XDR vs SOAR

Evaluating Extended Detection and Response (XDR) and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) solutions means wrestling with integration, scalability, detection capabilities, automation — and the overall long-term viability of relying on one, or both, solutions within the current ecosystem. After all, adding tools is no one’s goal. Teams don’t need tools for their own sake; they need solutions that safeguard their current and future architectures without adding noise and complication. 

In the case of XDR and SOAR, how do you choose? And what are the trade-offs? We’re breaking it down.

How are XDR and SOAR Different?

XDR provides centralized visibility and detection across endpoints, network, and cloud infrastructure layers. 

SOAR provides centralized orchestration and response workflows across the same landscape.

While some XDR solutions offer basic response capabilities, to detect and respond to security incidents effectively, teams typically need both XDR and SOAR.

XDR and SOAR Work Together

Both XDR and SOAR ingest data from SIEM (Security Information and Event Management), EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response), firewalls, threat intelligence platforms, Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP), and intrusion detection systems (IDS).

But how they process that information, and what happens next, is unique to each tool.

Key Differences in How XDR and SOAR Collect and Use Data

XDR correlates data from these sources, providing a unified view of threats across the organization using advanced analytics, machine learning, or rule-based engines. No matter how it parses the data it receives, XDR’s goal is to detect advanced and subtle threats across multiple security layers.

SOAR does not focus on correlation but on orchestrating and automating the response to detected threats, for example, like isolating devices, blocking IPs, or creating and escalating tickets to the security team.

When both XDR and SOAR are used in tandem, XDR’s correlated and detected threats will result in an alert to SOAR tools, where, alongside data from other tools, a workflow is triggered to handle the incident. SOAR can also provide teams with more context about the threat, such as known malicious indicators or affected assets. 

Because XDR tools can correlate data from emails, network activity, and threat intelligence feeds with anomalies in cloud workload behaviors, they can identify phishing attempts, ransomware, and unknown threats like Zero-Day attacks.

Where XDR might detect and alert on a ransomware attack, SOAR would then:

1. Trigger the EDR to stop malicious processes
2. Instruct the firewall to block outgoing traffic
3. Open a ticket for tracking the response
4. Notify personnel about the attack
5. Generate post-incident reports 

With XDR visibility, SOAR gets more information to prioritize and respond to threats across the ecosystem. For this reason, SOAR can be crucial for cloud forensics.

Different Use Cases for XDR and SOAR

However, XDR and SOAR don’t always go hand in hand. 

For teams looking for visibility and correlation alone, XDR might do the trick. These are teams that need to improve threat detection and gain visibility into individual endpoints, networks, and cloud environments. XDR will centralize that data; it just won’t offer response orchestration. With a team capable of handling incident response manually, identification of threats and visibility into endpoints and other systems is the true challenge.

Likewise, teams that have outstanding detection mechanisms — for instance, those who are using Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) or Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) — but who struggle with manual response processes, SOAR alone can help process tickets, automate repetitive tasks, and coordinate across toolsets.

Since SOAR relies on other visibility tools, organizations can’t look to SOAR alone. But for teams already using a SIEM solution, or even SOAR and an endpoint solution like EDR,  that collect and aggregate data from across the organization’s security landscape, SOAR can add organization to their existing, manual response workflows.

What About EDR, NDR, CNAPP, and the Rest?

For many organizations, the progression from SIEM solutions to EDR, then SOAR, or from SIEM to SOAR, or XDR, gets complicated along the way.

Endpoints are a logical and common first step that teams take to protect. That’s because 68% of organizations have experienced an endpoint attack that successfully compromised their infrastructure or data.

Unsurprisingly, EDR and XDR are typical first stops for enterprises looking to gain visibility into their ever-increasing and cloud-based ecosystems, as endpoints continue to be a primary target for attacks. EDR offers focused visibility into individual endpoints, for actionable data at the endpoint, so organizations can identify attacks at the source.

But with endpoint protection, some organizations look to strengthen their security position by radiating outward, adding network protection with NDR, and detecting threats or abnormal network behavior, like lateral movement, botnets, and data exfiltration. Others make use of XDR to extend protection across multiple layers, from network and endpoints to cloud systems. 

There’s also managed detection and response (MDR), in which third parties manage security threats, often using XDR platforms, but also security analysts, to monitor a client’s security stack and detect and respond to cyberattacks.

For others, managing cloud applications and addressing misconfigurations for compliance purposes means that multilayer protection comes from CWPP and CSPM in the form of CNAPP. That approach is designed more concretely for cloud infrastructures, managing:

• Misconfigurations in cloud (and sometimes on-premise) resources
• Vulnerabilities in cloud-native applications
• Insecure APIs and cloud interfaces
• Unprotected cloud storage or network settings

Organizations expanding with XDR need to see direct endpoints as well as networking patterns to and from those laptops, servers, and workstations. Meanwhile, CNAPP users benefit from core visibility into containers, Kubernetes environments, and ephemeral workloads.

But both groups look to SOAR when they want to improve incident response, automation, and efficiency. Both platforms feed SOAR systems information needed to trace attack paths and automate responses precisely. For example, if a CNAPP finds a vulnerability in a containerized application running on Kubernetes, SOAR can trigger a number of automated workflows: 

• Adjusting security policies
• Notifying security and development teams
• Patching the vulnerability

If the CNAPP detects an issue in a deployed app, SOAR can spin up remediation tasks like:

• Redeploying a patched version
• Patching infrastructure
• Isolating impacted cloud resources

For XDR users, when XDR tools detect unusual behavior on an endpoint, SOAR can:

• Isolate the endpoint
• Block malicious IPs
• Create a ticket and notify one or more teams for incident management
• Automate log data collection for forensics
• Trigger the automated revocation of access to resources impacted by the endpoint, blocking cloud access or resetting credentials

Step	Focus	Purpose	When?	Use Case
SIEM	Centralized logging and event correlation	Visibility into security events across sources	When an automated response is needed to improve efficiency and response speed	Collecting logs for compliance
EDR	Focused endpoint visibility, detection, and response	Monitors individual devices	When endpoints need detection of malware and unauthorized access	Detecting a phishing attack and blocking the compromised endpoint from network access
NDR	Network detection for abnormal behaviors, lateral movement, botnets, and data exfiltration	Detects suspicious network use	When securing the network layer to detect lateral movement, etc.	Detecting abnormal network use, indicating a potential incidence of lateral movement
XDR	Unified detection across endpoint, network, and cloud layers	Correlates endpoint, cloud, and network activity to identify advanced threats	When lacking visibility across endpoints, cloud, and network	Correlating data across layers to locate an ATP
CNAPP	Cloud security (but can include on-prem and hybrid assets) focused on misconfigurations, workloads, and cloud infrastructure	Secures cloud resources like containers, storage, and APIs	When lacking protection for cloud infrastructure and workloads and ensuring compliance	Detecting a misconfiguration in a running cloud app that is exposed to the internet, prioritizing its remediation, adjusting development best practices, and notifying teams
SOAR	Automated and orchestrated incident response	Automated detection and response across layers	When automated response is needed to improve efficiency and response speed	Automating the isolation of endpoints, blocking malicious IPs, or triggering forensics collection

Teams may start their security journey with SIEM tools for centralized visibility, progress to EDR for focused endpoint protection, and then expand with NDR or XDR for broader coverage across networks, endpoints, and cloud environments. 

For those with cloud-native workloads, CNAPP is a logical next step. It secures cloud-native applications and infrastructure, particularly around misconfigurations and vulnerabilities. SOAR is added later to automate and orchestrate response actions, speeding up incident remediation and improving operational efficiency once the volume of alerts from other tools overtaxes teams’ manual remediation efforts.

The ultimate benefit of combining XDR and SOAR is that XDR provides the visibility and detection needed across multiple layers, while SOAR makes for a coordinated response to those detections. 

However, tools like CNAPP offer another source of precise data, in this case, from cloud workloads, API activity, and identity security, all of which augment XDR’s already multi-layered approach and build the power of SOAR systems to automate even complex, multi-step responses.

The Future of Cybersecurity and Security Tools

A multi-layered security approach is here to stay as organizations embrace multiple environments and systems, all with complicated ways of communicating, scaling, and, ultimately, falling victim to attacks. 

Expect future security solutions to evolve not away from a multi-layered approach to tooling but into deeper integration, cross-layer visibility, and intelligent correlation across endpoints, networks, data sources, cloud environments, and even identity systems. Playbooks themselves will get smarter, based on their interactions with real-world attacks and vulnerabilities. With multiple layers streamlined, SOC teams will address prioritized alerts rather than a mountain of false positives as security operations teams leverage new security technologies that function more and more autonomously.

Expect a future where:

• Playbooks update themselves
• Threat hunting becomes proactive and predictive
• Incident detection and response are increasingly fully automated
• Unified security dashboards will integrate all tools, including XDR and SOAR solutions
• Security tools will learn from each other

Upwind Complements XDR and SOAR

With visibility into cloud resources and containers, Upwind builds a multi-layered defense by securing cloud-native workloads, filling gaps that XDR can’t, while integrating with it for better contextualized threat detection. At the same time, Upwind feeds SOAR platforms data on cloud-related security events for a more precise response. 

Want to see how Upwind combines with XDR and SOAR to help detect cyber threats and automate responses better? Schedule a demo.

FAQ

Does XDR replace SOAR?

No, XDR does not replace SOAR. XDR focuses on detecting and correlating threats across multiple security layers, while SOAR then automates responses to alerts and data collected by XDR. Working together, the 2 tools streamline detection and response so teams can realize the following advantages:

• Lower response times and less damaging breaches
• Fewer false positives, with correlated events across the environment, so teams can triage critical issues 
• Greater ability to actualize security gains from the telemetry XDR provides
• Visibility and response to anomalies that indicate compromise, not just signature-based threats, as antivirus tools once provided

How does XDR handle false positives in threat detection?

XDR handles false positives by using behavioral analytics to improve the accuracy of detection and prioritize alerts. XDR also leverages machine learning to correlate data from multiple layers to reduce the noise and better identify real threats. Here’s how it works:

• Machine learning: Analyzes patterns and learns from data to alert on truly abnormal behavior for any given system
• Correlation: Cross-layer data analysis reduces isolated false alarms by tracing movement through systems to connect anomalies 
• Contextual analysis: Focuses on behaviors and anomalies rather than predefined signatures
• Alert prioritization: Ranks threats based on severity to highlight the most relevant ones

All in all, XDR doesn’t just collect data. It reduces alert fatigue by correlating security data it receives across the environment, so it’s more proactive about critical potential threats, elevating them to the attention of the security operations center analysts who can address them.

Can SOAR integrate with legacy security systems?

Yes, SOAR typically integrates with legacy security to allow legacy systems to benefit from automated response. SOAR uses:

• APIs and connectors: Enabling integration with older systems.
• Custom scripts: Developers can use adaptive coding to connect legacy systems to SOAR workflows.
• Event ingestion: Legacy tools can still send alerts or data to SOAR platforms.
• Legacy support: SOAR can orchestrate responses even with outdated infrastructure.

Integrations are usually applied to older SIEM, firewall, EDR, and ticketing systems. With SOAR integrations, legacy systems like these gain automation, orchestration, and incident management to reduce overall manual intervention while maintaining functionality.

What are the deployment options for XDR?

XDR can be deployed in various configurations depending on an organization’s needs. The standard deployment options are:

• On-premise: XDR is deployed and managed within an organization’s internal infrastructure.
• Cloud-based: XDR is hosted and managed by a cloud provider. Cloud deployments offer more effortless scalability and remote management.
• Hybrid: A combination of on-premise and cloud deployments, often to balance security and flexibility and to support organizations that have both on-premise and cloud-based infrastructure, and possibly even edge devices. A hybrid XDR deployment will offer a unified security dashboard, data correlation, and automated response across environments.

How does SOAR improve compliance management?

SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) helps with compliance management by automating tasks like:

• Reporting
• Policy enforcement
• Remediation

It continuously monitors systems for compliance, automatically triggering actions for non-compliance and creating detailed audit trails for easy reporting. Because SOAR speeds up incident response by automating remediation and streamlining workflows, it also reduces compliance costs. SOAR also integrates with existing tools so teams get real-time risk assessments and visibility into compliance status.