works well for organizations who:
- Want to centralize their threat detection and remediation capabilities.
- Need faster response times.
- Want to consolidate security tools and reduce operational complexity.
- Need broader visibility across endpoints, identities, cloud services and networks.
- Are advancing their security maturity and looking for a more unified security strategy.
How Pax8 Can Help MSPs Redefine Endpoint Protection
Due to the ever-shifting, cat-and-mouse nature of cyber threats, modern organizations must widen their protective capabilities in response, and so must the MSPs that run many of their core functions. That’s exactly where the Pax8 Marketplace can help, particularly when it comes to MDR.
Pax8 is laser-focused on supporting MSPs’ growth journeys, and we know how vital security is to such endeavors. As a highly trusted cloud marketplace for best-in-class tech solutions, Pax8 can aid any MSP in finding the right cutting-edge security platform for its unique client base. Our options include Bitdefender, SentinelOne’s Vigilance MDR, Sophos, Guardz, CrowdStrike and Blackpoint Cyber, among others. No matter whether an MSP chooses EDR, MDR or XDR, it’s never been more important to guard your business’s endpoints against an ever-smarter, more aggressive phalanx of threats.
Beyond technology selection, Pax8 helps partners evaluate security gaps and identify practical next steps for building scalable security offerings. Whether you’re introducing endpoint protection for the first time or expanding into MDR and XDR services, Pax8 can provide the expertise and implementation needed to support long-term growth.
