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If you’re considering managed detection and response (MDR) for your organization, you probably have questions about how it’ll actually work day-to-day with your existing security staff. Will your team lose control? Will communication be clunky? Who makes the final call when there’s a threat?
The truth is, MDR isn’t about replacing your security team—it’s about amplifying what they can do. Think of it as bringing in specialized reinforcements who work alongside your people, not over them. The best MDR providers operate as true partners, integrating seamlessly with your team’s workflows and communication channels to create a stronger, more resilient security operation.
Let’s dive into exactly how this partnership model works in practice.
How does MDR collaborate with my internal team?
The partnership model is at the heart of effective MDR services. Your MDR provider becomes an extension of your security team, working closely with your IT and security staff to understand your unique environment, business priorities, and risk tolerance. They learn what’s normal for your organization so they can better spot what’s abnormal.
This isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it arrangement. Quality MDR providers function as strategic advisors rather than just technical service providers. They get to know your organization before a crisis occurs and work cohesively during an attack, which delivers faster mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR) while minimizing the business impact of security incidents.
The collaboration typically works through a shared responsibility model where duties are clearly divided. The MDR provider handles tier-one and tier-two functions—alert monitoring, initial triage, and first-response containment. Your internal SOC team focuses on tier-three activities like strategic security planning, policy development, and organization-specific security initiatives requiring deep business context.
This hybrid approach lets your in-house team focus on high-value activities without burning out on alert triage. As one security professional put it, MDR providers help internal teams “focus less on noise and more on detection engineering and higher severity alerts.”
What are MDR communication methods?
Communication channels make or break the MDR partnership. The days of submitting tickets and waiting hours for responses are over. Modern MDR providers offer real-time, direct communication that feels like your analysts are sitting right next to the MDR team.
Slack integration has become the gold standard for MDR communication. Many providers offer dedicated Slack channels where your security team can communicate directly with MDR analysts in real time. This isn’t just convenient—it’s transformative. You can ask questions, share context, and get immediate updates on active investigations without leaving the collaboration tools you already use daily.
Beyond Slack, comprehensive MDR providers typically offer multiple communication touchpoints:
The Expel Workbench™ platform, for example, provides live updates, direct analyst access, and comprehensive incident reports all in one place. You see what the MDR team sees, creating complete transparency into investigations and remediation activities.
Email notifications remain important for formal incident reporting. Upon confirmation of malicious activity, MDR providers publish incidents to their online portal and notify customers immediately, ensuring key stakeholders stay informed even if they’re not monitoring Slack or the platform. Many MDR platforms also offer ticketing integration with popular ITSM tools like ServiceNow or Jira, automatically creating tickets for incidents requiring your team’s action and keeping them synchronized with the MDR platform’s incident status.
For critical incidents, many MDR providers escalate to direct phone or video calls, particularly when rapid decision-making is needed or complex remediation requires detailed discussion. This multi-channel approach ensures nothing falls through the cracks.
What makes this communication model work is its proactive nature. MDR analysts update customers throughout the investigation process, not just at the end. You’re never left wondering what’s happening with a potential threat.
Does MDR replace my security team?
This is one of the most common concerns organizations have when considering MDR, and the answer is nuanced: it depends entirely on your organization’s security maturity, business requirements, and strategic goals. MDR can replace a SOC team, augment an existing team, or provide SOC capabilities where none previously existed.
For organizations without a security operations center, MDR effectively replaces the need to build an internal SOC. Building and staffing an in-house SOC requires at least eight to ten full-time employees to maintain 24×7 coverage, not to mention the costs of security tools, training programs, and ongoing talent management. MDR flips this model by providing immediate access to experienced security professionals through a service subscription.
However, for organizations with existing security teams, MDR works as team augmentation rather than replacement—functioning as a force multiplier for your security operations. One security director noted they were able to avoid backfilling two positions and save roughly $200,000 because the MDR partnership freed their team from alert fatigue and allowed them to focus on higher-value work.
The partnership model works because MDR providers don’t aim to replace your security team—they aim to amplify its effectiveness. Your team retains ownership of security strategy, policy decisions, and organization-specific initiatives. The MDR provider handles the heavy lifting of 24×7 monitoring, alert triage, and initial incident response.
According to research from external cybersecurity firms, co-managed security models are increasingly popular, where security experts collaborate with existing teams. The internal team takes care of day-to-day security tasks while the MDR provider supplies additional support, advanced threat intelligence, and expert guidance as needed. This option allows businesses to maintain control over their security while benefiting from specialized resources and expertise, especially when dealing with complex or large-scale threats.
How do I work with an MDR provider?
Working with an MDR provider should feel collaborative and transparent, not like handing over the keys to an outsider. The relationship starts with a thorough onboarding process where the MDR team learns your environment, business context, and security priorities.
During implementation, integration typically happens quickly—often within hours or days. The MDR provider connects to your existing security tools via APIs, including your endpoint detection and response (EDR) systems, security information and event management (SIEM) platforms, cloud security tools, and network monitoring solutions. There’s no need to rip and replace your current tech stack.
Once operational, the day-to-day workflow follows a clear pattern. The MDR platform continuously ingests security data from your environment. When alerts fire, the MDR provider’s detection technology and human analysts triage them, filtering out false positives and investigating legitimate threats. For confirmed incidents, you receive immediate notification through your preferred communication channel—Slack, email, or direct call.
Here’s where the collaboration really matters: escalation procedures and decision-making authority. Clear communication protocols and defined roles and responsibilities ensure rapid and effective response during incidents. Your organization maintains final decision-making authority on significant actions, while the MDR provider executes containment steps within agreed-upon parameters.
For example, if the MDR team identifies a compromised endpoint, they might immediately isolate that device from the network to prevent lateral movement—that’s standard containment. But for broader remediation steps that could impact business operations, like disabling a user account or shutting down a critical server, they’ll consult with your team first and provide detailed remediation recommendations.
The transparency extends to ongoing operations as well. Quality MDR providers offer full visibility into all activities performed by analysts. You can log into their platform anytime to see active investigations, review past incidents, track metrics, and understand your security posture. Some providers even enable you to have a Slack channel where your CSO, your analyst, and your MDR provider are all talking together at 2am—creating a true partnership feel even during the middle-of-the-night emergencies.
What does MDR team integration look like?
MDR team integration manifests in several practical ways that strengthen your overall security posture. The most effective partnerships create a scalability buffer—during major incidents or periods of heightened threat activity, having both internal SOC and MDR resources means you can scale response efforts without overwhelming your team.
Technology leverage represents another key integration benefit. Your MDR provider typically brings advanced detection and response technology that integrates with your existing security tools, enhancing visibility without requiring you to purchase additional platforms. They layer their threat detection rules and analytics on top of your current tech stack, delivering richer, higher-fidelity insights than those tools could provide on their own.
Knowledge transfer forms a crucial but often overlooked aspect of MDR integration. Throughout your partnership, your internal team learns from the MDR provider’s expertise. When the MDR team explains why certain alerts matter, shares threat intelligence about emerging attack patterns, or walks through their investigation methodology, your team gains skills and understanding that strengthens your security program long-term.
Let’s walk through a day-in-the-life scenario to see this integration in action:
Morning (9am): Your security analyst Sarah logs into the MDR platform to review overnight activity. She sees the MDR team investigated three alerts, resolved two as false positives, and escalated one medium-severity incident involving suspicious PowerShell execution on a marketing workstation.
Mid-morning (10:30am): Sarah receives a Slack notification indicating the MDR team has detected potential credential stuffing attempts against your customer portal. The MDR analyst shares initial findings in your dedicated Slack channel, including affected IP addresses and user accounts. Sarah provides business context—those accounts belong to a recent marketing campaign—helping the analyst understand this is likely legitimate unusual activity, not an attack.
Afternoon (2:15pm): A high-severity alert fires. The MDR team immediately isolates the affected endpoint and opens a critical incident in the platform. Within minutes, they’re on a video call with Sarah and your IT director for a joint investigation, walking through what they’ve found: ransomware attempting to encrypt files.
Evening (7pm): Most of your team has gone home, but the MDR team continues monitoring. They proactively hunt for any signs the ransomware moved laterally and provide a detailed incident report documenting the attack chain, indicators of compromise, and recommended security improvements to prevent recurrence.
This isn’t a fictional scenario—it’s how modern MDR partnerships actually function. The MDR provider handles the continuous monitoring, rapid initial response, and after-hours coverage while your team maintains strategic oversight and makes business-critical decisions.
Who makes final decisions on security actions?
Decision-making authority represents one of the most important elements to clarify in your MDR partnership. The answer depends on your organization’s risk tolerance, compliance requirements, and the specific MDR service model you choose.
Most MDR providers offer different response models to match organizational needs. In a fully managed model, the external provider takes full responsibility for monitoring, detecting, and responding to threats on behalf of the organization. They execute containment and remediation actions within predefined parameters you establish during onboarding.
In a co-managed model, your internal security team collaborates closely with the MDR provider. The internal team handles day-to-day security tasks while the MDR provider supplies additional support, advanced threat intelligence, and expert guidance as needed. Decision-making is shared, with the MDR team typically handling routine containment actions and escalating more significant remediation decisions to your team.
There’s also a guided remediation model where the MDR team alerts your internal team and provides detailed remediation guidance, but your team executes the actual response actions. This works well for organizations who want to maintain hands-on control of their environment.
Regardless of the model, establishing clear communication and response protocols from the start ensures everyone understands escalation procedures, decision-making authority, and responsibilities. This transparency between the MDR provider and internal security teams ensures rapid and effective response during incidents.
A helpful framework is thinking about routine vs. significant actions:
Routine containment (typically MDR-authorized):
- Isolating compromised endpoints
- Blocking malicious IP addresses
- Quarantining suspicious file
- Disabling compromised service accounts
Significant remediation (typically requires customer approval):
- Taking production systems offline
- Disabling executive user accounts
- Implementing network-wide policy changes
- Major configuration changes to critical infrastructure
Your MDR provider should document these decision-making boundaries in your service agreement, and you should revisit them periodically as your environment and risk profile evolve.
Key takeaways
Working with an MDR provider doesn’t mean surrendering control of your security—it means gaining a trusted partner who amplifies your team’s capabilities. The collaboration happens through real-time communication channels like Slack, shared platforms that provide complete transparency, and clearly defined responsibilities that keep your team in the driver’s seat for strategic decisions.
Whether MDR replaces, augments, or establishes your security operations depends on your current maturity and goals. But in all cases, the best MDR providers operate with a partnership mindset, becoming an extension of your team rather than an external vendor.
The day-to-day reality involves continuous collaboration, shared decision-making on significant actions, and the peace of mind that comes from 24×7 expert coverage. Your analysts focus on strategic, high-value work while the MDR team handles the endless stream of alerts and initial incident response. Together, you create a stronger, more resilient security program than either could achieve alone.