Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) technology helps organizations coordinate security activities across complex environments. It connects people and security tools together through a consolidated platform designed for incident response.  

Without SOAR, security teams must navigate multiple security tools and dashboards to execute incident response actions. They must take many of these actions manually, and may be slowed down by the need for additional permissions and approvals in the process. 

These things can slow down the organization’s effective response to an active cyberattack. SOAR helps security teams launch immediate response workflows that mitigate risk and improve event outcomes. Let’s take a closer look at exactly how. 

Five ways SOAR technology enhances security operations 

Implementing a comprehensive SOAR platform can help your organization improve its incident response capabilities in five ways: 

1. Combining incident management and automation in a single solution 

In a SOAR-enabled security environment, the security team can coordinate multiple third-party security tools and launch automated incident response workflows. The actions these workflows include are limited only by the technologies integrated into your SOAR solution. 

That means that analysts can automate a wide range of repetitive and time-consuming tasks. They can conduct investigations using detection data from multiple tools to gain immediate insight into unauthorized activities and pre-configure a coordinated response. 

That response can be launched automatically without human intervention, or it can trigger an alert prompting analyst review and approval first. This helps organizations mitigate the risk of automated misconfigurations impacting their security posture. 

2. Breaking down silos between security teams and the tools they rely on 

It’s not unusual for a mid-sized organization to have more than 50 security tools in its tech stack. A large enterprise may have more than double that number. These tools are typically managed from within the Security Operations Center (SOC), but may not feature built-in integrations that allow them to communicate with one another easily. 

In practice, that means analysts must do the work of copying data from one tool to another. Copying and pasting security logs from a text editor or spreadsheet app is not a scalable workflow—especially when multiple sequences of logs and alert data must be compiled across a large number of security tools. 

Similarly, not every member of the IT security team may have access to every tool in the stack. This slows down activity even more, as team members request approvals to access different apps or seek out team members who have access. SOAR platforms eliminate these inefficiencies and break down silos between analysts and security tools. 

3. Providing a centralized console for managing operational security activities 

SOAR platforms ingest alert data and use that data to trigger playbooks that orchestrate incident response workflows across multiple third-party tools. While doing that, they generate valuable data on the outcomes of security activities and deploy advanced analytics to help interpret that data. 

The result is a centralized console security analysts can use to understand security events and fine-tune their security posture over time. By making the organization’s entire security tech stack accessible from a single tool, SOAR makes it easier to pinpoint opportunities for improvement every time an incident response playbook is launched. 

It is possible to conduct this kind of analysis without SOAR, but it is a complex and time-consuming process. Most organizations can’t afford to take specialist security talent away from high-priority tasks just for this purpose. As a result, proactive organization-wide improvement occurs slowly, if at all. 

4. Optimizing incident response, case management, and compliance 

The more complex an organization’s IT environment is, the harder it becomes to track and investigate security incidents over time. Case management is an important element of operational security excellence, and a major component of most incident response frameworks. 

If your organization is pursuing compliance with industry regulations, it will need to demonstrate robust workflows for managing security incidents. This ensures that detected incidents don’t get swept under a barrage of other alerts, potentially causing analysts to miss important details or neglect to execute the appropriate response. 

When configured to meet strict requirements, SOAR platforms help automate core security practices and demonstrate compliance. This takes a great deal of responsibility off analysts’ shoulders, allowing them to focus on higher-impact initiatives. 

5. Preventing burnout and alert fatigue 

Even a modestly sized SOC can overwhelm its analysts with alerts. Consistent information overload has a measurable impact on security performance, making it harder to retain top talent and avoid preventable incidents. Even simple tasks like manually writing an incident report takes time away from critical security tasks.  

Eliminating repetitive manual actions from incident response workflows goes a long way towards improving analyst job satisfaction. Keeping valuable security talent focused on high-impact strategic initiatives that make a difference is vital for retaining top talent and addressing burnout risk.  

At the same time, automation improves security performance metrics like Mean Time-to-Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time-to-Respond (MTTR). This helps establish a virtuous cycle where better performance improves morale, which then helps push the standard higher over time. 

What about using a SIEM with SOAR capabilities? 

Many security tools offer SOAR-like features and capabilities. The trend towards consolidation is driving cybersecurity vendors towards building platforms that offer a broad range of services in a single package. 

In particular, Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions often include features that can support automation, orchestration, and response workflows. Like SOAR platforms, they must also integrate with a broad range of third-party tools throughout your tech stack.  

Most SIEMs focus on aggregating data, correlating events, and generating reports. Highly advanced SIEM 2.0 solutions like Exabeam add layers of SOAR capabilities to their feature set, making AI-enhanced analytics and incident response available through a single platform.  

However, advanced SIEM solutions tend to be resource-intensive. Adding SOAR requires deeper investment in hardware and software infrastructure, making it suitable for large and complex enterprises. Growing organizations may find greater value in a more accessible standalone SOAR solution. 

Automate your security workflow with Lumifi 

Lumifi provides organizations with implementation expertise and Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services designed to scale security operations. Our team acts an extension of yours, proactively hunting for threats and fine-tuning your security operations while conducting 24x7 detection and response monitoring from our SOC 2 Type II-compliant Security Operations Center.  

Discover how we can help you leverage SOAR technology to streamline incident response across your environment. Talk to an expert to learn more.