MDRs and MSSPs vs Prophet Security

Security leaders adopted MDR and MSSP programs to gain continuous monitoring, response coordination, and clear ownership across vendors. The model works well when most risk sits on endpoints and the toolset is limited. It also helps new programs stand up 24 by 7 coverage without hiring a full team.

Today the picture looks different. Identity has become the primary attack surface. Environments span cloud, data platforms, SaaS, and remote work. Alert signal now lands across EDR, IdP, cloud, email, and business apps. Human only models struggle to investigate medium and low severity alerts at scale, and that is often where early evidence of compromise lives. Suppression and detection tuning can remove noise but also hide weak signals. Analyst variability adds drift and makes audits harder.

Prophet Security offers an agentic AI SOC platform that investigates at machine speed, follows expert reasoning, and shows every step. It adapts to your investigative procedures and business context on day one. The goal is broader coverage, faster and more consistent determinations, and a fit that does not require ripping out your stack.

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Where MDRs and MSSPs fit

The value they provide include:

• Staffing coverage and true 24 by 7 monitoring
• Vendor management and ticket handling
• Response coordination and communications
• Compliance support and routine reporting

When they are a good choice:

• Greenfield programs that need monitoring now
• Compliance driven operations that benefit from third party oversight
• Teams that prefer to outsource daily monitoring and case routing

What we hear from teams moving away from MDR (and why)

These quotes recur in customer conversations and map to consistent pain patterns.

• “I don’t see the rationale for their decisions”
  Alerts are closed out without insights. How can I trust judgement calls when it's not clear why something was closed out?
• “I am not getting enough coverage.”
  We invested in EDR and IdP in a hybrid environment and still need broader investigative coverage across identity and cloud. In many programs, identity, SaaS, and cloud signals remain under investigated, so early lateral movement and account takeover slip through.
  
  
• “I am not getting enough value.”
  You focus on Critical and High. Our team still handles Medium and Low. We feel like we are doing more of the work. The constraint is human time, which forces severity filters. That choice reduces perceived value and leaves weak signals unreviewed.
  
  
• “Not enough configurability.”
  Response steps feel static. We need procedures that adapt and improve. Services struggle to align to each organization’s investigative procedures and context, which creates review cycles and rework.
  
  
• “You are too slow.”
  Forty five minutes might hit an SLA, but identity misuse and cloud configuration changes can escalate much faster. The window for containment narrows while a ticket waits in queue.
  
  
• “You are missing activity, and that worries me.”
  We have seen missed account compromise and red team tests. Filters and suppressions drop “low fidelity” alerts that sometimes carry the first breadcrumb. When early evidence is filtered, false negatives rise and confidence falls.
  
  
• “I want my vendor to look at things I care about.”
  Many services suppress customer detections that look noisy or they deem unimportant, which defeats the purpose.

Cost considerations

Cost is not always the primary driver, but it matters. Some teams pay for MDR and still staff internal triage for Medium and Low alerts. That double spend invites a review when outcomes do not match expectations.

Why low and informational alerts matter

Two patterns show up across programs:

1. Not reviewing lower severities due to perceived value.
   Informational and low fidelity alerts are suppressed because they are not considered worth a human’s time. That choice can hide early evidence that matters later.
   
   
2. Detection engineers hold back good ideas.
   Teams want to monitor new activity but worry the added signal will overload analysts. Even with orchestration, it still feels like more weight on a stretched team. 

How Prophet Security addresses those gaps

Investigate 100 percent of alerts at machine speed

Prophet AI delivers more accurate and complete investigations by autonomously correlating data across your EDR, Identity Provider (IdP), cloud, email, and SaaS environments, all while leveraging organizational context. This results in significant customer benefits: shorter dwell times, reduced exposure, faster response times, and fewer actions required.

Expert level depth and consistent outcomes

The platform asks the probing questions a senior analyst would ask, in order, without drift. It avoids data entry errors and produces consistent close reasons that stand up to audit.

Customer controlled detections and procedures

Customers shape investigations with feedback and through adding their own questions or playbooks. Prophet AI adapts to investigative procedures and business context from day zero. Feedback improves accuracy and trust over time.

Explainability and transparency

Every step is visible. Leaders can review questions asked, evidence used, and how the conclusion was reached.

Works in your stack

Integration quality matters more than quantity. Prophet AI fits your workflow and pushes outcomes back into SIEM, case manage

Request a demo of Prophet AI to see it in action.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How does Prophet Security compare to traditional MDR and MSSP services?

Prophet Security compares to traditional MDR and MSSP services by focusing on depth and consistency of investigations rather than simply escalating alerts. Where MDR and MSSP vendors often prioritize scalable detection and may lack full organizational context or detailed investigations, Prophet Security runs deeper, evidence backed investigations for every alert and exposes its reasoning so you can audit decisions.

Can Prophet Security replace my existing MDR or MSSP provider?

Prophet Security can replace an MDR or MSSP provider for organizations that already have strong detections and want autonomous, always on investigations instead of an outsourced analyst team. Many security programs choose a phased approach, starting with Prophet Security as an AI SOC Analyst and gradually reducing reliance on MDR or MSSP services as confidence in automated investigations grows.

Can I use Prophet Security together with an MDR or MSSP service?

You can use Prophet Security together with an MDR or MSSP service to combine outsourced detection coverage with automated investigations. In this model, the MDR focuses on generating and escalating high quality alerts, while Prophet Security acts as an AI SOC platform that performs the deep investigations, correlation, and enrichment that many MDR teams struggle to deliver at scale.

What types of alerts and data sources does Prophet Security investigate compared to MDR and MSSP vendors?

Prophet Security investigates alerts across endpoint, identity, cloud, email, and software as a service applications by connecting to the tools you already run in your SOC. Traditional MDR and MSSP vendors often focus most of their effort on endpoints and a limited set of log sources, whereas Prophet Security is built to investigate every alert that arrives, including alerts from custom detections, with consistent lines of questioning.

How does Prophet Security impact investigation speed and dwell time versus MDR or MSSP models?

Prophet Security improves investigation speed and dwell time by running parallel, autonomous investigations at machine speed instead of queuing tickets for human analysts. AI SOC Analysts can begin working an alert in seconds and complete a full investigation in minutes, which reduces the time that threats remain undetected compared to human only MDR or MSSP workflows.

When is an MDR or MSSP a better fit than using Prophet Security alone?

An MDR or MSSP is a better fit than using Prophet Security alone for organizations that lack basic detections, need hands on phone coverage for incident escalation, or have compliance requirements that favor a third party provider of managed security services. In those cases, Prophet Security can still add value as an AI SOC platform that strengthens investigations while the MDR or MSSP handles contractual obligations and human response.