Resources · SOC
What is a SOC? The security operations center explained
A security operations center (SOC) is the team that continuously monitors a company’s IT for attacks, assesses incidents and initiates countermeasures. It can be built in-house or obtained as a service.
Updated on November 14, 2026
FIGWhat Is a SOC?
What a SOC does
- Monitor: collect and analyze events from firewalls, endpoints, identities and the cloud.
- Assess: separate real incidents from false alarms and prioritize them.
- Respond: isolate systems, lock accounts, secure evidence.
- Report: situation overview for management, notifications to authorities.
Metrics: MTTD and MTTR
Two metrics show how well a SOC performs: mean time to detect (time until detection) and mean time to respond (time until a documented response). There is also the false positive rate, which shows how much time is lost on irrelevant alerts.
Build it yourself or use a service?
A 24/7 in-house SOC requires several shifts of experienced analysts – hard to staff for many mid-sized companies. Alternatives are a managed SOC from a service provider or a small internal team supported by automation.
How XMfortress makes a small SOC strong
XMfortress Detect condenses thousands of events into a few prioritized incidents; Respond handles the first response according to fixed rules. This enables a team of 2 to 10 people to run a SOC. For service providers, the platform is multi-tenant – see also SIEM alternative.
01Platform
Related products
02FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How much does a SOC cost?
That depends on coverage and operating model. A 24/7 in-house SOC is staff-intensive; automation and managed models reduce costs significantly.
What is the difference between a SOC and a SIEM?
A SIEM is a tool for collecting and correlating events. The SOC is the team, with its processes, that uses these tools.
What is SOC as a service?
An external service provider takes over monitoring and first response, often around the clock, based on a shared platform.
Know your exposure.
Control your risk.
3Contact
Talk to us about your attack surface, your priorities and the right way to get started with XMfortress.