Written by Ryan Pieken – Sr. Consultant – CIO/CISO Services – OXEN Technology
Let’s be honest for a moment.
If your organization is running Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) alone—without a Security Operations Center (SOC)—you don’t really have a security strategy. You have some software that is a last line of defense and in many cases the only line of defense.
EDR by itself is not protection by today’s standards. It lacks key components-visibility & control.
And in 2026, that gap matters more than ever.
The False Comfort of “At Least We Have EDR”
EDR tools do a good job of answering one question:
“Something bad might be happening—did you see it?”
What they don’t answer is far more important:
- Who is watching those alerts at 2:00 a.m.?
- Who decides what matters and what doesn’t?
- Who connects endpoint activity to identity compromise, cloud misuse, or compliance risk?
- Who responds—immediately—when something crosses the line?
Without a SOC, EDR leaves those questions unanswered. The EDR only model is broken.
This is the reality of point solutions. They protect against specific scenarios, but they don’t protect the whole business.
Security Is No Longer a Product Decision—It’s a Platform Decision
One of the biggest mindset shifts leaders must make is this:
Cybersecurity is not an IT upgrade cycle.
Traditional thinking says, “We bought a tool, let’s use it as long as we can.” That approach might work for printers or switches. It does not work for modern threat landscapes—especially as adversaries increasingly leverage automation and AI.
The organizations that will succeed are the ones that stop asking,
“What tool should we buy next?”
and start asking,
“What platform will protect us over time?”
This is where Business Protection Security (BPS) changes the conversation.
Why BPS Is a Bold—but Necessary—Move
BPS is not just another security product layered on top of EDR. It is a platform-based security strategy that leverages what many organizations already own in Microsoft 365 and turns it into something far more powerful.
With BPS, security stops being reactive and fragmented. Instead, organizations gain:
- SOC-backed monitoring and response, not just alerting
- Identity protection tightly integrated with user activity
- Malicious site and threat blocking across the environment
- Compliance and security visibility that leaders can actually understand
Most importantly, BPS evolves. It is not static. As Microsoft expands capabilities across its ecosystem, your security posture grows with it—without constant rip-and-replace decisions.
That is the power of a platform.
Adding SOC to your EDR vs. Platform Security
Many organizations ask me, “Why not just add SOC to my EDR?”
Here’s the hard truth: limited visibility with limited control is still limited security.
EDR and SOC models can tell you what happened. Platform security lets you decide what is allowed to happen in the first place.
BPS empowers organizations to:
- Set proactive controls
- Align security with business risk
- Adapt quickly as threats and regulations change
That difference is not academic—it’s operational. And it’s the difference between surviving an incident and preventing one.
Security investment Isn’t Reckless—It’s Responsible
There’s a natural hesitation to move slow on technology upgrades. Leaders want to capture the most value out of the current hardware/software that they can.
But cybersecurity doesn’t reward waiting.
Threat actors do not wait for your budget cycle. They do not care if your board has “seen enough value yet.” The speed of change—especially with adversarial AI—demands a security posture that can move just as fast.
Adopting BPS isn’t about chasing trends. It’s about ensuring your organization is never stuck defending yesterday’s environment against tomorrow’s threats.
The Question Leaders Should Be Asking in 2026
The real question is no longer:
“Is EDR good enough?”
The question is:
“Are we building security that will still serve us three, five, or ten years from now?”
If the answer depends on bolting on more tools, more dashboards, and more exhausted staff—then the answer is already no.
Final Thought: Choose the Platform, Not the Patch
Running EDR without a SOC is like installing cameras without anyone watching the feed. It feels responsible. It looks responsible. But when something goes wrong, it doesn’t protect you.
Likewise, adding SOC to your existing EDR is like having someone watch that camera feed, but without the ability to see your whole environment and also not being able to add locks, fences, and guard dogs where needed.
BPS represents a deliberate, confident step forward—a move away from fragmented security and toward a unified, evolving platform designed to protect the business, not just the endpoints.
In 2026, bold security decisions aren’t optional. They’re leadership.
