XDR, or extended detection and response, refers to cybersecurity solutions that deliver comprehensive protection by integrating and correlating telemetry data and threat intelligence from multiple sources, including endpoints, email, identity, network, etc. This approach enables extended detection and response capabilities more holistically addressing threats beyond the endpoint by integrating data from multiple sources with security analytics to provide context, correlate security alerts, enable fast analysis and swift response — across diverse IT systems.

Nowadays, threats are shifting their focus beyond the endpoint due to the high degree of SaaS-based and IoT infrastructure and remote work practices. This means the security perimeter itself is growing beyond the narrower endpoint focus, which was the standard in last years.

To counter these disperse risks and threats across multiple attack vectors such as endpoints, email, identity, etc., service providers have to deliver XDR-based services to their clients, especially ones working in high-risk industries such as finance, health care, legal, etc. — regardless of their size.

Extended detection and response solutions enable you with broader visibility on threats and attacks showing not only what has happened on the endpoint, but also integrating telemetry from other sources such as email, identity, cloud apps and network, to show you in much greater detailed how an attack originated, got in, progressed, and what damage it has done.

This enables faster analysis at scale for incidents without having to manually correlate events between different point cybersecurity solutions.

Moreover, XDR enables you to swiftly perform remediation actions that are not purely focused on isolating the endpoint and removing the threat from it, but also enable further risk mitigation and remediation capabilities such as blocking malicious attachments in emails, blocking malicious email addresses, terminating user account sessions, suspending user accounts, etc.

This comprehensive approach to cybersecurity not only ensures the highest level of protection against advanced threats and targeted attacks, reducing the risks for clients, but can also support compliance and help you streamline incident investigation and remediation efforts that are insurmountable with point security solutions.

Endpoint detection and response, or EDR, is focused on providing event correlation, contextual information and analysis and a response toolkit for threats and attacks that are focused on the endpoint.

Extended detection and response, or XDR, goes the extra mile to ensure a more holistic approach to detection and response which goes beyond the endpoint, integrating data from other attack vectors such as email, identity, cloud applications or network. This approach further reduces risks and ensures a more complete protection that spans beyond the endpoint.

There’s a great variety of XDR solutions on the market, but the hard truth is that a majority of those have been created with enterprises in mind — introducing insurmountable complexity, costs, resource requirements and time-to-value for service providers.

When MSPs are considering what type of XDR to utilize, they should be thinking of capabilities that enable the MSP to deliver services on top of the solution to disperse and diverse client environments with minimal effort — such as SaaS management console, role-based access, multitenancy and ticketing integrations.

Moreover, as a service provide you need to think of scalability; can you deliver services on top of the XDR solution with your existing resources and would attracting more business also lead to higher resource requirements and costs? Innovations such as AI-guided attack analysis, generative AI experience and single-click response to incidents, along with native solution integrations beyond standard cybersecurity capabilities as well as the support by an MDR service, can help streamline your services, and reduce costs, resource requirements and time to value.