The security dashboard flags a suspicious sign-in, a new mailbox rule and an unexpected admin change in the cloud. None look critical on their own, but together they could signal the beginning of an attack. For years, security teams have relied on Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) to understand what’s happening on their devices and contain threats early.
But incidents rarely stay confined to one machine. They move through user accounts, email systems, cloud apps and internal networks.
That’s why Extended Detection & Response (XDR) has emerged: it connects signals from across your entire environment so you can see the whole picture and respond with clarity and speed.
Good EDR gives your team:
It’s the first essential layer of protection. Without EDR, it’s difficult to understand what is happening on your devices or to stop an attack before it spreads.
EDR is powerful but focused on activity on your devices. Many modern attacks move beyond the endpoint into other parts of your environment, for example:
While EDR shows you what’s happening on the device itself, it doesn’t always piece together what’s happening across accounts, email, cloud services and your network. That’s where XDR helps, building on EDR’s insights and bringing those signals together into one clearer picture.
This broader visibility makes it easier to understand how an attack started, how far it has spread, and how to stop it quickly. XDR also reduces false alarms by automatically connecting the dots and prioritising alerts that require action.
Even with the best EDR or XDR tools in place, someone still needs to monitor alerts, investigate suspicious behaviour and act quickly when real threats emerge. To bridge this gap, many organisations choose Managed Detection & Response (MDR).
MDR is a managed service that adds a 24/7 human layer on top of the technology. A team of cybersecurity experts continuously monitors your systems, investigates suspicious activity and responds before incidents can escalate. It is like having your own dedicated security operations centre without the associated costs and complexities of building one yourself.
If you choose to run only EDR or XDR, your team will need to manage alerts, investigate incidents and take action.
With MDR, that responsibility is taken off your shoulders and the experts handle everything for you.
The MDR team then builds on this technology by continuously monitoring what GravityZone detects, investigating any suspicious activity and taking rapid action to contain threats before they can cause harm.
It’s a combination of advanced tools and expert people: GravityZone provides the visibility and intelligence, while MDR ensures nothing is missed and every incident is handled quickly and effectively.
For organisations that want even deeper visibility, XDR sensors can be added to GravityZone as part of the MDR service. These sensors provide analysts with additional context not just from endpoints, but also from email, cloud services, user identities and network traffic, helping them to stop attacks even sooner.
XDR builds on this by connecting data from across your IT environment, giving you a clearer view of how attacks unfold and how to stop them.
MDR adds continuous human monitoring and rapid response on top of these technologies. It always includes EDR and can also include XDR, ensuring your security is watched around the clock.
Together, these layers create a modern, scalable defence system that helps you stay ahead of today's threats without adding pressure to your team or complicating your operations.
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