SOC as a Service (SOCaaS) Market Size, Forecast and Definitions -

How fast is the SOC (security operations center) as a service market growing? SOCaaS market research suggests plenty of opportunity ahead for MSSPs and MSPs. But it's important to put the forecasts in proper context.

First, the research: The SOC as a Service market will reach $10.1 billion in 2027, up from $6.1 billion in 2022. That’s a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5%, according to MarketsAndMarkets.

SOCaaS: Security Software, Services or On-Demand Talent?

My general reaction? The growth rate sounds about right. But I think it's difficult to pinpoint the overall SOCaaS dollar spend.

Among the reasons: The SOCaaS market definition can be confusing since the solutions can often involve pure software options, SOC analysts for hire, or a mix of people, products and services. Think of it this way:

Every MSSP essentially in some way is a SOCaaS provider to their end-customers.

Thousands of MSPs will need to offer some sort of SOCaaS capabilities -- either directly or through their partnerships -- to their SMB end-customers.

SaaS-based security companies increasingly pitch their on-demand software for SOCaaS use cases.

Roll all that annual spending together, and I suspect it's far larger than the $10.1 billion forecast for 2027 from MarketsAndMarkets. However, I don't think it's accurate to fully roll all that spending together since there are so many revenue overlaps -- from SaaS providers down to MSSPs & MSPs, and then onto the end-customer.

SOCaaS Compared to Penetration Testing and MDR Security Services

MarketsAndMarkets divides the SOCaaS market into two categories:

Vulnerability assessment

Threat detection and incident response.

That SOCaaS definition suggests plenty of overlap with penetration testing services and MDR (managed detection and response) services. Dig a little deeper and MarketsAndMarkets in separate reports says:

The global penetration testing market will reach $3 billion by 2026, up from $1.6 billion in 2021. That's a CAGR of 13.8%.

The market for managed detection and response (MDR) security services will reach $5.6 billion by 2027, which represents a 16.0% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2022.

Bottom line? There are growth opportunities in your managed security services catalog. But competition across SOCaaS, MDR and penetration testing will surely intensify.