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Legacy EDR Vs. Cortex XDR
Modern SOCs are moving on from Trellix, Symantec, Trend Micro, and Sophos to Cortex XDR for #1-rated prevention and detection in a single, unified platform.
Legacy EDR Vendors
Miss attacks with outdated prevention
- Lack the R&D investment to build defenses against modern threats.
- Don’t have the scale of threat intelligence data to see and understand the latest adversary techniques.
Why Palo Alto Networks
Stops attacks with top-performing prevention
Our Unit 42® experts leverage the massive scale and investment of Palo Alto Networks - 70,000+ customers in every industry worldwide and $1.8 billion in 2024 R&D - to uncover the latest threat behaviors and train the AI used for prevention within the Cortex XDR® agent.
#1
Prevention rate out of all market leaders in the latest MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations.
Legacy EDR vendors
Break the analyst experience with limited detection
- Most lack native analytics beyond the endpoint, forcing analysts into manual work and multiple products for detection.
Why Palo Alto Networks
Delivers the best detection in a unified analyst experience
Palo Alto Networks pioneered the XDR category. Cortex XDR collects telemetry from every key source: endpoint, network, cloud, identity, and email to power pre-built, AI-driven detectors that find threats fast within a single product.
100%
Detection in the latest MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations, with no configuration changes.
Legacy EDR vendors
Trap analysts in slow investigations
- Flood security teams with both low-context and false-positive alerts from siloed endpoint data.
- Fail to automatically correlate related alerts, forcing analysts to spend days manually investigating incidents.
Why Palo Alto Networks
Slashes investigation time
Cortex XDR provides everything you need in one product for multi-domain detection, alert triage, investigation, and response. It saves hours of analysts time each day by automatically turning related alerts from every source into single, prioritized cases that tell the complete story of an attack.
98%
Reduction in alerts to triage with AI-driven grouping and scoring.
Legacy EDR vendors
Fragment security architecture and increase cost
- Force you into multiple products to go beyond EDR, creating an expensive and inefficient security architecture.
Why Palo Alto Networks
The true SOC platform that starts with XDR
Cortex XDR immediately sets the foundation for your AI-driven SOC. It unifies data from all key sources in a single data lake, powering native security analytics. This provides a frictionless path to Cortex XSIAM—the single, complete platform that unifies your entire SOC and stops threats faster.
1
Single agent and single data lake with a frictionless path to a unified, AI-driven SOC platform.
Side-by-Side: Cortex XDR vs. Legacy EDR
Cortex XDR
|
Legacy EDR Vendors
| |
|---|---|---|
Endpoint Prevention | Top-performing prevention The AI-driven XDR agent blocks sophisticated threats in real time, with the highest prevention rate of all endpoint security market leaders in the latest AV-Comparatives EPR test. | Outdated prevention Lack the scale and R&D budget to invest in modern threat prevention capabilities. |
Threat Detection | Native analytics for all key data sources 10K detectors and 2.6K ML models detect threats natively across endpoint, network, cloud, identity, and email sources. With endpoint data alone, Cortex XDR achieved 100% detection in MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations Round 6. | Limited analytics Most only include analytics for endpoint data. |
Investigation Workflow | Unified, AI-driven investigations Builds rich context from all key data sources, allowing AI-driven grouping and scoring to create unified cases that tell the complete story of an attack. Analysts experience 8x faster investigations and 98% fewer alerts to triage. | Fragmented investigations Most lack the context needed to uncover the full chain of events in a cyberattack. Most do not group related alerts from sources beyond the endpoint, forcing analysts to manually connect the dots. |
Platform & TCO | Unified SOC architecture With key data in place, Cortex XDR creates the foundation for a unified, AI-driven SOC with a frictionless path to Cortex XSIAM. | High cost and complexity Often require a fragmented architecture of multiple agents and consoles, leading to data silos and high operational costs. |
Managed Services | Expert-led 24/7 coverage An elite MDR service from Unit 42 experts manages the platform for you and delivers security outcomes from day one. | Limited or no modern MDR Most lack an integrated, expert-driven service, leaving your team to manage a complex and ineffective tool set on their own. |
Why Trust Palo Alto Networks
Proven leadership from the world’s largest cybersecurity company
- 100% technique-level detection in MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations Round 6
- AAA rated with 100% prevention in the 2025 SE Labs Ransomware Test
- 3x Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Endpoint Protection Platforms
98%
Willingness to recommend score in the 2025 Gartner Peer Insights Voice of the Customer for EPP.
“The user experience and interface of Cortex XDR is exceptional, allowing us to easily navigate and digest reports. With this solution, we also have extensive visibility into our security stack and our data lake, helping us triage and investigate alerts for response and remediation action.”
“With Palo Alto Networks, we can sunset point solutions and roll them into a consolidated platform for more efficient operations and cost savings.”
“We get far fewer alerts from Unit 42 MDR than we did from our previous provider. If they surface an incident, we know it’s something we need to look into, and then we work together to resolve it quickly. They use their knowledge and expertise to determine priority, which is a big time-saver.”
“It’s a lot like having another member of our team. They [Unit 42 MDR] manage our alerts and escalate the ones that matter.”
“Palo Alto Networks makes it far, far easier to safeguard our university infrastructure and respond instantly to incidents. By protecting what’s important in the background, we can fight fires in a different forest.”
“Cortex XDR, Data Lake, and Cortex XSOAR was a powerful combination—it allowed us to realise the benefits of automation to support a next-generation SOC.”
“The user experience and interface of Cortex XDR is exceptional, allowing us to easily navigate and digest reports. With this solution, we also have extensive visibility into our security stack and our data lake, helping us triage and investigate alerts for response and remediation action.”
“With Palo Alto Networks, we can sunset point solutions and roll them into a consolidated platform for more efficient operations and cost savings.”
“We get far fewer alerts from Unit 42 MDR than we did from our previous provider. If they surface an incident, we know it’s something we need to look into, and then we work together to resolve it quickly. They use their knowledge and expertise to determine priority, which is a big time-saver.”
“It’s a lot like having another member of our team. They [Unit 42 MDR] manage our alerts and escalate the ones that matter.”
“Palo Alto Networks makes it far, far easier to safeguard our university infrastructure and respond instantly to incidents. By protecting what’s important in the background, we can fight fires in a different forest.”
“Cortex XDR, Data Lake, and Cortex XSOAR was a powerful combination—it allowed us to realise the benefits of automation to support a next-generation SOC.”
