The escalation of cyber-attacks with greater frequency and sophistication confronts Indian organisations with mounting demands for being able to detect, respond to, and contain attacks within a short timeframe. A Security Operations Centre (SOC), when integrated into an organisation’s security programme, is fundamental in delivering these capabilities; however, one of the major questions confronting organisations about SOC is whether or not they should build and operate their own SOC or procure Security Operations Centres as a Service (SOCaaS).
At this moment, the compelling argument for SOCaaS has positioned many businesses in India to transition towards this model.
Establishing a SOC internally is typically thought of as the “best” option; however, the facts tell a different story.
An internal SOC also requires:
Recruiting and keeping accomplished individuals in Security Roles is difficult. There aren’t enough accomplished Security Analysts; there are many other possibilities for the accomplished Security Analyst to leave their jobs.
As a result, the Internal SOCs for many Companies are only manned during regular business hours providing many opportunities for gaps in security at all other times (nights, weekends, & holidays).
SOC as a Service offers organizations access to a fully operational, always-on security team without the overhead of building everything internally.
With SOCaaS, organizations gain:
For Indian organizations especially mid-sized enterprises-SOCaaS delivers enterprise-grade security capabilities that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to maintain internally.
One of the biggest benefits of SOCaaS is cost savings. Traditional SOC implementation requires considerable capital costs for infrastructure, tools, and staffing. Each customer pays only for what they use with SOCaaS and therefore realizes cost savings.
Another benefit of SOCaaS is the ability to quickly and easily scale when a business grows, or the threat of a security event increases. Specially, as the business grows or experiences increased exposure to threats, SOCaaS can scale immediately as opposed to going through the long process of onboarding additional staff, sourcing resources, and redesigning the necessary systems to accommodate additional personnel.
The time to profit is critical for companies that have implemented SOCaaS. Customers using the SOCaaS model can be up and running within weeks of signing their new contract; there are no long wait times like building an internal SOC.
Indian Businesses are encountering more stress from the government through increased rules and regulations, such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, DPDP Act, RBI Guidelines and various other national or sector-related requirements.
SOC as a Service provides the following services to help meet these compliance requirements:
These services are especially beneficial to those organizations participating in customer security reviews or regulatory audits.
For large organizations with:
…a hybrid or internal Security Operations Center (SOC) can be achievable. Yet, these organizations are now using cooperative managed SOC models and outside resources to supplement their staff and gap filling talent.
Discussions in India regarding the purchase versus build debate have evolved to consider operational efficiency also.
SOC as a Service allows organizations to move from a reactive to proactive security model with improved threat awareness and response, which enables enterprises to remain viable without having to invest in the capital to build an entire SOC internally. For many enterprises especially those facing labour shortages and increasing threats-SOCaaS is the most appropriate choice, not one of many alternatives.
Ancrew Global works with enterprises to implement SOC as a Service that meets individual enterprise needs, including risk profile, compliance, and overall business objectives, so that enterprises can achieve defined security outcomes (i.e., preventing/detecting) rather than simply being notified of incidents that have occurred.