The 2025 Gartner® Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response Services comes at a pivotal moment - buyers now expect MDR providers not just to detect and respond, but to reduce exposure, integrate seamlessly, and scale with modern architectures. Below are four lessons we believe are most relevant, and how Rapid7 has aligned to address (and exceed) them.
1. Exposure detection is gaining ground
Gartner® projects that by 2028, 50% of MDR findings will include threat exposures, up from ~20% today.
We believe this reflects an important shift in how MDR services are expected to operate: helping teams identify not just threats in progress, but the conditions that make those threats possible. At Rapid7, our MDR service is purpose-built to include vulnerability and risk management for a holistic view of your security posture, reducing risk while we keep eyes on your environment 24/7, investigate threats, and keep your environment safe.
As demand for exposure-aware MDR continues to grow, we’re committed to giving security teams more ways to see and reduce risk before it becomes an active incident.
2. AI = Assistance, not autonomy
While automation is increasingly table stakes, Gartner® emphasizes MDR must remain human-led. AI should support, not replace, skilled analysts.
We believe our Agentic AI model strikes the right balance - enriching alerts, drafting response paths, and filtering noise, while keeping analysts in the driver’s seat. Our global SOC validates workflows as they investigate to ensure precision, transparency, and trust.
3. Identity, SaaS & Cloud are the new battlegrounds
MDR must now extend far beyond endpoints. According to Gartner®, effective detection and response increasingly require visibility across Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platforms (such as AWS and Microsoft Azure), Software as a Service (SaaS) environments (like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace), and identity systems that manage access across both.
At Rapid7, our MDR service is built with this in mind. Our Command Platform and Insight Agent provide visibility across cloud workloads, identity activity, access pipelines, and hybrid environments, with added support for the 3rd party security tools teams rely on, helping them detect and disrupt attacks before they escalate.
4. MDR must be outcome-driven, not alert-driven
We feel Gartner® makes it clear: detection alone isn’t enough. The real value of MDR lies in the business outcomes it drives - threat containment, exposure reduction, and measurable time savings.
We believe outcome-driven MDR means more than just surfacing alerts. It means seeing issues through to resolution, with workflows that triage, prioritize, and trigger action. At Rapid7, we embed this principle across our MDR service, with built-in remediation support, unlimited DFIR, and SOC-led hardening and mitigation guidance that gets results, not just data.
It’s not about the number of alerts. It's about keeping your business and customers protected from today’s sophisticated breaches.
Raising the bar for MDR
The MDR market is maturing and with it, so are buyer expectations. According to Gartner®, outcome-driven response is no longer a differentiator, it’s the baseline.
We believe Rapid7 is already delivering on this evolution: combining 24/7 human-led coverage, exposure-aware investigation, and automated workflows that move security teams from overwhelmed to empowered. It's not just about responding to threats - it’s about reducing them before they impact your business.
Download the full Gartner® Market Guide to explore where MDR is headed next, and how Rapid7 helps you stay ahead.
⠀
Gartner, Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response Services, Pete Shoard, Andrew Davies, Angel Berrios, 1 October 2025.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
- Managed Detection and Response (MDR)