Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Buyers' Guide 2024

State of the market: Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tools identify and remediate threats such as viruses, malware, and ransomware on corporate endpoints.

The endpoint security market was valued at over USD 9 billion in 2019 and is expected to have grown at over 9% CAGR by 2026, reaching a market value of over USD 15 billion.
- Growth has been driven by an increase in both endpoint attacks and the diversity of device fleets (e.g., BYOD).
- 68% of organizations have experienced one or more successful endpoint attacks that compromised data and/or their IT infrastructure.
The XDR market was valued at USD 1.7 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach a market value of USD 8.3 billion by 2032.
- This growth is driven by a desire to integrate multiple security technologies into a single, unified platform for easier management.
EDR sits between these spaces; it integrates prevention, detection, and response tools to help businesses mitigate attacks against their entire endpoint fleet.
- Security organizations using EDR experience a 50% lower rate of serious security incidents than those that don’t.

In this guide, we’ll give you our top recommendations on how to choose the right EDR provider. We’ll also cover what features to look for in an EDR tool, the benefits and challenges of implementing one, and the future trends that you should keep tabs on within the endpoint security space.

Our Recommendations: Before we dive into the depths of EDR, here are a few recommendations that will help you decide whether EDR is the right tool for you and, if it is, how to choose the right tool for your business:

For large enterprises: Choose a solution that can handle all of the devices connected to it at once and determine what the future holds for the vendor in terms of the product roadmap and integrations on offer.
For SMBs: EDR tools have a considerable management overhead. If you can’t set up a dedicated team to manage an EDR tool, consider investing in an MDR tool instead. This is where the provider manages the solution and responds to any threats for you.
For security-focused organizations: EDR is not a silver bullet solution for security; remember to implement tools to cover your other attack vectors, such as robust email and web security. You should also continuously update your solution’s detection thresholds and software to make sure it’s meeting your needs.
For “getting the most out of it”: Choose a solution that offers seamless integrations with your existing infrastructure. That doesn’t just mean your current security tools; make sure it’s compatible with all the different devices in your organization.

How EDR Works: EDR solutions are typically deployed by installing an agent on each individual endpoint that you want to monitor. These could include employee workstations, mobile devices, IoT devices, cloud systems, and servers.

Once installed, the agent uses machine learning and behavioral analytics to monitor the endpoint for anomalous activity that might indicate the endpoint has been compromised, and relays that information to your security team via a central management console.

If it detects something malicious or just out of the ordinary, the EDR solution can:

Automatically respond to the threat in line with pre-configured remediation workflows.
Alert your team to the threat so you can investigate and respond manually.

Benefits Of EDR: There are four main use cases for implementing an EDR solution: improved incident response, unified management (of endpoint security tools), cost savings, and compliance.

EDR tools can help reduce the time it takes you to respond to endpoint threats by:

Identifying active and potential threats for you in real-time.
Alerting you to issues you may otherwise have overlooked.
Triaging alerts so you can address the most critical issues quickly.
Automatically remediation threats where possible, e.g., by blocking or containing them.

They also give you a single view of endpoint management and security across your organization.

Having centralized visibility into the activity occurring on each endpoint makes it easier for your team to identify threats and suspicious activity.
Being able to manage multiple different security tools and processes (i.e., endpoint monitoring, alert investigation, incident remediation, forensic investigation, and threat intelligence) from a single interface improves operational efficiency.

When it comes to cost savings, there are two key ways in which an EDR tool can help:

By automating routine security tasks and remediation workflows, they reduce the work required by your team to monitor multiple endpoints at once.
They help prevent costly breaches; the average cost of a successful endpoint attack is USD 8.94 million.

Finally, EDR solutions can help you meet compliance requirements for data protection, incident reporting, and log management.

Common EDR Challenges: We recommend that every organization implement some form of endpoint security. However, there are a few challenges to be aware of before you invest in an EDR solution:

Complexity: Setting up EDR tools can be resource-intensive, particularly for large organizations that need to deploy the agent across hundreds or even thousands of endpoints. Plus, ongoing management requires time and expertise. We recommend setting up a team that’s dedicated to managing the EDR tool, and working with your provider to make sure it’s tuned properly to help reduce false positives.
Performance impact: Because they continuously scan endpoints, EDR solutions can negatively impact system performance (and therefore employees’ productivity) if not properly managed. We recommend ensuring the EDR software is always up-to-date and using the latest/fastest hardware where possible.
Integration challenges: EDR tools may not seamlessly integrate with your existing infrastructure and applications, which can make them more difficult to deploy and manage. To ensure your EDR tool will give you full visibility, we recommend making sure it’s compatible with your existing infrastructure, and that you can create custom integrations if required.
Cost: The initial deployment cost can be high, as can ongoing maintenance costs—particularly for smaller organizations. We recommend that you determine whether the cost of the solution outweighs the cost of a potential breach.
Data privacy concerns: EDR tools typically transfer the behavioral data they collect to the cloud for analysis, which can mean that they’re transferring potentially sensitive data outside the organization. We recommend checking that the solution meets compliance requirements relevant to your country and industry. If possible, try to choose a solution that allows you to store data in local regions or on-prem.

Best EDR Providers: Our team of cybersecurity analysts and researchers has put together a shortlist of the best providers of EDR solutions, as well as adjacent lists covering similar topics:

Features Checklist: When comparing EDR solutions, Expert Insights recommends looking for the following features:

Real-time monitoring and threat detection: The tool should continuously monitor endpoint activities in real-time, using behavioral analysis, machine learning, and signature-based detection to identify anomalous (and potentially malicious) activity.
Endpoint visibility: It must be compatible with all the different types of endpoints in your organization.
Incident response: When it detects a threat, the tool should offer effective automated response options, such as isolating compromised endpoints, blocking malicious activities or processes, and quarantining malicious files.
Centralized management: You should be able to manage all endpoints and processes via a single, central management portal. This should be easy to navigate and offer accessible reports into your security status.
Integrations: There are two parts to this. First, the tool must be compatible with your existing IT infrastructure and applications. Second, you might want to look for integrations with SIEM, firewall, and threat intelligence tools to give you even more visibility over your environment.
Continuous updates and support: The provider should regularly update the solution with software patched, detection algorithms, threat signatures, and threat intelligence to help it detect even new and emerging threats.
Device rollback: While not all vendors will offer this, you may want to be able to restore devices to a previous state in the event they are compromised.

Future Trends: There are two main trends that we expect to see in the EDR space in the near future.

First, as AI (particularly generative AI) continues to develop, we expect AI usage to increase, which will allow for better threat detection and analysis. This could involve more in-depth threat analysis, faster identification of new and emerging threats, and even an AI-powered analyst or SOC team member that can help investigate and triage alerts.

Second, as we mentioned earlier, the XDR market is also growing at a rapid rate. XDR tools offer many of the same features and qualities of EDR, but they extend their coverage to monitor not only endpoints, but also networks, clouds, and applications.

As the threat landscape continues to evolve and organizations continue to seek a more unified approach to security, we expect to see some EDR vendors expand their coverage in a shift towards XDR.

Further Reading: You can find all of our articles on EDR in our Endpoint Security Hub.

Want to dive right in? Here are a few articles we think you’ll like:

Shortlist: The Top 12 Endpoint Detection And Response Solutions
Interview: Seth Geftic On Securing SMBs With MDR
Interview: Zeki Turedi On CrowdStrike’s Security Platform And The Opportunities Of AI
Blog: XDR Vs EDR, SIEM, And SOAR: Is XDR One Platform To Rule Them All?

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Buyers’ Guide 2024

How to choose the right Endpoint Detection and Response software.