The Forrester Wave™: Managed Detection And Response Services, Q1 2025 is an evaluation of Managed Detection and Response (MDR) vendors. Forrester identifies the most significant providers and how they have researched, analyzed, and scored them, outlining how each provider measures up to help you select the right MDR vendor for your needs.
The Forrester Wave™ evaluation highlights Leaders, Strong Performers, and Contenders. It is intended to be a starting point to view product evaluations and adapt the findings based on their priorities using Forrester’s interactive provider comparison experience.
In the report, Forrester highlights that Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is an established market that helps security teams detect, investigate, respond, and recover from cyberattacks. Forrester observes that “detection and response is no longer enough for providers; customers now demand that their MDR providers become more proactive.” They find that the market has shifted and that “an MDR provider’s ability to positively influence the security of its customers now matters as much as its ability to find threats.”
Customers using this report to evaluate MDR services should consider:
-
Providers scale through strong detection engineering via detection as code. In years past, strong threat intelligence and threat hunting were two ways for MDR providers to keep ahead of adversaries. Those capabilities still matter, but detection engineering that features detection as code is how MDR providers stay ahead today. Deploying detections as fast as possible requires a software-driven process that includes unit testing to deploy accurate, precise, and meaningful detections that can keep up with the pace of threat actors.
-
Security posture improvement matters just as much as detection and response. The ability for an MDR provider to close program gaps, identify areas of improvement, and help security programs become more effective is the next phase of MDR growth. This necessitates contextual understanding of customers’ technology stack, industry, and region to provide benchmarks based on those factors to compare against. The days of simply ingesting, monitoring, and responding are over.
-
Generative AI’s impact on providers shows, but its benefits for customers are less clear. MDR providers benefit immensely from generative AI — and will benefit soon from agentic AI — in terms of helping their service delivery become more efficient and effective. Service delivery should improve as providers become more efficient. But if generative AI helps a provider become more efficient without those savings being passed along to customers, the provider just becomes more profitable. Look for providers that deliver customer-facing improvements that drive benefits in your processes, not just their own.
Download The Forrester Wave™: Managed Detection And Response Services, Q1 2025 to learn about MDR services, the direction of the MDR market and how each provider compares to helps you find the right provider for your organization.
1. The Forrester Wave™: Managed Detection And Response Services, Q1 2025, 27 February 2025
Author(s): Jeff Pollard
Contributor(s): Joseph Blankenship, Caroline Provost, and Michael Belden
2. Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. For more information, read about Forrester’s objectivity here.
