TL;DR: Use three criteria to pick the right managed detection and response partner - critical capabilities, operational excellence and trust-governance - then prove outcomes in 90 days with clear SLAs, proactive tuning and continuous improvement.
In our recent webinar, Part 3 of the 3-part Boardroom Briefing Series: Managed Security - The Security Playbook: From RFP to Day 90 - Benchmark Providers, Luke Elston discussed how leaders can benchmark providers, select with confidence, and prove value quickly.
Choosing a managed detection and response partner is a strategic call. The wrong choice adds noise, cost and risk. The right choice reduces time-to-detect and time-to-respond, simplifies operations and shows clear ROI. Here is a practical, executive-ready checklist you can use from RFP through the first 90 days.
“If you’re buying MXDR, buy action. Alert-only is a false economy.”
— Luke Elston, Microsoft Practice Director, CyberOne
The Decision Framework: Score Providers through Three Criteria
1. Critical Capabilities
Detection engineering that cuts noise: Look for high-quality analytics mapped to MITRE ATT&CK, frequent content updates and a track record of lowering false positives. Ask for the current signal-to-noise ratio and how it is improving.
Response that means action: Do not settle for alert-only. Define what “respond” covers in practice - from isolation of endpoints and identities to containment in cloud workloads - and insist on a real MTTR.
Coverage without hidden costs: Confirm log sources on day one, including custom and third-party. Get clarity on ingestion, retention and cost controls upfront.
True 24x7x365: Expect round-the-clock operations with clear on-call procedures for weekends and bank holidays.
2. Operational Excellence
Microsoft-first integration, smart automation: Your partner should use Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Entra as the spine, with automation that accelerates triage while keeping a human in the loop for risky actions.
Transparency you can audit: require exportable rules and playbooks, monthly service reviews, and KPI reporting that shows detection quality, MTTR, and containment outcomes.
3. Trust & Governance
Data sovereignty by design: If sovereignty matters, keep telemetry within your tenant with the least-privileged provider access.
People, scale, and handovers: Probe SOC staffing, certifications, and the follow-the-sun process. Validate the incident lifecycle from triage to root cause analysis.
Red flags: Vague service descriptions, black-box tech, opaque SLAs and refusal to share sample reports.
Validate Before You Commit: Run a Proof of Concept
A focused PoC is the fastest way to test claims. Expect rapid onboarding, integration with your Microsoft estate, a small set of custom rules and objective success measures - MTTR, time-to-contain and incident quality. Set a 30- to 45-day window and treat it as a mini go-live.
“Prove value in 90 days or less with measurable MTTR and transparent SLAs.”
— Luke Elston, Microsoft Practice Director CyberOne
Day 0 to 30: Lay Foundations that Remove Blind Spots
- Governance: Agree on Rules of Engagement, escalation paths and out-of-hours contacts
- Data onboarding: Connect priority sources quickly to avoid coverage gaps
- Baselines: Enable initial reporting and noise-reduction hygiene
Day 31 to 60: Optimise & Customise
- Service review: Hold a monthly review with your CSM and a SOC engineer
- Cost and noise: Tune ingestion and analytics to reduce spend and false positives
- Custom content: Deploy the first wave of bespoke rules and playbooks
- Evidence: Share SLA and KPI performance with trendlines
Day 61 to 90: Prove Continuous Improvement
- Roadmap: Maintain a living plan of enhancements tied to business risk
- Innovation: Turn lessons into standard content, not paid extras
- Outcomes: Show improvements in MTTR, containment scope and analyst efficiency
What This Means for Your Business
- Reduced risk and faster response through proactive hunting and clear containment
- Lower cost-to-serve by trimming noisy signals and optimising data ingestion
- Board-ready evidence with transparent KPIs, playbooks and audit artefacts
- Future-ready operations aligned to Microsoft Security product evolution and responsible AI
Status Quo vs with Microsoft + CyberOne
|
Decision Area |
Status Quo |
With Microsoft + CyberOne |
|
Detection & Response |
Alerts passed to IT team, manual best effort |
Managed response with defined MTTR and clear containment |
|
Coverage |
Partial sources, hidden fees for “custom” logs |
Planned onboarding of all priority sources with cost controls |
|
Visibility |
Opaque rules, sporadic reviews |
Exportable rules, monthly reviews, KPI and SLA reporting |
|
Governance |
Unclear data location and handovers |
Data in your tenant, follow-the-sun process, documented RCA |
|
Improvement |
One-and-done onboarding |
Continuous roadmap and quarterly enhancements |
Likely Objections & Crisp Responses
“We only need alerting. IT can handle response.”
Alert-only pushes risk back to you and lengthens MTTR. If you buy MXDR, buy action.
“AI runs the SOC for us.”
AI accelerates the triage. Humans should make containment decisions for safety and accountability.
“We will add coverage later.”
Delayed ingestion creates blind spots. Connect top data sources in the first month.
“We cannot share rules.”
Lack of transparency limits assurance and improvement. Ask for exportable content and sample reports.
Why Microsoft and Why CyberOne
Why Microsoft
Microsoft’s security platform is consistently validated by independent analysts, including leadership positioning in the Gartner Magic Quadrant and quantified customer value through Forrester Total Economic Impact (TEI) studies. This external validation matters because it demonstrates not just feature depth, but proven effectiveness at scale.
From an operational standpoint, Microsoft delivers integrated security signals across endpoint, identity, email and cloud, enabling faster correlation and containment than fragmented, multi-vendor stacks. Analytics and automation are natively embedded within Microsoft Defender XDR and Microsoft Sentinel, reducing reliance on manual triage and improving response speed.
Crucially, Microsoft’s identity-first architecture, anchored in Microsoft Entra, enables quick detection and containment of compromised accounts, which is essential given that identity remains the primary attack vector in most breaches.
Why CyberOne
CyberOne delivers the UK’s most advanced AI-augmented Managed eXtended Detection & Response (MXDR) services, powered by Microsoft and realised by experienced security practitioners. This combination of Microsoft-native technology and expert-led operations enables organisations to outpace modern threats rather than react to them.
CyberOne operates a 24×7 CREST-accredited Global Security Operations Centre (SOC) that works directly within your Microsoft environment. This approach ensures complete visibility and control of your data, avoids unnecessary data movement and supports regulatory and sovereignty requirements. When incidents escalate, NCSC-certified Cyber Incident Response is available on demand, ensuring serious events are handled with the appropriate authority and rigour.
The service is outcome-first and SLA-backed, covering detection, investigation and response rather than alert-only monitoring. CyberOne is accountable for reducing dwell time, containing threats and continuously improving security posture, addressing one of the most common failures in managed security services: visibility without action.
CyberOne is highly certified by Microsoft and leading industry bodies, including MXDR Verified status and membership in the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA). These designations are not decorative. They assure how the service is delivered, how incidents are handled and how outcomes are measured. Customers can expect disciplined delivery, clear evidence and operational maturity, not opaque reporting.
Through Microsoft-native accelerators, CyberOne enables rapid onboarding, predictable cost control and analytics tailored to each customer’s environment. Ongoing value is demonstrated through monthly, board-ready reporting, including evidence of risk reduction, response performance and return on investment.
The result is not just coverage but measurable, provable security outcomes delivered transparently, aligned with regulatory expectations, and designed to support long-term business resilience in an evolving threat landscape.
Want a Full Walkthrough?
You can watch Parts 1, 2 and 3 on demand. The Boardroom Briefing Series provides business leaders with a practical view of modern security performance, highlighting what works, what does not, and the metrics that matter for resilience, cost control, and confident board decisions.