Managed SOC vs In-House SOC: which choice should MSPs make in 2025?

Building an In-House SOC

You know the drill: setting up a SOC means creating a dedicated team to monitor and manage your clients’ cybersecurity. But be careful, “monitoring” doesn’t always mean continuous monitoring.

Depending on available resources, an in-house SOC can range from handling alerts during office hours to delivering full 24/7 coverage.

In practice, a SOC typically includes:

• Security alert management (often from an EDR or SIEM)
• Detection of known threats
• An on-call system, sometimes outsourced

However, to evolve into a mature, fully operational SOC, you’ll need much more:

• Genuine 24/7 monitoring (not just on-call duty)
• Implementation of response playbooks

The advantages of In-House SOC

The main benefit of an internal SOC is customisation. By keeping your SOC in-house, you retain full control over detection rules, alert handling, and deployed tools.

This level of control enables you to:

• Fine-tune detection based on your clients’ industry specifics
• Prioritise alerts according to criticality and business context
• Work in close synergy with internal IT teams, who know the infrastructure best
• Reduce dependency on external providers, which can be strategic or regulatory in certain industries

This approach makes sense for large enterprises or well-established MSSPs with the financial, technical, and human resources to support a fully-fledged SOC. They can absorb high costs, sustain extended monitoring, and maintain skill levels in an ever-changing threat landscape.

The drawbacks for MSPs

For MSPs, building an in-house SOC comes with major hurdles. First, the cost is high.

You’ll need to account for expenses such as:

• Tool acquisition
• Infrastructure costs
• Process definition
• On-call management

It takes time to recover these investments, and you need significant client volume to make it viable.

The second challenge is hiring skilled professionals.

Cybersecurity talent is in short supply, and competition is fierce. Add to this the issue of turnover and the difficulty of retaining experts.

In short, it’s a heavy investment that’s hard to monetise for an MSP aiming to focus on its core business.

Managed SOC: a turnkey solution for MSPs

A Managed SOC is a complete solution operated by external experts who provide continuous monitoring of your clients’ IT environments.

Instead of building and running your own SOC, you outsource it to a dedicated security team.

These experts handle threat detection, alert analysis, and incident qualification on your behalf.

Why should MSPs outsource their SOC?

Building an internal SOC requires deep expertise. As an MSP, you likely have other priorities and may not be able to develop these capabilities internally.

By outsourcing to specialists, you can stay focused on your core business while offering clients enterprise-grade SOC protection.

Key benefits include:

Compliance: Some Managed SOCs help you meet regulatory frameworks like NIS2 or DORA without extra complexity or cost..

Cost-effectiveness: Deliver a comprehensive cybersecurity service without heavy infrastructure or recruitment costs.

Flexibility: Avoid managing training, hiring, or turnover. Reduce your operational burden.

Common misconceptions

Some MSPs have legitimate concerns about their role when outsourcing SOC services. Here are two common misconceptions:

• “I’ll lose control of my client” – False. You remain the primary contact and trusted partner for your client.
• “It won’t be customisable” – False. A good Managed SOC adapts to your clients’ tools and specific requirements.