Is Managing EDR Internally Costing You More Than MDR?

You've invested in a best-in-class Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solution. Congratulations—you now have one of the most powerful security tools available. But here's the uncomfortable truth: buying the tool was the easy part.

EDR platforms generate thousands of alerts daily, require constant tuning, need expert analysis, and demand 24/7 monitoring to be effective. Many organizations discover too late that they've purchased a Ferrari but don't have drivers skilled enough—or time available—to operate it properly.

The Tool vs. Management Reality

When evaluating EDR solutions, most organizations focus on features: machine learning capabilities, behavior analysis, threat hunting tools, integration options. The vendors showcase impressive detection rates and sleek dashboards.

What they don't show you is the operational reality:

• A typical enterprise EDR deployment generates 5,000-15,000 alerts per day
• 90-95% of those alerts are false positives requiring investigation
• Each alert investigation takes 15-30 minutes on average
• Critical alerts require immediate response, often outside business hours
• The tool needs continuous tuning to reduce noise and improve accuracy

Do the math: even if you only investigate 1% of alerts, that's 50-150 investigations daily. For a small IT team already stretched thin, this is impossible to sustain.

The Hidden Costs of Managing EDR Internally

Organizations that manage EDR in-house face several challenges that aren't obvious during the purchase decision:

1. Staffing Requirements

Effective EDR management requires specialized security analysts who understand:

• Threat hunting methodologies
• Malware analysis and behavior
• Incident response procedures
• Your specific EDR platform's intricacies
• Threat intelligence and current attack trends

Finding and retaining this talent is expensive. The average security analyst salary has increased 25% in the past two years, and good candidates have multiple offers. You need at least 2-3 analysts for coverage—and that's before considering vacation, sick days, and turnover.

2. Alert Fatigue

Without proper tuning and expert triage, your team drowns in alerts. This leads to:

• Desensitization: Analysts become numb to alerts and miss real threats
• Burnout: Constant alert investigation with little payoff is exhausting
• Resignation: Analysts leave for positions with better workflows
• Complacency: Teams create workarounds to ignore "known" alert types

The real threat often hides in the noise while your team investigates their 147th false positive of the day.

3. 24/7/365 Coverage Gap

Cyber threats don't respect business hours. Attackers often strike on weekends and holidays when they know security teams are understaffed. But maintaining round-the-clock monitoring internally requires:

• At least 2-3 full-time staff for basic coverage
• Escalation procedures for off-hours incidents
• On-call rotations (which nobody likes)
• Premium pay for nights and weekends

For most organizations, this is economically unfeasible. So you end up with partial coverage and hope nothing happens outside business hours (spoiler: it will).

4. Continuous Platform Expertise

EDR platforms evolve rapidly. Vendors release new features, update detection logic, change interfaces, and introduce new capabilities quarterly. Someone needs to:

• Stay current with platform updates
• Attend vendor training
• Implement new features and best practices
• Optimize configurations for your environment
• Integrate with other security tools

This ongoing education takes time away from actual security work—but skip it, and you're not getting full value from your investment.

5. Threat Intelligence Integration

Effective EDR requires context. Is this process behavior normal for your environment? Is this file hash associated with known malware? Is this IP address linked to threat actors?

Maintaining and integrating threat intelligence feeds, keeping up with emerging attack techniques, and applying this knowledge to your EDR takes dedicated effort that many internal teams simply can't spare.

Enter Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

MDR services solve the management problem by providing the expertise, processes, and 24/7 operations that make EDR tools effective. Here's what you get:

Dedicated Security Operations Center (SOC)

Instead of hiring your own team, you get access to a SOC staffed with experienced analysts who:

• Monitor your environment 24/7/365
• Specialize in threat detection and response
• Have experience across hundreds of customer environments
• Stay current with evolving threats and attack techniques

Alert Triage and Investigation

MDR providers filter the noise for you. They:

• Investigate alerts and determine which are real threats
• Continuously tune the EDR to reduce false positives
• Escalate only validated incidents requiring action
• Provide context and recommendations for response

Instead of 5,000 daily alerts, you get 5-10 validated incidents per month that actually matter.

Proactive Threat Hunting

MDR teams don't just respond to alerts—they actively hunt for threats that might have evaded detection. This proactive approach finds sophisticated attacks that automated tools miss.

Incident Response Support

When a real incident occurs, MDR provides:

• Immediate containment actions
• Detailed investigation and forensics
• Step-by-step remediation guidance
• Post-incident analysis and lessons learned

Continuous Improvement

MDR providers regularly review your environment, optimize detections, update rules, and implement new capabilities—keeping your security posture current without internal effort.

The Real Cost Comparison

Let's break down the numbers for a typical mid-sized organization:

Internal EDR Management:

• EDR licensing: $15-30 per endpoint monthly
• Security analysts (3 FTE minimum): $300,000+ annually (salary + benefits)
• Training and certifications: $15,000+ annually
• Threat intelligence feeds: $25,000+ annually
• SIEM and supporting tools: $20,000+ annually
• Management overhead: Countless hours of your IT leadership's time

Total: $350,000+ annually, with limited coverage and constant staffing challenges.

MDR Service:

• MDR service (includes EDR, SOC, expertise): $15-30 per endpoint monthly
• Internal liaison (0.5 FTE): $50,000 annually

Total: $55,000-65,000 annually for 500 endpoints, with 24/7 expert coverage and no hiring headaches.

The savings are compelling, but the real value is in effectiveness. Would you rather have three overworked analysts managing too many alerts, or a dedicated SOC team with deep expertise monitoring your environment around the clock?

The Bottom Line

Buying an EDR tool without considering how you'll manage it is like buying a commercial airliner without hiring pilots. The tool isn't the solution—the management of the tool is what actually protects you.

If you can't staff a 24/7 SOC with experienced security analysts, continuously tune your platform, investigate thousands of alerts weekly, and proactively hunt for threats, you're not getting the value from your EDR investment. You're just creating security theater.

MDR services bridge this gap, providing the expertise, coverage, and operational excellence that make EDR tools effective. Instead of struggling with management overhead, you can focus on running your business while experts handle the security.

The question isn't whether you need EDR—you do. The question is whether you can afford to manage it properly, or whether MDR is a smarter path to effective security.