2026 WINNER · CYBERSECURITY STARS AWARDS
Ontinue ION MXDR
Most Innovative XDR Platform
Overview
Ontinue delivers nonstop managed security operations through its Agentic SOC, a new operating model built for the Autonomous Threat Era. Combining multi-agent AI systems with expert human cyber defenders, Ontinue helps CISOs stop threats, reduce operational risk, and scale security operations at machine speed without sacrificing human oversight or accountability. The ION SecOps Platform is developed inside a live MDR operation and it’s shaped daily by experts. It continuously learns from millions of real-world investigations to accelerate detection, investigation, response, and posture hardening. As a Microsoft-first provider, Ontinue helps organizations maximize Defender, Sentinel, Entra, and Security Copilot investments while achieving faster containment, fewer escalations, lower operational burden, and measurable security outcomes.
Key Capabilities
Ontinue's ION SecOps Platform delivers nonstop managed security operations through an Agentic SOC, a fundamentally new cybersecurity operating model designed for the Autonomous Threat Era, where attackers increasingly operate at machine speed. Built natively for the Microsoft security ecosystem, ION combines multi-agent AI systems, deterministic automation, and expert human cyber defenders to continuously prevent, detect, investigate, and respond to threats with speed, context, and accountability.
Key capabilities and differentiators include:
- Agentic AI Autonomous Investigations: In December 2024, Ontinue became the first Microsoft-focused MXDR provider to operationalize autonomous Tier 2 investigations in live production for all customers. ION's multi-agent AI system autonomously gathers telemetry, correlates evidence, develops investigative hypotheses, and executes investigations similarly to a Tier 2/3 analyst, while maintaining human governance and customer-defined guardrails.
- Governed Autonomy: Unlike traditional automation, ION enables organizations to incrementally delegate decision-making and response actions based on policy, confidence thresholds, and risk tolerance while maintaining complete transparency, auditability, and human oversight.
- ION IQ Intelligence Layer: ION continuously builds a customer-specific "world model" using telemetry, identity, asset, business, historical, and threat intelligence context to improve decision quality, reduce false positives, and enable more accurate autonomous response.
- Microsoft-Native Operationalization: Purpose-built for Microsoft Defender, Sentinel, Entra, and Security Copilot, Ontinue helps customers maximize ROI, consolidate redundant tools, and reduce SecOps data costs while improving protection.
- Real-Time Collaboration and Transparency: Through deep Microsoft Teams integration, customers collaborate directly with Ontinue defenders and AI systems during active incidents, replacing slow ticketing workflows with real-time decision-making and full operational visibility.
- Proven Outcomes at Scale: Ontinue autonomously resolves 99.5% of incidents without customer involvement, reduces Mean Time to Investigate (MTTI) by 50%, lowers analyst workload, and continuously strengthens customer security posture through proactive recommendations and prevention-focused operations.
How we are different
Most MXDR providers still operate on a legacy model: human analysts manually investigating alerts across fragmented tools, with automation limited to basic Tier 1 triage and enrichment. As attackers increasingly leverage AI to operate at machine speed, that model is no longer scalable.
Ontinue fundamentally reimagined security operations through its Agentic SOC, an operating model where AI agents, automation, and human cyber defenders work together as a single governed system. Rather than simply accelerating workflows, Ontinue applies AI to the hardest problem in cybersecurity: scaling investigation and decision-making without sacrificing trust, transparency, or human accountability.
Ontinue became the first Microsoft-focused MXDR provider to operationalize autonomous Tier 2 investigations in live production for all customers. Its multi-agent AI system autonomously gathers telemetry, correlates evidence, develops investigative hypotheses, and executes investigations similarly to an experienced Tier 2/3 analyst, while maintaining human governance and customer-defined guardrails. Unlike static automation or scripted SOAR workflows, Ontinue's Agentic AI dynamically adapts to each incident using customer-specific context, identity intelligence, historical behavior, business risk, and learned operational patterns.
This approach delivers materially different outcomes from traditional MDR models: 50% reduction in Mean Time to Investigate (MTTI), 99.5% of incidents resolved without customer involvement, dramatically reduced alert fatigue, and significant time returned to customer security teams.
Ontinue also differentiates itself through its exclusive Microsoft focus. While most competitors treat Microsoft as one of many supported ecosystems, Ontinue was purpose-built around Microsoft Defender, Sentinel, Entra, and Security Copilot. This depth enables customers to optimize Microsoft investments, reduce redundant tooling, lower SecOps data costs, and improve protection simultaneously.
The company further differentiates through real-time operational collaboration directly inside Microsoft Teams, replacing slow ticketing portals with live engagement between customers, Ontinue Cyber Defenders, and AI systems during active incidents.
Most importantly, Ontinue's differentiation is validated through measurable customer outcomes. AmerCareRoyal achieved a 50% reduction in MTTI, saved 30 analyst hours in 90 days, and improved its Microsoft Secure Score to 70% above industry average. DO&CO reduced SecOps data costs by 40% year over year, while other customers reduced escalations to near zero and achieved enterprise-grade protection in weeks rather than months.
Unlike legacy MDR providers retrofitting AI into existing workflows, Ontinue built its Agentic SOC as a continuously learning system designed for the Autonomous Threat Era, where the future of cybersecurity depends on governed autonomous defense operating at machine speed.
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