How is our technology protected before a patent is granted?

It depends upon what you mean by "protect" - before a patent actually issues, you do not actually have protection from the perspective of suing someone for patent infringement. However, once you have a patent application on file, and it has published, you have effectively put the world on notice that you will potentially receive a patent at which time you will then be in a position to sue for patent infringement if in fact someone infringes your claimed invention. In addition, as a result of filing your patent application, you are effectively "protected" from someone else getting a patent for the same invention who files a patent application subsequent to your patent application filing because as of March, 2013, the USPTO went to a "first-to-file" system whereby the first party to file a patent application for a particular invention is automatically the senior party with respect to that invention which means that your patent application, for its disclosure, will effectively serve as prior art against a subsequently filed application for the same invention whereby the second/subsequent party will be prevented from obtaining their patent in light of your disclosure.