# Managed SOC vs. DIY: Which Approach Fits Your Team?

By SenseOn Research Team · 2025-01-10

Every security leader faces the same fundamental question: should we build our own security operations centre or partner with a managed SOC provider? The answer depends on your team’s size, expertise, budget, and risk profile.

## The Case for In-House

Building your own SOC gives you direct control over every aspect of your security operations:

- **Deep institutional knowledge**: Your team understands your environment, business processes, and risk appetite better than any external provider
- **Custom detection logic**: Tailor rules and playbooks to your specific threat landscape
- **Career development**: Build internal expertise and retain institutional knowledge
- **Faster escalation**: No handoff delays between detection and response

The challenge is scale. A 24/7 SOC requires a minimum of 8–12 analysts across shift rotations, plus management, engineering, and threat intelligence roles. For most mid-market organisations, that’s a £600K–£1.2M annual commitment in staffing alone.

## The Case for Managed SOC

Managed SOC providers offer security operations as a service, typically bundled with a SIEM or XDR platform:

- **Immediate coverage**: 24/7 monitoring without building a team from scratch
- **Shared expertise**: Access to a larger pool of analyst experience across many customer environments
- **Predictable costs**: Fixed monthly pricing simplifies budgeting
- **Faster time to value**: Operational in weeks, not months

The trade-off is depth. Managed SOC analysts serve multiple customers and may lack the context to distinguish genuine threats from benign anomalies in your specific environment.

## The Hybrid Approach

SenseOn’s managed SOC offering takes a different approach. Our cross-domain correlation handles first-line detection and triage, dramatically reducing the volume of events that require human analysis. This means:

- **Leaner team requirement**: 2–3 analysts instead of 8–12 for equivalent coverage
- **Higher-quality escalations**: Analysts receive pre-correlated, high-fidelity cases
- **Built-in context**: The platform learns your environment automatically
- **Flexible scaling**: Add managed SOC coverage for off-hours or full 24/7

Whether you build in-house or use our managed service, the cross-domain correlation engine ensures your analysts spend time on real threats instead of chasing false positives.

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**Related reading:**

- [MDR vs MSSP: Which Managed Security Model Is Right for You?](/content/blog/mdr-vs-mssp/index.html)
- [Cybersecurity for the Mid-Market](/content/blog/mid-market-cybersecurity/index.html)
- [How to Reduce Alert Fatigue](/content/blog/reduce-alert-fatigue/index.html)