Co-managed SOC vs. Fully Managed SOC: Which is Right for You?

Co-managed SOC vs. Fully Managed SOC: Which is Right for You?

Establishing a security operations center (SOC) as part of your organization’s cybersecurity efforts will give your organization’s cybersecurity defenses a tremendous boost against today’s adversaries. Ensuring round-the-clock detection and response will reduce your risk and help in the areas of compliance and cyber insurance. What’s not as clear for many organizations is how much of their SOC should be in-house and how much should they hand off to a third party given the options and expertise available in the cybersecurity industry. Whether a co-managed SOC or a fully managed SOC is a better fit will depend on the situation and goals of your organization.

What is a SOC?

In general, a SOC is the centralized function that monitors, analyzes, detects and responds to cyber threats 24/7. It’s a combination of cybersecurity experts and technology that correlates all the events and alerts that take place across endpoints, servers, cloud applications and other possible entry points for an attacker and decides what responses should take place, if any. A SOC is also responsible for finding ways to improve an organizations cybersecurity posture through threat analysis and assessing vulnerabilities.

Co-managed SOC vs. Fully Managed SOC

With everything a SOC is tasked with doing, it’s no surprise that many organizations work with a trusted partner to cover most or all of these duties. Creating and maintaining an in-house SOC that can offer 24/7 coverage is a challenging endeavor for any organization. Instead, most opt for a co-managed SOC or a fully managed SOC.

 Co-managed SOC – This is a partnership between in-house cybersecurity experts and a third-party security platform and professionals. The in-house team decides what it wants to handle and the rest is handed over to the partner.

Fully managed SOC – Just as it sounds, a third-party security partner handles all the aspects of the organization’s SOC.

Benefits of a Co-managed SOC

Many organizations like the ability to retain control over the core functions of a SOC, but not have to staff one for full 24/7/365 coverage. A co-managed SOC offers a tremendous amount of flexibility to an organization, allowing their in-house security team to focus on high-priority or high-value items while sending low-priority or low-items to their security partner. In-house teams can also leverage the expertise of their partner for more in-depth analysis or additional services such threat hunting, pen testing or incident response.

Benefits of a Fully Managed SOC

A clear benefit of a fully managed SOC is the ability to hand off the 24-hour duties of a SOC to a trusted partner. Organizations only have to choose a partner and the services they need based on their requirements and goals, and the rest is handled. Implementation is often fast, value is typically high, and solutions are scalable as the organization grows.

What SOC is Best for Your Organization?

It’s important to weigh the pros and cons of a co-managed SOC versus a fully managed SOC. While a co-managed SOC offers flexibility and control, it also requires organizations to hire and retain skilled cybersecurity professionals, which can be difficult, especially with the current global shortage of talent in cybersecurity. Long-term maintenance of the technology needed internally to co-manage a SOC can be a burden as well.

A fully managed SOC offers something like a “set and forget it” option, but because a third party is handling all aspects of the SOC, organizations need to select their partner carefully and ensure the solution or plan they adopt will offer the visibility and expertise they need to meet their goals. Transparency is critical to creating the trust needed for this kind of partnership.

There will always be other factors affecting your decision when choosing a SOC, such as budget, board/ELT approval, and compliance and insurance requirements. The important thing to remember is to keep your security goals paramount, because threat actors are only getting better at what they do.

Secureworks Taegis ManagedXDR

Secureworks® Taegis™ ManagedXDR can offer the best of both worlds when it comes to co-managed versus fully managed SOCs. Taegis ManagedXDR is a managed solution built on the Taegis XDR platform that offers superior detection and response across the entire threat landscape, along with human intelligence and expertise to defend against cyber threats. Taegis is an open-without-compromise platform that can integrate with your existing security technology and power your SOC to detect, respond and defend against advanced threats. You can avoid vendor-lock in and protect both your current and future security investments.

Taegis ManagedXDR can be implemented as either part of your co-managed SOC or as a fully managed solution that can be tailored with enhancements and add-ons to fit your organization’s goals and needs. Taegis ManagedXDR also offers access to deep expertise from out experienced cybersecurity professionals for guidance and collaboration. You can always reach one of our security experts within 90 seconds when you have questions.