Chained attacks, tougher regulations, and scarce talent: in 2025, cybersecurity resembles a game of blitz chess. To maintain the advantage, organizations are relying on the Security Operations Center (SOC), a veritable watchdog capable of detecting an attack in seconds and then coordinating the response before the business falters. But behind the flashy dashboards lie very real challenges: 35,000 daily alerts, stretched budgets, analyst rotation, etc. In the following lines, we take a look at the inner workings of a SOC, its measurable benefits, and the best practices observed atOrange Cyberdefense ,Capgemini ,Sopra Steria ,Thales , and others. SOC: the cyber control tower for connected businesses
Imagine the SME “ArcheLab”: fifteen researchers, sensitive patents, and a Friday night attack. Without a SOC, the compromise is only noticed on Mondays; with an EDR,
Stormshield raises a correlated alert in the SIEM, and the N1 team isolates the machine in less than a minute. This example illustrates the primary function of the SOC: continuous monitoring and triaging weak signals, a mission that Airbus CyberSecurity often compares to “finding a needle in a botnet.” Discover how a security operations center (SOC) protects your company against cyberthreats. Understand its main missions, how it works, and the essential benefits for strengthening your IT security. From detection to containment: where every second counts According to the Eviden benchmark, every minute saved reduces the cost of an incident by 26%. At
, a SOAR playbook automatically shuts down malicious network traffic and triggers a password reset, transforming a potential crisis into a simple, documented alert. In terms of methodology, MITRE ATT&CK scenarios feed into the SIEM rules, while Nomios threat intelligence enriches the IOCs in near real time.
Measurable benefits: visibility, compliance, and risk reduction Why invest? Because a well-oiled SOC reduces the frequency of critical incidents by 60%, as Banque Hexagone observed after implementing an internal unit of eight analysts supported by Sogeti. Conversely, the startup MediTrack chose a managed “SOC-as-a-Service” service operated by Orange Cyberdefense: 24/7 monitoring, a 15-minute SLA, and an anti-phishing awareness program. The result: the malicious click rate fell from 18% to 3% in six months.Real-time visibility and enhanced GDPR compliance The European NIS2 directive requires incident detection “as quickly as possible.” The SOC provides this traceability, archiving logs and decisions in a digital vault validated by Thales. For a deeper dive, the detailed guide available on Geeks Unite
provides a comprehensive overview of in-house, outsourced, and hybrid models.
Operational Challenges and Levers for Intelligent Automation The global shortage of 3.4 million experts is forcing IT departments to look for shortcuts.Sopra Steria and Ackcent
are banking on machine learning to filter 99.9% of the noise; at Keisewetter, the implementation of an automation module co-developed with
Capgemini has reduced the time spent reviewing logs by 40%. However, technology alone is not enough: clear governance, tested runbooks, and regular feedback remain the keystone.Recruit, orchestrate, capitalize on AI Atos recently integrated a SOAR component that standardizes IP blocking, legal evidence collection, and communication to the crisis committee. This orchestration frees up analysts for proactive hunting, an area where Stormshield’s open-source tool
shines thanks to its compatibility with Kubernetes containers. The challenge: transforming each log into actionable intelligence, rather than yet another red line on the radar.