What is MDR?
MDR (Managed Detection and Response) is a security service in which a vendor monitors, investigates, and responds to threats on the customer's behalf, providing the SOC function as an outsourced service rather than software.
Updated 2026-05-19
MDR providers combine SIEM/EDR tooling with human SOC analysts who triage and investigate alerts 24/7. Customers who choose MDR typically lack the budget or talent for a full in-house SOC. Major MDR vendors include Arctic Wolf, Expel, Red Canary, Sophos, eSentire, and Critical Start. MDR pricing is per-seat or per-asset, and contracts typically include SLAs on detection and response time.
How Command Zero handles MDR.
Command Zero is a platform, not a service. The customer's SOC team operates the platform; Command Zero does not provide outsourced analysts. Organizations with an in-house SOC use Command Zero to scale their existing team. Organizations using MDR sometimes layer Command Zero on top for Tier-2 and Tier-3 work the MDR is not built for. Some MDR providers use Command Zero internally to scale their own analyst capacity, but the customer-facing relationship in those cases is between the customer and the MDR.
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