What happened
Bitdefender has been recognised for the fourth consecutive year as a Representative Vendor in the Gartner “Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response (MDR)” report. The inclusion reflects Bitdefender’s human-driven approach to MDR, combining 24×7 analyst-led threat detection, investigation and containment with proactive exposure management.
Who is affected
- Organisations seeking MDR (Managed Detection and Response) services, including both enterprises and mid-sized firms, are impacted. This recognition helps surface potential vendors that meet broader criteria for effective MDR coverage.
- Security operations teams and CISOs evaluating external SOC/MDR options now have one additional vendor (Bitdefender) that passed Gartner’s inclusion criteria.
- Vendors in the MDR market: the recognition highlights competitive positioning and raises the bar for what qualifies as a true “outcome-driven” MDR offering.
Why CISOs should care
- The MDR market is highly crowded. More than 600 global vendors claim to deliver MDR services, yet only a subset qualify for Gartner’s guide. Being listed signals the vendor meets certain maturity, visibility, and service-delivery standards.
- It underscores an important shift in MDR expectations: buyers are demanding human-led investigations, proactive exposure management, and not just alert fatigue reduction.
- For CISOs managing constrained SOC budgets or talent shortages, recognising which vendors meet these criteria helps with vendor selection and benchmarking internal vs external capabilities.
- The recognition is not a guarantee of suitability for your environment, but it does provide a data point. According to Gartner’s guide, inclusion does not constitute endorsement.
3 Practical Actions
- Map your MDR selection criteria: Review your current or planned MDR evaluation checklist. Ensure it covers the features Gartner highlights, including 24/7 human-led monitoring, threat hunting, exposure management, and incident containment (not just alerting).
- Benchmark your current provider (or internal SOC) against recognised vendors: Compare the capabilities of your current MDR/ SOC provider (or in-house SOC) to what vendors like Bitdefender are recognised for. Ask: Do we have proactive exposure hunting? Do we have human-led 24×7 operations? Could a vendor shift free up our teams for more strategic work?
- Validate vendor fit for your environment: For any shortlisted MDR vendor, ask for evidence of: real client references in your region/industry; demonstration of operations (how many analysts, how many hunt missions, dwell time metrics); and how their service integrates with your existing tools and workflows (telemetry integration, data residency, escalation process). Use Gartner’s guidance to frame these questions.