MDR Core vs. MDR Premier: Which Managed Detection and Response Service Fits Your Needs?

Selecting the right Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solution is a crucial decision, especially when balancing your organization’s specific needs with your budget. At ProArch, we package our MDR solution with two options—MDR Core and MDR Premier—both designed to provide round-the-clock threat detection and response and can be customized to your needs. 

In this post, we’ll break down the features of both MDR plans to help you determine which one is the best fit for your organization.

Why ProArch Skips Confusing EDR, IDR, XDR Labels

At ProArch, we take a simplified approach by offering MDR Core and MDR Premier. After providing Security Managed Services for over a decade, we chose to distance ourselves from the common industry terms EDR, IDR, and XDR because they mean completely different things depending on who you ask.

Instead, we’ve modified our plans with a more simple, flexible approach with Core and Premier. These plans provide all the same protection as EDR, IDR, XDR but are built around securing layers of your environment.  Here’s how this approach benefits you:

• Clarity: You know what is covered and what is not.
• Protection Focus: We prioritize what’s most critical to your business.
• Cost-Effective and Seamless Upgrades: As your maturity grows, it’s easy to add more data sources and transition from Core to Premier for more comprehensive protection.

What is MDR?

ProArch’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services is a turnkey solution for 24/7 threat monitoring, detection, and response to protect your organization from evolving threats.

We focus on high-quality detections, cutting down on false positives, and taking action based on what matters most to your business whether that’s information technology (IT) or operational technology (OT) assets. Our MDR services position organizations to tackle urgent IT and operational threats while managing long-term risks.

MDR Core vs. MDR Premier

Both MDR Core and MDR Premier share the same foundational advanced detection and Security Operations Center (SOC) functions, including:

• 24/7 threat monitoring, containment, investigation, and response from ProArch’s SOC.
• Alert finetuning combined with automation playbooks to reduce false positives, focusing on finding and containing real threats quickly
• Threat intelligence integration to stay ahead of evolving attack vectors.
• Critical Threat
• Continuous threat detection rule management.
• Escalation to incident response if compromise occurs.
• Monthly security health check report.

More details on the MDR plans here.

Where the two plans differ is in the layers of coverage they provide and the inclusion of proactive threat hunting and strategic advisory services in MDR Premier. Let’s dig bit more for details.

MDR Core: Essential Protection for Your Organization

MDR Core secures the essential layers that every organization should protect; endpoints, identities, and email. These entry points are critical to business operations and are the most targeted by sophisticated cybercriminals.

With MDR Core, ProArch provides essential threat coverage that helps consolidate point solutions into a unified, more efficient response. This is especially useful for businesses that may have limited internal resources or are looking to enhance their current security posture with the support of experts.

Key Features of MDR Core:

• Comprehensive protection for endpoints, identities, and Collaboration tools like- (Email, Teams, SharePoint, & OneDrive)—critical layers targeted by cyber threats.
• 24/7 monitoring and detection provided by ProArch’s expert Security Operations Center (SOC).
• Fast threat containment and remediation to reduce the impact of potential breaches.
• Automated incident response through SIEM and SOAR integration to ensure quick action and effective management of security events.

Every situation is unique, but in general MDR Core is suitable for organizations that:

• Are looking for essential coverage and response capabilities.
• Have an internal security team that needs additional support.

MDR Premier: Comprehensive Protection for Complex Needs

For organizations with more complex security needs, MDR Premier is the solution. This plan goes beyond MDR Core and includes strategic advisory services and threat hunting for proactive security measures.

MDR Premier is ideal for organizations with more stringent security and compliance requirements or those that operate in high-risk environments. It expands coverage and visibility to across the attack surface including custom sources that require advanced skills.

Key Features of MDR Premier:

• Coverage across the attack surface including cloud applications, cloud workloads, OT, IoT, SIEM, and custom integrations.
• Threat hunting to proactively search for and identify potential threats before they become a problem.
• Strategic advisory services to guide your organization’s overall cybersecurity strategy.

Every situation is unique, but in general MDR Premier is suitable for organizations that:

• Are seeking comprehensive security coverage and strategic guidance.
• Rely on external expertise to maintain holistic security.
• Have complex, regulatory requirements

Choosing the Right MDR Solution for Your Organization

Choosing between MDR Core and MDR Premier depends on the specific needs and budget of your organization. Here are a few questions to ask yourself to help guide your decision:

• What level of strategic support do we need?
• Will our organization benefit from business review meetings and reporting with a dedicated strategist?
• How important is proactive threat hunting to our security strategy?
• What are our business-critical layers that need protection?
• Do we need an MDR provider who has additional security capabilities such as assessments, vCISO, implementation, etc.?

Answering these questions can help determine which ProArch MDR service—Core or Premier—is the best fit for your business and once you have all the answers see how it compares with our MDR plans.

ProArch’s MDR solutions are tailored to address your unique cybersecurity challenges with the right balance of people, processes, and technology. In addition to MDR, our cybersecurity services include assessments, vCISO services, Microsoft 365 security, and more. Learn more about our Managed Detection and Response Services here.