Back to BlogBlumira vs. MDR: A Side-by-Side Comparison
Managed detection and response. It sounds reassuring, especially if you have a small IT team with limited cybersecurity expertise. Someone taking care of everything so you don’t have to worry about cyber threats. That’s what services like Arctic Wolf say they will do. Only it’s not that easy to outsource your worries.
Giving up control doesn’t always lead to peace of mind. The managed detection and response (MDR) approach to cybersecurity differs in many ways from what Blumira SIEM + XDR offers. MDR is an outsourced service for detection, analysis, and response that uses sensors and data collection to monitor for potential threats. When unusual behavior is detected, it’s given to a team of analysts to investigate.
While MDR promises to provide hands-off cybersecurity protection, outsourced account managers often lack the internal customer knowledge needed to remediate issues. That means they still need to work with internal IT teams to properly resolve incidents, which can delay response. And if an internal IT team is disconnected from the cybersecurity activities, they may not have the tools to properly handle an incident. Since MDR providers often don’t provide ready access to a customer’s own data, those teams may not have the visibility they need to act on their own.
Evaluating two solutions
Blumira SIEM + XDR is an automated platform designed for lean IT teams that detects and contains threats around the clock. It’s a combined security information and event management (SIEM) plus extended detection and response (XDR) platform that provides wide coverage of your complete tech stack.
While the Blumira platform offers hands-on control and visibility, most organizations spend only 15 minutes on average administering it each day. That’s because findings are contextualized and assigned a priority. Each finding comes with a playbook that guides users through the steps to remediation. And to be clear, these 15 minutes aren’t devoted to looking under the hood to ensure the Blumira product is still working, unlike some products that require constant oversight to verify they are functioning properly.
Managed detection and response (MDR) providers like Arctic Wolf are sometimes compared to Blumira when IT teams evaluate security solutions. The Blumira team recently did a head-to-head analysis of the Arctic Wolf MDR and Blumira SIEM + XDR, revealing key differences:
Support. The assumption is that MDR services include a deeper bench of expert support. However, account managers at Arctic Wolf juggle a large number of accounts per person, with much of their service outsourced to third parties. In fact, at many MDRs entry-level analysts occupy the high-churn job of account management. Whether Blumira customers choose to manage their own platform or work with an MSP, experts are available to help interpret findings, assist with remediation, and customize detection rules.
Rapid action. MDRs like Arctic Wolf handle security alerts on behalf of their customers, with the idea that internal IT teams don’t have the time for rapid response. However, without local context, MDR account teams often need to triage alerts, which can delay response times by hours and even weeks. With Blumira, all information is sent directly to the IT team within minutes of detection. Response playbooks provide step-by-step instructions, and alerts are prioritized so threats can be handled with the appropriate level of urgency.
Value. Blumira offers multiple options to meet the needs of different types of organizations, with 24/7 SecOps support included and monthly fees based on the number of users. There’s also a robust free edition. Blumira was built to meet the demands of small- to medium-sized businesses. Companies choosing Blumira over Arctic Wolf have reported savings of up to $20,000.
IT teams that are already stretched thin can use all the help they can get to protect their organizations from cyber threats. But handing over all the keys to a managed solution can mean slower, unfocused threat response at a higher cost. Contact Blumira today to find out how our SIEM + XDR saves time and money while providing more control and visibility.