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Ask Google AI Managed Detection and Response (MDR) has become an increasingly important security operations model for organizations facing growing cyber risk, expanding attack surfaces, and limited internal security resources. For many, MDR offers a practical way to strengthen detection and response capabilities without having to build and sustain every function entirely in-house.
But adopting MDR isn’t just about deciding to outsource part of security operations. It also reflects a set of underlying priorities: what organizations believe they need most, where they see the biggest gaps, and what outcomes they value enough to invest in. Those priorities not only determine whether MDR is adopted, but also how organizations evaluate providers and define success.
To better understand how organizations think about these questions, we recently conducted our annual survey of Athena MDR customers.
In Part 1, we focus on findings related to adoption drivers, security goals, and desired MDR outcomes. While many of the individual responses are not surprising, the real insight lies in the relative weight of the top selections—some of which may challenge how organizations think about their own cybersecurity priorities.
The Gap Isn’t Just Talent—It’s Capability
Survey question: What were the primary reasons your organization adopted MDR?
It’s often assumed that organizations adopt MDR simply because they are understaffed. However, the data suggests otherwise. Significantly more respondents cited the need for support from a professional security team (89.1%) than insufficient internal manpower (67.4%), indicating that the challenge goes beyond headcount alone.
Many organizations may already have IT or security teams in place. The deeper issue is whether those teams have the expertise, experience, and operational maturity to detect and respond to threats consistently and effectively. In this context, MDR isn’t just about adding people; it is about strengthening security capability.
Key takeaway: When evaluating your security posture, look beyond team size. Assess whether your team can make sound decisions under pressure and manage incidents with consistency.
Stopping Attacks Often Matters More Than Avoiding Disruption
Survey question: What are the top cybersecurity goals your organization aims to achieve with MDR?
While ensuring business continuity remains a key objective, rapid detection and containment ranked even higher. This suggests that many organizations are willing to accept some level of disruption if it helps stop an attack early.
It reflects the understanding that the longer an attack is allowed to continue, the greater the damage it can cause as it spreads and escalates, and that this damage may outweigh the impact of short-term business disruption.
Key takeaway: Some disruption when responding to a security incident is inevitable. The key is to determine in advance which systems can be isolated immediately and which must remain operational at all costs. These decisions are far more effective when made ahead of time rather than under pressure.
Organizations Focus on What They Can Clearly See, Not Necessarily What Matters Most
Survey question: If you could choose only two outcomes from MDR, which would you prioritize?
The large gap between 24×7 threat detection and monitoring and faster incident handling highlights a common tendency: organizations often prioritize the gaps they can clearly see. If no one is actively monitoring systems, the gap feels immediate and obvious. By contrast, weaknesses in incident response often remain hidden until a real incident occurs.
However, the outcome of a cyber incident ultimately depends on how quickly and effectively threats are investigated, decisions are made, and containment actions are carried out.
Key takeaway: In security strategy, strong protection depends not only on detection coverage, but also on the ability to respond quickly and effectively. The same principle applies when evaluating MDR providers. However, not all MDR providers offer the same level of response capability, so look beyond detection coverage and assess how well providers can act in real time.
Conclusion: What These Findings Suggest for Security Leaders
These findings are drawn from organizations using Sangfor Athena MDR, but the patterns may still be relevant to other organizations evaluating how to strengthen detection and response capabilities.
One clear theme is that capability appears to matter more than capacity alone. Additional manpower may have limited impact if it is not supported by the expertise and operational maturity needed to detect, investigate, and contain threats effectively. The results also suggest that rapid detection and containment remain important priorities. However, this depends not only on 24×7 monitoring, but also on efficient incident handling when an incident occurs.
Whether an organization is building these functions internally or assessing MDR providers, these findings offer a useful reference point for considering which capabilities are most important in supporting security operations.
