The security landscape is ever-changing, intensified by more sophisticated threats, and an increasing number of employees working from home leading to an expanding attack surface. Security professionals are tasked with maintaining a secure environment against a plethora of threats, manifested in thousands of alerts and events that are generated by security controls every day.

With so many overlapping and self-serving definitions of XDR (Extended Detection and Response), we thought we would provide a perspective from some of us on the front lines of trying to embrace technology innovation while filtering vendor marketing noise. We agree with several industry analysts covering the space that XDR is a vendor push with no real customer demand, but the problem spaces within XDR are of significant customer interest.

Cybersecurity is a fast-moving space. In fact, it’s hard to think of a time that security has been moving more quickly. As we continue to move into the cloud, work from home, and otherwise continue the digital transformation of our businesses, additional capabilities are needed as new threats are discovered.

In the world of threat detection and response, alert fatigue and tool sprawl are real problems. Security professionals are struggling to manage different tools and control points and still relying on manual processes, which results in security that is fragmented and reactive. Analysts need better visibility and control, more context, and better use of automation so they can cut through the noise and respond to threats faster and more effectively.

Extended Detection and Response (XDR) is the latest buzz word in the security industry and garnering significant attention. Industry analysts each have their own definition. Meanwhile, security vendors are quickly jumping on the bandwagon, recasting their products as XDR solutions. And it’s safe to assume many more will unveil XDR products in the months ahead.

We in cybersecurity just love new, buzzy acronyms. The latest is “XDR,” otherwise known as extended detection and response. No doubt, you’ve already read an article, watched a webinar, or listened to a podcast on XDR.

Elastic Security's newest features define the potential of XDR for cybersecurity teams. Our single platform brings together SIEM and endpoint security, allowing users to ingest and retain large volumes of data from diverse sources, store and search data for longer, and augment threat hunting with detections and machine learning. Security vendors are using the term “XDR” with increasing frequency, applying varied definitions to suit their respective technologies.

We are pleased to announce the general availability (GA) of Elastic 7.14, including our Elastic Enterprise Search, Observability, and Security solutions, which are built into the Elastic Stack — Elasticsearch and Kibana. Elastic 7.14 empowers organizations with the first free and open Limitless XDR, which delivers unified SIEM and endpoint security capabilities in one platform.

Let’s take a trip — back about eight years — when a Gartner analyst coined the term endpoint detection and response (EDR). He was describing security systems that both detect and investigate suspicious activities on computers and other devices and use automation to help security operations center (SOC) teams quickly identify and respond to threats. Since then, EDR has become a critical component of a modern security stack for organizations of all sizes.