In case you don’t know, an SOC (Security Operations Center) is a central hub where security operations are overseen and managed by cybersecurity professionals. Not everyone utilizes this concept, but it has proven to be a very useful and practical one. Cybersecurity is so essential for modern businesses that it would be incredibly foolish to not invest in the best protections. Even one major attack can be enough to send a business into bankruptcy, and small businesses are particularly vulnerable.
In-House Vs Outsourced
As with many IT services, you have a choice between in-house employees and outsourced employees. Both options offer their pros and cons, so the choice may not always be an easy one. Let’s talk about the specific pros and cons of the outsourced approach, as it is the more popular option.
Pro: Access To A Bigger Set Of Skills
When you put together an in-house team, you have to make sure that they have all the skills and expertise that are needed. This is often done through the use of specialists who work together to create cohesive results. However, you may not always be able to find the right people for the team. Top-level IT people don’t grow on trees and so it can take some trial and error to find them.
With an outsourced security operations center, you don’t really have to worry about that. Your SOC provider will already have the right people for the job, and they should have people with experience in a wide range of fields. Even if a particular technician doesn’t know what to do in a particular situation, he can call someone who does. Thus, you get access to a much bigger pool of skills and experience. Thus, your IT support team becomes much less likely to run into an unsolvable problem.
Pro: Cost Savings
In most cases, companies do save money by using an outsourced approach. This is because you will not be paying a high hourly wage for that IT labor. Instead, most outsourced providers will require a monthly payment that covers all their services for the month. While there might be small fluctuations in that rate, it will be more or less consistent. In the end, you will save money because you will only be paying for the services you need.
Pro: Always Staying Current
Technology is an ever-evolving beast, and it’s more important than ever to keep up with those changes. However, the latest tech doesn’t tend to be cheap. In addition, the latest and greatest IT assets will often require some training in order to use them properly. This means sending your in-house IT employees to be trained, which also costs money. For small businesses, in particular, it is very difficult to keep up with the latest tech.
However, when you go with an outsourced approach, it’s a different story. While it may not be cost-effective for you to invest in the latest tech and training, it is definitely cost-effective for an IT/cybersecurity company to do that. Their entire business depends on delivering top-level service and so it is worthwhile to invest in the necessary tools. This is also good for you because you can gain access to the best technology without having to pay its full price.
Con: Potential Trust Issues
When you choose a cybersecurity provider of any sort, you are putting a lot of trust in them. They will have far greater access to your files and systems than the general public, so it would be foolish to shy away from considering the crucial factor of trust. Unfortunately, there are times when hackers and other such criminals have infiltrated legitimate companies (or even started their own companies).
The remedy for this is a diligent and proper investigation. A truly untrustworthy provider will have certainly left a trail of dissatisfied customers, and that is something you can research. Companies that have been in business for a long time without any hacking incidents are usually going to be more trustworthy, and it never hurts to check their BBB score. Either way, this is one potential con of outsourcing: You have to make sure you outsource the work to a trustworthy third-party company.
Con: Lack Of On-Site Support
No matter how good an outsourced team might be, there are certain problems that need to be handled on-site. Minor troubleshooting issues (which happen quite frequently) can usually be solved by an in-house technician very quickly. Getting that same assistance remotely might take a lot longer.
For this reason, many companies choose to employ a mixture of in-house and outsourced employees. If you go with a totally outsourced approach, you may find yourself without the on-demand help that so many people need. On-site support is particularly important for disaster recovery situations.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are both pros and cons to this approach. However, we feel that the pros outweigh the cons. Both of the major downsides of an outsourced SOC approach can be mitigated through good planning and prior investigation. A security operations center is a very crucial part of any cybersecurity setup, but you don’t necessarily have to set it up and run it yourself. There are all kinds of specialists out there who would be happy to help. If you are looking for managed service providers in Florida, or if you need help with any other IT-related matter, we would recommend calling PCH Technologies at (856) 754-7500.