2026 Gartner® Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response

The report states, “MDR services provide customers with remotely delivered, AI-augmented, human-led, turnkey, modern SOC functions, ultimately delivering cyberattack disruption and containment. Cybersecurity leaders should use this research to identify MDR services that meet their business-driven risk requirements.” It also states, “Gartner has included a range of providers in this research to ensure coverage from geographical, vertical, and capabilities perspectives. Gartner estimates that more than 600 providers in this market claim to offer MDR services.”

eSentire is named as a Representative Vendor in the 2026 report.

Some of the Key Findings in the Gartner® Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response include:

• “Managed detection and response (MDR) services that focus primarily on vendor-specific technology fail to deliver value beyond their chosen platforms. As a result, they do not align with buyers seeking an outcome-driven solution across platforms.”
• “Integrated threat detection, investigation, and response (TDIR) capabilities are a fundamental requirement for buyers of MDR services, who expect remotely delivered solutions that are implemented swiftly and reliably.”
• “Established MDR buyers routinely ask providers to extend their requirements beyond TDIR to include the proactive identification and mitigation of threat exposures.”
• “As MDR customers advance their internal SOC operations and AI-driven solutions begin to actively contain or disrupt threats and exposures, the expectations for MDR solutions are changing. MDR buyers now place greater importance on trust, transparency in delivery technologies, and the ability to access self-service options.”

The Recommendations in the report state that “Cybersecurity leaders responsible for security operations should:”

• “Use MDR services to obtain 24/7, remotely delivered, security operations capabilities when there are no existing internal capabilities. MDR services should also be used when the organization needs to accelerate or augment existing security operations capabilities.”
• “Investigate whether the MDR provider’s service aligns with your business-driven requirements, such as data residency requirements, by using requests for proposals (RFPs) and proofs of concept (POCs). Determine whether the service provider successfully reacts to actionable findings that internal teams understand, rather than settling for recited technology outputs with no added analysis.”
• “Assess how the MDR provider’s containment approach and incident reporting integrate with your organization. Also decide what type of actions will be performed on your behalf to align with business and compliance requirements, legal policies, and government regulations.”
• “Attain the maximum benefit from MDR services by having the provider show you how they evaluate outcome efficiency and continuous improvement across detection engineering, response action, exposure management, and MITRE ATT&CK framework coverage. Have the provider also explain how automation, orchestration, and the use of agentic processes support the change.”

Download the 2026 Gartner® Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response to learn more about MDR services, the direction of the MDR market, and the list of Representative Vendors.