As cyber threats continue to grow more sophisticated, the demand for dynamic, scalable security solutions has led to the increasing adoption of Security Operations Center as a Service (SOC as a Service, or SOCaaS).
The SOC as a Service model offers a significantly more cost-effective alternative for organizations without the resources to establish full-scale, in-house security operations centers (SOCs). This comprehensive guide details the significance of SOC as a Service in advancing organizational cyber security and outlines its key benefits, what to look for in a provider and more.
What is SOC as a Service?
Effective cyber security management demands a combination of technology, intelligence and expertise. A SOC plays a critical role in providing this, delivering the capabilities required to maintain and improve cyber security around-the-clock. SOC staff are responsible for using the tools at their disposal to ensure that potential security incidents are identified as early as possible and response actions are put in place to remediate them quickly and effectively.
Traditional in-house SOC models present many limitations for organizations seeking to keep pace with the fast-changing threat landscape. Internally run SOCs can put significant financial and practical pressure on companies without the resources to run them effectively. This is because of the requirement to hire, train and retain technical specialists and maintain professional accreditation, alongside the constant need for technology to keep up-to-date with changing threat actor types and tactics.
SOCaaS is an outsourced security service that provides organizations with enterprise-scale SOC capabilities on a subscription basis. It works as a virtual extension of in-house resources to deploy and manage security technologies, monitor and triage alerts, analyze and investigate threats, and support incident response. SOC services can take different forms, such as a fully outsourced SOC, a virtual SOC or a co-managed SOC, in which responsibilities are shared between the buyer and the service provider.
Critical advantages of SOC as a Service include its scalability, flexibility and capacity for integration with organizations' existing cyber security frameworks. This model provides all the advantages of a SOC without the typical cost of acquisition. It is a more seamless and cost-effective option for organizations that lack the necessary budget and resources to build an in-house operation. As a result, many businesses are now looking to outsource part or all of their SOC capability.
The Development of SOC as a Service
The SOC has undergone a significant shift from traditional, resource-intensive security operations to cloud-based, managed solutions. It has changed greatly in recent decades, originating as a function used only by government and defense organizations. The role of SOCs for businesses was initially covered by a traditional network operations center (NOC), which managed network device management and performance monitoring. Early SOCs were responsible for functions such as managing virus alerts, detecting intrusions and responding to incidents.
SOCs started out as relatively small internal teams of technical specialists working under constant pressure to monitor and manage potential security threats. As organizations’ IT infrastructures have grown in complexity and threat actors have evolved in sophistication, SOCs have needed to keep up. The modern SOC has changed to become more proactive, combining automation with human expertise. The ongoing rise of the responsibilities of the SOC alongside increasing costs means that outsourcing these types of requirements has become a popular option, leading to the rise of SOCaaS.
