2026 Creating a Modern and Mature Security Operations Center (SOC) Report

45% of IT and IT security professionals identify poor data quality as a key barrier to automation.

41% of IT and IT security professionals identify a lack of standardized processes as a key barrier to automation.

28% of IT and IT security professionals believe identity-related issues involved in SOC security incidents are investigated continuously or hourly, with 18% believing they are investigated continuously and 10% believing they are investigated hourly.

23% of IT and IT security professionals say their SOC is managed based on metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs).

63% of organizations cite reducing tool sprawl and the complexity of managing dozens to hundreds of security tools as a primary driver for cybersecurity platform consolidation.

36% of alerts and incidents are investigated through manual processes rather than automated workflows.

46% of organizations have pursued cybersecurity platform consolidation within the past two years.

55% of organizations cite improving visibility and reducing security gaps as a primary driver for cybersecurity platform consolidation.

40% of IT and IT security professionals characterize their SOC as very mature.

49% of IT and IT security professionals identify insufficient explainability as a key barrier to automation.

39% of IT and IT security professionals report that their SOC currently uses AI and/or machine learning to support detection, investigation and response.

38% of SOCs using AI have it fully integrated into existing SOC workflows and tooling.

39% of IT and IT security professionals identify limited visibility into the systems SOC teams oversee as a critical gap undermining SOC effectiveness.

37% of IT and IT security professionals identify lack of in-house expertise, including threat hunters and intelligence analysts, as a critical gap undermining SOC effectiveness.

Security Operations Centers (SOCs) manage an average of 2,566 alerts and incidents each day.

17% of IT and IT security professionals say their SOC is optimized for continuous improvement.

64% of IT and IT security professionals say identity visibility is very or extremely important to improving overall SOC effectiveness.

32% of IT and IT security professionals say identity events and privileged access events are centrally visible to their SOC.

51% of IT and IT security professionals at organizations with a SOC rate their SOC's ability to keep pace with the speed and sophistication of modern threats as effective or very effective.

46% of IT and IT security professionals identify insufficient staffing as a critical gap undermining SOC effectiveness.

52% of IT and IT security professionals report that alert and incident volumes have increased, with 23% reporting volumes have significantly increased and 29% reporting they have increased.