What is EPP?

An Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) is a complete security toolkit that lives right on your devices—like your laptops, phones, and servers. Its job is to act as a modern guard, stopping common malware, spotting tricky malicious activity, and giving your security team the power to investigate and quickly fix any dynamic threats that get through, often serving as the first line of defense.

EPP vs. Antivirus

Feature  Traditional Antivirus (AV)  Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) 
Detection Method  Signature-based, known threats only.  Machine learning, behavioral analysis, heuristic analysis, sandboxing, and signatures. 
Scope  Primarily file-based malware prevention.  Prevention, detection, investigation, and remediation. 
Response  Quarantine or delete files.  Automated response, rollback, isolation, and guided remediation. 
Integration  Standalone.  Integrated with cloud management, threat intelligence, and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR). 

Core capabilities of an EPP solution

  • Proactive Threat Prevention: This is the smart defense. It uses sophisticated computer analysis (machine learning) to check out files and their characteristics before they even start running, blocking dangerous programs before they can execute.
  • Application Control: This simply lets you dictate exactly which programs are allowed to run on a device. By limiting unauthorized software, you significantly reduce the possible ways an attacker can gain entry.
  • Centralized Management Console: This acts as the command center. It gives your security team one easy dashboard to manage policies, see all threat notifications, and control every protected device across your entire organization.

Relationship between EPP and EDR

EPP is the prevention tool (First Line). Its main job is to stop threats immediately—think of it as blocking the intruder at the door before they ever get inside your system.

EDR is the cleanup and investigation tool (Second Line). If a threat somehow slips past EPP, EDR constantly records everything happening on the device. This information is crucial for deep dives, actively searching for threats, and automatically fixing problems, such as isolating a device or figuring out exactly how the attack started.

How Hexnode XDR Elevates Security through UEM Integration

Hexnode XDR moves beyond traditional EPP by natively integrating with the UEM platform. This creates a “full circle of security” encompassing prevention, detection, and response in a single, unified console, providing unique advantages:

  • Unified Management & Prevention: All XDR security alerts and UEM controls are managed from one dashboard. Hexnode uses UEM to enforce mandatory security baselines, reducing the attack surface before threats can even be detected.
  • Contextual Detection: Hexnode XDR collects endpoint telemetry and combines it with crucial UEM context—device compliance, user identity, and location. This integrated view provides the cross-domain visibility needed for faster, more accurate threat prioritization.
  • Dynamic Zero-Trust Enforcement: Hexnode instantly triggers UEM policy changes when a threat is detected. For example, a compromised device is automatically marked as non-compliant, immediately blocking its access to sensitive corporate resources via Conditional Access for a rapid, Zero-Trust response.