Building an in-house 24×7 SOC typically needs 8 to 12 skilled analysts for round-the-clock shift cover, plus SIEM/XDR tooling, engineered detections and ongoing retention, which is slow and expensive to stand up. Buying a managed SOC or MDR gives 24×7 coverage in weeks at predictable cost. Most Indian enterprises are best served by a co-managed model: keep context and control in-house, and partner for round-the-clock monitoring and response.
What a 24×7 SOC actually requires
The case for round-the-clock operations is in the numbers. The average breach still takes 241 days to identify and contain (IBM, 2025), and a global shortage of roughly 4.8 million security professionals (ISC2) makes 24×7 staffing the single hardest part of the problem.
A security operations capability is not a product — it is people, process and technology working together around the clock. To run it 24×7 you need: a SIEM/XDR platform (and engineered detections, not defaults), threat intelligence, incident-response playbooks, and — the expensive part — enough skilled analysts to cover every hour of every day, including nights, weekends and holidays.
That staffing maths is unforgiving: continuous shift cover with leave, attrition and escalation realistically needs 8–12 trained people, plus detection engineers and a lead. For most organisations, that headcount is the whole decision.
The true cost of building in-house
Building your own SOC means owning every layer:
- People: recruiting and retaining 8–12 analysts in a market where security talent is scarce and expensive, with burnout-driven attrition on night shifts.
- Platform: SIEM/XDR licensing, log ingestion and retention costs that scale with your data.
- Engineering: writing and tuning detections (a SIEM with default rules is just a costly log bucket) and building SOAR playbooks.
- Time: 12–18 months to reach real maturity, during which your coverage is partial.
You do not buy a SOC; you staff one. The tooling is the cheap part — the 24×7 people are not.
What buying (managed SOC / MDR) gives you
A managed SOC or Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider delivers the outcome — 24×7 monitoring, detection and response — as a service, on a platform they already run, staffed by analysts who do this all day. The advantages: coverage live in weeks not years, predictable monthly cost, mature detections from day one, and no hiring or retention burden.
The trade-off: a provider does not know your business as well as you do on day one, so context, asset criticality and escalation paths have to be shared and governed. The best outcomes come when you treat the provider as an extension of your team, not a black box.
Buy vs build at a glance
| Factor | Build in-house | Buy (managed SOC / MDR) |
|---|---|---|
| Time to 24×7 coverage | 12–18 months | Weeks |
| Cost profile | High fixed cost (salaries, tooling) | Predictable monthly subscription |
| Staffing & retention | Your problem (8–12 analysts) | Provider’s problem |
| Detection maturity | Built over time | Mature from day one |
| Business context | Deep & native | Shared & governed |
| Control | Full | Shared, via SLAs |
The co-managed middle ground
For most Indian enterprises the answer is not pure build or pure buy, but co-managed: you keep strategy, asset context, governance and often daytime analysis in-house, and partner for the platform, engineered detections and — above all — 24×7 monitoring and response. You get round-the-clock cover without carrying 12 shift analysts, and you keep control of your security programme.
This is also the honest model where a partner advises and builds the SOC, and you or a provider operate it. Schnell is a SOC consulting and build partner: we help you design the operating model and detections, then run or co-run them — see our SOC consulting approach.
A decision framework
Decide with four questions:
- Risk & regulation: do your sector and data (BFSI, healthcare, DPDP Act) demand 24×7 detection and fast response? If yes, partial cover is not enough.
- Talent: can you realistically hire and retain 8–12 analysts? If not, building is a plan to be understaffed.
- Speed: do you need coverage this quarter or in 18 months?
- Control vs cost: how much do you value full in-house control over predictable cost and faster maturity?
Your tooling choices — SIEM, SOAR, XDR — follow this decision, not the other way round. See SIEM vs SOAR vs XDR.
How to get started without over-committing
You do not have to pick the end state on day one:
- Start with an assessment of your current detection and response maturity (cybersecurity assessment & roadmap).
- Stand up strong native detection (XDR) first — it reduces risk fast whichever model you choose.
- Add managed 24×7 coverage for the hours and skills you cannot staff.
- Define an incident-response plan and retainer (cyber incident response) so you are ready before you need it.
