What to Look for in SOC as a Service (SOCaaS) Solutions

The needs of enterprises looking to protect themselves from nefarious network threats have never been higher. It seems as though hardly a day or week goes by without the world hearing about yet another high-profile data breach. The results of these intrusions can be costly in many ways. Data breaches can lead to substantial capital costs, as well as reputational ones. In some cases, it can lead to the loss of critical data related to trade secrets.

No matter the reason why your firm’s data is valuable to dangerous actors, it’s your responsibility to keep it safe. There are many tools and services out there designed specifically to help organizations do a better job of safeguarding their precious data assets. One of these is a Security Operation Center (SOC) as a service (SOCaaS). If this sounds like a foreign concept to you, you’re not alone. But don’t let the fancy acronyms scare you. The underlying principles of SOCaaS solutions is quite understandable.

Let’s dig deeper into the meaning and purpose of SOCaaS offerings. Then, we’ll investigate what to look for in SOCaaS solutions.

What Are SOC-as-a-Service Solutions?

Before diving into the full definition of the term SOCaaS, we have to break it down into its two component parts: SOC and aaS. A security operations center is basically just a backend team of engineers and cyber experts who keep your networks safe from threats. They’re responsible for a whole range of tasks and duties, which revolve around identifying and mitigating threats, as well as developing policies and protocols for better enterprise security.

The second part of the term refers to “as-a-service,” which is a familiar term to many. We won’t go over all the benefits of as-a-service offerings here, but these are a few of the many positives:

• Lower upfront costs due to being delivered through a subscription model instead
• Greater scalability and flexibility in delivering services
• Ability to generate high levels of return on investment due to greater performance despite lower inputs

There are many reasons to like as-a-service offerings. But what should stakeholders look for when evaluating SOC-as-a-Service solutions?

What to Look for in SOC-as-a-Service (SOCaaS) Solutions

With so many different security vendors out there, it’s essential to know what qualities to look for in a SOCaaS offering. These are a few of the top things to keep in mind when choosing your SOCaaS solution:

• No-downtime monitoring – If you’re paying for a SOCaaS, it needs to provide you with 24-7 monitoring from a top-level security team. Organizations with sensitive data assets need to take them seriously. A threat can occur at any time, which makes continuous monitoring a must-have for SOCaaS solutions.
• Qualified teams – Carrying on from the previous point, the people who are working in the SOC are as critical as the tools employed to protect your networks. You want a SOCaaS service that has some of the best engineers and experts around working there.
• Leverages most-current tools and techniques – Modern security best practices are far different than they were ten or 20 years ago. Today, artificial intelligence and machine learning are key components to keeping threats at bay. You only want to opt for a SOCaaS solution that has state-of-the-art technologies on its side.
• Integration with key security assets – No enterprise should put all its security chips on one service or platform. There are many different types of security solutions, such as Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Managed Detection and Response (MDR) that are also players in current security best practices. Being able to integrate these all through a single vendor can boost overall security through cross-domain intelligence, while also cutting down on costs.
• Regulatory compliance – It’s essential to make sure your SOCaaS is compliant with all relevant regulations that apply to your organization. Failure to do this can be highly damaging, especially if it turns out there’s a breach and data is exposed due to regulatory failure.

As with most things, it’s important to know how to make decisions about quality. The price for being wrong is high, considering the average data breach costs well over $4 million. Increasing complexities only create more challenges for network security. Understanding what to look for in SOC-as-a-Service solutions can help keep your networks safe from future threats.