If you want to secure your cloud environments from the latest threats, you’ll need to invest in modern safeguards. Extended detection and response (XDR) tools pull alerts and telemetry from endpoints, the cloud, email, and other key sources. Then they correlate that data so your analysts can spot attacks and shut them down fast.
While endpoint detection and response (EDR) shows what’s happening on one device, XDR gives you visibility across your entire network of users, apps, and infrastructure. XDR security is a newer approach that’s quickly gaining traction, as security teams push for higher fidelity with less noise.
In this article, you’ll learn what XDR is and why teams are adopting this technology. We’ll also discuss how to choose the best XDR solution, and introduce some top vendors that deserve a spot on your shortlist.
What Is XDR Software?
XDR unifies telemetry across your stack and analyzes the results to spot campaigns, not just single alerts. This comprehensive approach to threat detection and response (TDR) reduces noise by connecting signals and enriching them with context. It also lets analysts pivot quickly across assets and users. When compared to EDR, XDR looks beyond the device to show lateral movement and impact in one place.
XDR software is a platform that delivers those outcomes by using automation and machine learning. It ingests and normalizes data, applies detections and behavioral analytics, scores risks, and routes high-fidelity incidents to your workflows.
This investigation happens in a single console, and you’ll plug into existing tools through APIs and sensors. Deployment can run cloud-based or via a hybrid model—either way, the best XDR solutions are designed to scale easily as your team and compliance needs grow.
Why You Might Need an XDR Solution
Security sprawl and hybrid estates make it hard to see cybersecurity risks clearly. Many teams have to juggle siloed tools and nonstop alerts, which drives fatigue and slows decisions. According to one State of Security 2025 report, 59% of security operations centers (SOCs) grapple with too many alerts, while 55% deal with an overwhelming amount of false positives.
XDR addresses those issues by giving leadership and SOCs one consistent view, and shortening the time from “we saw something” to “it’s contained.” That’s essential when threats move faster than humans can triage, and especially when headcount is tight.
The same report demonstrates how organizations that embrace a unified platform approach like XDR often see substantial improvements, including faster incident response (59%), reduced time spent maintaining tools (53%), and better overall threat coverage (49%).
Environments have also changed—apps, emails, identities, networks, and cloud services now share the same incidents, which expands the attack surface and strains legacy, point-by-point tooling. XDR manages that shift by supporting broad coverage, integrating with your entire stack including security information and event management (SIEM) as well as security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR). This flexibility lets you stop chasing symptoms and start running a security operation that keeps pace with your business.
8 Top XDR Platforms
Now, here are eight top XDR tools to shortlist if you want to protect your cloud environments with unified detection and faster containment.
1. Microsoft Defender XDR
Built for Microsoft-first environments, Defender XDR pulls incidents and evidence into a single queue and drives automated actions with guided playbooks. SOC analysts can pivot with advanced threat hunting by using Kusto Query Language to query cross-domain telemetry and raw data queries, without switching back and forth between consoles.
2. Rapid7 Incident Command
If you want SIEM and XDR together, Rapid7 Incident Command is a strong contender. It correlates user and authentication activity to surface risky behaviors, and its user and attacker behavior analytics (UEBA) are mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework. InsightIDR’s top tier adds full XDR plus embedded digital forensics and incident response, which is useful for lean teams that need fast triage.
3. Trend Vision One
Trend Vision One centralizes telemetry in an XDR data lake, adds risk scoring, and covers servers, email, cloud, workload, and identity sources. This platform rolls its findings into a single, filterable risk picture that can be analyzed by asset, user, or service. Vision One also integrates with common SIEM/SOAR stacks, so your alert routing and ticketing work uninterrupted.
4. Cortex XDR
Cortex XDR blends endpoint, network, and cloud analytics with behavioral detections backed by Unit 42 (the Palo Alto Networks threat intelligence team). This tool also lets you create custom behavioral indicators of compromise to detect suspicious activities that might indicate attacks. Cortex XDR is best suited for mature cybersecurity programs that want added depth and can invest in fine-tuning.
5. CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR
Falcon Insight XDR extends CrowdStrike's endpoint strength with rich intel and swift containment, and the Falcon Threat Graph correlates large event volumes to speed up investigations. This XDR platform is a good match for teams that use on-prem and multi-cloud environments, and that want access to a broad ecosystem with scalable plans.
6. Singularity XDR
Singularity XDR emphasizes fast containment and clean automation, and it also offers RemoteOps forensics for times when you need more robust, in-depth investigations. If your team wants fast action and solid Windows, macOS, and Linux coverage, Singularity may be worth a look.
7. Cisco XDR
Cisco XDR ties secure endpoint, email, and network analytics into prioritized cases with guided workflows. This solution also leverages Talos intelligence to rank incidents and route work through auditable steps. Existing Cisco customers should benefit most from this option, as it offers built-in integration with the developer’s ecosystem.
8. Cynet Centralized Log Management and XDR
Cynet offers an all-in-one solution: XDR with response automation, plus optional managed detection and response for around-the-clock coverage. This XDR solution includes UEBA to broaden detection without requiring extra consoles. Smaller SOCs might appreciate Cynet’s balance between coverage and operational simplicity.
How to Choose the Right XDR Solution for Your Team
It’s important to pick an XDR your team can run today and grow into later. That means looking for:
- High detection quality: It’s best to favor engines that use behavioral analytics and AI tools to raise higher-signal incidents, so analysts can spend time on real threats.
- Always-on monitoring: You should be able to see activity as it happens, and your chosen platform should group related events into one investigation you can work through from start to finish.
- Responses you’ll actually use: Look for built-in auditable actions that match your process containment, ticketing, and approvals—so teams can move from triage to action without juggling consoles.
- Seamless integration with your stack: Shortlist platforms that plug into your SIEM, SOAR, and existing data sources, and that offer the APIs and connectors your team needs to reduce manual work.
- Reporting and compliance tools: You’ll likely need executive views, customizable reports, and controls that support regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act.
Complement Your XDR Solution With Legit Security
XDR reacts in runtime, but Legit Security reduces risk earlier in the software development lifecycle. As an AI-native application security posture management platform, Legit continuously watches your code and pipelines, along with the developer tools around them, to surface software supply chain issues before release. That upstream focus trims noise and gives your XDR a cleaner estate to protect.
Legit also meets teams where they work. AI-powered remediation delivers precise guidance into pull requests and CI, so developers can resolve issues without breaking flow and fewer late findings hit your incident queue.
Request a demo today, and see how Legit runs alongside your XDR and lowers exposure before code ships.
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