A business's security operations center (SOC) is a business unit that contains all of a company's security personnel. These highly trained cybersecurity professionals monitor networks, inform organizational leaders of potential threats, address vulnerabilities, prioritize security operations, and respond to cyberattacks. While a SOC is an essential part of maintaining network security, it has a critical drawback. Maintaining an on-premise SOC is expensive. It requires the annual salary of highly trained cybersecurity professionals, infrastructure, and software required to protect your network.
As businesses consider these expenses along with the issues of a widening talent gap in the cybersecurity sector, many turn to SOC as a Service companies for a solution. SOC as a Service (SOCaaS) is a service provided by an external that manages your internal security in the same way as an on-prem SOC. SOCaaS providers use software and cloud-based services along with support from an experienced team of cybersecurity professionals to provide 24/7 protection against modern cyberthreats. If you're unfamiliar with SOCaaS, these articles can help you learn more about the services they provide.
Clearly, SOCaaS companies can provide value to companies of any size across all industries in today's expansive threat landscape. Still, it can be difficult to know where to start when deciding which company is right for you. This list offers a comparison of the top SOC as a Service companies and profiles the most important features of the services they offer.
Arctic Wolf SOC as a Service provides 24/7 protection from advanced persistent threats with technology, processes, and expertise supplied by a remote SOC. The platform continuously scans systems to identify vulnerabilities, provided unlimited log ingestion, and provides real-time issue escalation. Arctic Wolf's Concierge Security team works as an extension of your threat intelligence team to keep your business safe from threats in an ever-changing environment
Reviews from Gartner Peer Insights noted these pros and cons of Arctic Wolf managed services.
Pros
Cons
Arctic Wolf pricing options range from businesses with 1-50 employees to those with 5,000+, making it a solid choice for small businesses all the way up to large enterprises. Praise for extensive support options from reviewers means Arctic Wolf is likely a good choice for smaller companies or those with minimal security knowledge. The company notes working in the financial, healthcare, government, legal, and manufacturing industries.
Arctic Wolf pricing is based directly on the number of users, sensors, and servers in your network. Every plan provides unlimited data collection and storage as well as consistent support from security professionals. Customers need to fill out 4 questions on a form for a custom pricing quote.
Managed services from Rapid7 fall into three main categories, including managed vulnerability management, managed application security, and managed detection and response. Managed services unify advanced technology, security specialists, and solutions to find vulnerabilities in your network and practices. Services include depend on the service you choose, and may include vulnerability scans, app configuration, and complete MDR services.
Reviews from Gartner Peer Insights noted these pros and cons for Rapid7.
Pros
Cons
Rapid7 has customers in the media, education, finance, government, healthcare, manufacturing technology, and retail sectors. However, 46% of Rapid7 customers are Fortune 100 companies, suggesting that Rapid7 might not be an optimal choice for small to mid-size businesses. Reviewer mentioned that the user interface and deployment are complex, further supporting this theory.
Rapid7 pricing is custom quoted for your specific environment size. Pricing is based on the number of assets in your environment.
Reliaquest SOC as a Service combines the power of a security operations platform with security expertise for increased visibility and the ability to automate security actions. As a result, businesses can measure and manage risk for continuous improvement. The GreyMatter platform is cloud-native and automates detection, investigation, and response across applications, network tools, and endpoints. The platform offers real-time continuous measurement to map risk, understand coverage gaps, and benchmark performance.
Reviews from Gartner Peer Insights note these pros and cons for Reliaquest GreyMatter.
Pros
Cons
Reliaquest is a platform purpose-built to protect enterprise environments from security breaches. It is designed to work across complex environments to provide seamless visibility. Furthermore, several reviews mention a complex onboarding/integration process. As such, Reliaquest is likely to be a best choice for large businesses with multi-cloud environments.
Reliaquest offers three managed service plans, each offering additional services above and beyond the lower tier.
Each pricing model requires a customized quote.
CrowdStrike provides dedicated expertise and strategic guidance for log management and observability programs based on a scalable platform and modern architecture. Customers gain visibility into log data through powerful dashboards and workflows set up by the CrowdStrike team. Live streaming provides you with the capability to carry out investigations and collaborate across departments.
Reviews from Gartner Peer Insights noted these pros and cons for CrowdStrike Security Services.
Pros
Cons
CrowdStrike is well-established in the security industry and serves many well-known and Fortune 500 companies. The majority of CrowdStrike's customers fall into the company size of 10,000+ employees and 1,000 - 5,000 employees. As a result, Crowdstrike may be better suited to mid-size and larger enterprises than small businesses. Top industries served include technology, IT, and engineering.
Crowdstrike offers four pricing packages that cover its entire service lineup.
The Alert Logic SOC as a Service offering is a managed security solution designed to provide comprehensive security operations center (SOC) capabilities for businesses of all sizes. It offers 24/7 security monitoring, advanced analytics and machine learning for threat detection and response, incident response services, regular vulnerability assessments, compliance management and reporting, log management and analysis, threat intelligence, cloud-native architecture, and flexible pricing options.
Reviews from Gartner Peer Insights note these pros and cons for Carbon Black Cloud.
Pros
Cons
Carbon Black's endpoint security software is powerful and flexible enough to meet the needs of any size business. However, the platform is rich with complex features, requiring a dedicated IT department to deploy and manage the solution. For this reason, Carbon Black may be most suited to mid-size and larger companies.
Carbon Black pricing is based on customer needs and custom quotes are available through VMware or third-party partners. Pricing depends on factors like the number of endpoints protected and subscription term.
BitLyft AIR® is designed for businesses to leverage the best technology with highly trained security teams to defend against attacks. Services utilize next-gen SIEM technology along with skilled threat hunting provided by experienced cybersecurity professionals. Finely tuned SIEM tools reduce false alarms and reduce noise across your network, making threats easier to identify. Validated alerts, routing threat-hunting services, and remediation advice combine to provide integrated security that keeps your network safe 24/7.
BitLyft AIR® services include SIEM installation and management, regular reporting and check-ins, instant threat remediation, crowdsourced threat feeds, and SOAR technology. Users get access to dashboards and feedback on critical data for informed cybersecurity decisions. The SOC team provides dedicated 24/7 monitoring support and cybersecurity strategy for your IT team.
Reviews from Gartner Peer Insights note these pros and cons for BitLyft.
Pros
Cons
BitLyft works with a variety of companies to provide comprehensive security for small security teams and large enterprises. Custom support makes the platform a desirable choice for organizations with smaller IT teams. BitLyft's dedication to assisting with many different compliance requirements make the platform a good choice for industries that range from retail to healthcare and everything in between. BitLyft notes significant experience in the education, manufacturing, and energy sectors.
BitLyft offers affordable pricing for every business. Plans are charged monthly and vary based on the number of users. Custom quotes and options with added data storage are available upon request.
Different SOC as a Service offerings allow businesses to gain the advantage of working with experienced cybersecurity teams without the prohibitive costs of the salaries and infrastructure required by an on-prem SOC. In many cases, SOCaaS may be part of a larger security offering like MDR or EDR. To determine which services will best meet your needs, it's best to learn about all of the services provided and how they'll address your organization's unique security concerns. If you're worried you have gaps in security and don't know where to begin, the experts at BitLyft can help. Contact us today to learn more about the benefits of SOCaaS and other managed services designed to keep your organizational network safe from sophisticated cybersecurity threats at a price you can afford.