Your antivirus is not enough. If your business still relies on the same antivirus product you installed five years ago, you are protected against yesterday's threats — not today's. Modern attacks bypass traditional antivirus within seconds. For a 50-person Irish business, choosing the right endpoint protection is one of the highest-impact security decisions you will make this year.
The problem is that the market is deliberately confusing. Vendors throw around acronyms — EPP, EDR, XDR, MDR — and every product claims to be the best. This guide cuts through the noise. By the end, you will know exactly what your business needs, what questions to ask, and what to avoid.
What Is Endpoint Protection, in Plain English?
An endpoint is any device that connects to your business network — laptops, desktops, phones, tablets, servers. Endpoint protection is the software that defends those devices against malware, ransomware, phishing, and other attacks.
Think of it as the lock on every door in your building. Traditional antivirus was a basic deadbolt. Modern endpoint protection is a smart lock with cameras, motion sensors, and an alarm that calls the security company.
The reason this matters for Irish SMEs is straightforward: endpoints are where most attacks begin. An employee clicks a malicious link. A laptop connects to an unsecured Wi-Fi network. A USB drive is plugged in. The NCSC Ireland consistently identifies endpoint compromise as the primary entry point for ransomware and business email compromise attacks targeting Irish businesses.
EPP vs EDR vs XDR: What You Actually Need to Know
The industry loves acronyms. Here is what they mean in practical terms:
| Term | What It Does | Who Needs It |
|---|---|---|
| EPP (Endpoint Protection Platform) | Blocks known threats — malware signatures, known bad files, basic behavioural detection | Every business, as a minimum |
| EDR (Endpoint Detection & Response) | Detects unknown threats by monitoring behaviour, records what happened for investigation, allows remote response | Any business with data worth protecting — which is every business |
| XDR (Extended Detection & Response) | EDR plus integration with email, cloud, network, and identity — correlates signals across your entire environment | Businesses with 100+ endpoints or complex environments |
For a 50-person company, EDR is the right level. EPP alone misses too much. XDR is typically overkill for your size and adds complexity you do not need yet. EDR gives you the detection capability to catch attacks that bypass basic defences, and the response capability to contain them before they spread.
That said, many modern products bundle EPP and EDR together. You are not choosing one or the other — you are choosing a product that includes both.
The 5 Questions to Ask Any Vendor
Before you evaluate a single product, arm yourself with these five questions. They will immediately separate the vendors who are right for your business from those who are trying to sell you something you do not need.
1. Does this require a dedicated security analyst to manage?
Some EDR products are designed for large enterprises with 24/7 security operations centres. They generate hundreds of alerts per day and expect a trained analyst to triage them. For a 50-person company, this is a non-starter. You need a product that either has built-in automation to handle routine alerts, or a managed service layer where someone else does the monitoring.
2. What happens when a threat is detected at 2am on a Saturday?
If the answer is "an alert is sent to your IT team," that is not good enough. Your IT person is not monitoring their phone at 2am. You need either automated containment (the product isolates the infected device immediately) or a managed detection and response (MDR) service that responds on your behalf.
3. What is the actual cost per endpoint per month?
Vendors love to quote per-endpoint pricing that excludes management, support, and the console licence. Get the all-in cost. For a 50-person company, expect to pay between €3 and €8 per endpoint per month for a solid EDR product with management included.
4. Does it integrate with Microsoft 365?
Most Irish SMEs run Microsoft 365. Your endpoint protection should integrate with it — pulling signals from email, SharePoint, and Teams to improve detection. If the product operates in isolation from your email and cloud environment, you are missing half the picture.
5. Can I get out if it does not work?
Check the contract length and data portability. Avoid three-year lock-ins. A good vendor is confident enough in their product to offer annual contracts.
Free Resource: Download The Irish SME Cyber Survival Guide — 10 controls based on NCSC Ireland & ENISA guidance. Plain English, no jargon.
What a 50-Person Company Actually Needs
Here is the honest truth: most 50-person companies are sold more than they need. A vendor will push XDR, a SIEM integration, and a threat intelligence feed — and suddenly your €4/endpoint/month product costs €15/endpoint/month with features nobody in your organisation will ever use.
What you actually need:
- EDR with automated containment — so infected devices are isolated immediately, even at 2am
- Cloud-based management console — so your IT person (or your managed security provider) can see all endpoints from one dashboard
- Microsoft 365 integration — so email-borne threats are correlated with endpoint activity
- Ransomware rollback or recovery — some products can automatically reverse ransomware encryption using shadow copies
- Reporting for compliance — NIS2 and cyber insurance both require evidence that endpoint protection is deployed and current
What you probably do not need yet:
- XDR with network and identity correlation (adds complexity without proportionate benefit at your size)
- Built-in vulnerability scanning (useful, but a separate tool often does this better)
- Threat intelligence feeds (your EDR vendor already incorporates this into their detection engine)
Why Management Matters as Much as the Product
Here is the part that most buying guides skip: choosing the right product is only half the battle. The other half is managing it properly.
An EDR product that is deployed but not monitored is like a burglar alarm that nobody listens to. Alerts fire. Nobody responds. The attacker moves laterally across your network while the dashboard flashes red in an empty room.
For a 50-person company, you have three options:
| Option | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Self-managed | Lowest cost | Requires security expertise you probably do not have |
| Vendor MDR add-on | Integrated with the product | Locked to one vendor; limited scope |
| Independent managed security provider | Vendor-neutral; manages your entire security stack | Slightly higher cost; requires trust |
At Pragmatic Security, we take the third approach through our managed security solutions. We select the right endpoint protection for your business, deploy it, configure it to your environment, and monitor it on an ongoing basis. If something fires at 2am on a Saturday, we respond — not your IT person.
The Bottom Line
Choosing endpoint protection for a 50-person company does not need to be complicated. You need EDR with automated containment, cloud management, and Microsoft 365 integration. You need someone competent managing it. And you need to avoid being sold features designed for organisations ten times your size.
If you are not sure where to start, or if you want an honest, vendor-neutral assessment of whether your current endpoint protection is actually protecting you, we can help.
Related Reading
- MFA: The Single Most Effective Security Control for Irish SMEs
- NIS2 Compliance Checklist for Irish SMEs
- The Hidden Cyber Anxiety of Irish SME Owners
Need Help Choosing?
If endpoint protection is on your to-do list but you are not sure which product fits your business, a 20-minute conversation will give you clarity. We will tell you what you need, what you do not, and what it should cost.
Book a free 20-minute strategy call with our vCISO team. Vendor-neutral advice for Irish SMEs — no sales pitch, no obligation.
Sources: NCSC Ireland — Cybersecurity for SMEs, ENISA — Threat Landscape 2024
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