Redazione RHC : 1 September 2025 07:22
In recent years, companies have faced a radical shift in managing their cybersecurity. The growing complexity of digital infrastructures, the spread of remote working, the progressive adoption of the cloud, and the digitalization of processes and services have transformed the corporate perimeter into something extremely dynamic and often difficult to control, and perhaps even complicated to understand. In this context, the simple adoption of protection tools is no longer sufficient: constant, active protection is required, capable of reacting in real time and, ideally, anticipating threats.
This is where the Security Operations Center, or SOC, comes in. A function that until a few years ago was the exclusive preserve of large companies, has now become a critical component even for medium-sized businesses, given the intensification and sophistication of cyber threats. But managing a SOC internally is far from simple.
Building a SOC means having a highly specialized technological infrastructure capable of collecting, correlating, and analyzing large volumes of data from endpoints, networks, systems, and applications. It also means equipping yourself with orchestration and automated response tools, updated SIEM systems integrated with threat intelligence sources, and, above all, a team of analysts capable of interpreting signals, distinguishing false positives from real indicators of compromise, and taking prompt action. All this while ensuring continuous coverage, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. An extremely demanding objective, both technologically and humanly.
This objective difficulty has made the managed SOC option increasingly attractive, and in many cases crucial, entrusting security management to a highly specialized external partner. Unlike an in-house solution, a SOC as a Service allows companies to access an already established structure, equipped with advanced technologies and, above all, professional skills that are difficult to replicate in-house.
A managed SOC typically operates with teams divided into 24-hour shifts, staffed by expert analysts, threat hunters, and incident responders, and has response playbooks. Furthermore, thanks to the interaction with threat intelligence experts who, among other activities, analyze feeds—both open source and commercial—the SOC is able to maintain an updated alert level on the global threat landscape, intercepting emerging indicators even from unconventional sources such as the dark web or underground forums.
The strength of a managed SOC also lies in the network effect: while an internal SOC is exposed only to its own context, a SOC managing multiple clients can earlier recognize common trends, recurring attack patterns, and weak signals, thanks to cross-data correlation. In Olympos Consulting’s experience, this approach has allowed them to block ransomware campaigns still in the preparatory phase, thanks to the timely identification of indicators of compromise seen on other targets. A series of anomalous VPN access attempts, initially considered low-impact, were quickly elevated to a concrete threat after the same pattern was recognized on other clients belonging to the same managed SOC. The combined effort allowed us to activate effective countermeasures very quickly and apply these countermeasures to all other customers.
Another concrete example concerns a company hit by a supply chain attack. Our managed SOC identified anomalies in the behavior of API calls to external services and, thanks to a preconfigured use case, isolated the attack before it could propagate. This is an operation that an internal SOC, perhaps operating only during office hours and with limited resources, would have been unlikely to have managed with the same effectiveness and timeliness.
Even from an economic perspective, a managed SOC often proves to be the most sustainable choice. While creating an internal SOC requires significant investments in licenses, infrastructure, training, and personnel, the “as a Service” model allows these costs to be transformed into a predictable, scalable, and calibrated item based on actual needs. Technically, this shifts from a capex model to an opex model, which is more agile and compatible with the variability of company budgets. In other words, you have access to a top-notch service without having to incur the costs of creating and maintaining a dedicated structure. Last but not least, an opex model, being a “current expense” (you buy a service), offers the tax advantage of being immediately deductible compared to a capex model, which involves multi-year depreciation of materials that are subject to very rapid obsolescence.
Of course, not all managed SOCs are the same. Service quality depends greatly on the level of customization, transparency in communication, process maturity, and the provider’s ability to adapt to the customer’s context. In Italy, one of the players that has distinguished itself in this sector is Olympos Consulting, a company with solid experience in cybersecurity and a client portfolio that includes leading organizations. The value of a partner like Olympos lies not only in the technology adopted, but also in its ability to support internal teams, contribute to building a culture of security, and provide useful reporting for regulatory compliance purposes.
Furthermore, the SOC services provided are not limited to monitoring and response. They also offer proactive solutions such as threat hunting, attack simulation (red/purple teaming), cyber posture analysis, and crisis management consulting. In this sense, a managed SOC can become a natural extension of the corporate IT team, offering not only responsiveness but also strategic vision.
The key message is that today, even medium-sized companies, no longer have to choose between “doing it themselves” or “doing nothing.” They can access an advanced, professional level of security that is aligned with current threats by relying on qualified partners who offer customized SOC services. The goal is not wholesale delegation, but rather to build an intelligent synergy in which internal skills are enhanced, not replaced. And in an era where speed of detection often makes the difference between an incident avoided and an operational disaster, this synergy can truly make a difference.
Outsourcing the SOC is not a compromise, but a strategic decision. It means equipping yourself with the tools, skills, and resources needed to address an ever-evolving threat landscape, without burdening your organization with technical and operational complexities that aren’t your core business. Above all, it means putting digital resilience at the center, making security an ally for innovation and business continuity.
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