What is EDR in MSP terms?
EDR protects your managed workstations and servers from malicious attacks through behavioral analysis, not just signature matching. It detects suspicious actions like never-before-seen processes that may indicate malware execution. Behavioral detection is critical when protecting hundreds or thousands of MSP customers because ransomware operators modify code to evade signatures, but their behavior remains consistent. (Criminals aren't as creative as they think!)
Must-have EDR features for MSPs
Here’s what separates enterprise-focused tools from MSP-ready solutions:
Antivirus interoperability: Works alongside existing AV solutions without conflicts or performance issues. Most MSPs already provide antivirus as baseline protection, so EDR should complement, and not replace, your current AV stack.
Behavioral detection: Detects threats based on behavior and indicators of compromise that signature-based tools miss. A top EDR solution should detect behavioral anomalies, including unknown malware, persistence, privilege escalation, and lateral movement, not just well-documented threats.
Isolation and rollback capabilities: Isolation prevents threat actors and malware from spreading by restricting compromised endpoint communication. Rollback restores affected systems to previous states depending on the threat, e.g., ransomware. While most managed EDR solutions offer isolation and rollback, implementation quality and response speed vary by vendor.