Live SOC · 24/7 Monitoring

Managed SOC 24/7 with MDR: monitor, detect, respond.

A managed SOC is an external security operations centre that watches your environment every hour of every day. Hard2bit staffs the rota, runs the detection engineering and takes the first containment actions — so at 3am there is a named analyst awake and accountable, not an alert waiting in a queue.

It is the operational core of our enterprise MSSP service, integrated with exposure management, threat intelligence, hunting and incident response.

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Guaranteed SLA ISO 27001 Ready

Why Hard2bit’s Managed SOC sets the standard for operational resilience

Threats like ransomware-as-a-service, identity-based attacks, and zero-day exploitation keep accelerating. Static defenses aren’t enough: you need a continuous capability that combines automation with senior analyst judgment.

Our SOC focuses on behavior, not just logs. We correlate telemetry across endpoints, network, identity, and cloud to detect suspicious chains (privilege escalation, lateral movement, data staging) and respond quickly.

Advanced MDR capabilities

Unlike “ticket-only” SOCs, our MDR model is built for rapid containment. If encryption behavior is detected at 3:00 AM, we can isolate the host, disable compromised accounts, and revoke tokens — with playbooks and analyst validation.

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Compliance-ready evidence: artifacts and incident documentation aligned with DORA, NIS2, ENS, ISO 27001.
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360° visibility: endpoints, network, hybrid cloud, SaaS applications, and identity.
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Lower noise: rule tuning and engineering to reduce false positives and focus on actionable incidents.

What “24/7” actually means in a managed SOC

Almost every provider writes 24/7. Far fewer staff it. The question worth asking on a sales call is simple: at three in the morning on a public holiday, is someone watching my alerts, or is someone carrying a phone that might wake them up? Those are different services at very different prices, and both get sold as 24/7.

Hard2bit contracts coverage explicitly, so what you buy is what runs:

Coverage	Who is watching	Typically right for
8x5	Analysts on shift during your business hours. Out of hours is queued for the next morning.	Low-exposure estates, or a first step while detection is being tuned.
16x5	Two shifts covering early morning to late evening, weekdays. Weekends on call.	Organisations whose real risk window is the working day across several time zones.
24x7x365	A staffed rota with shift handover. Nights, weekends and holidays included, with response authority.	Anyone under NIS2 or DORA notification deadlines, and anyone who cannot afford a weekend of dwell time.

Ransomware operators know this. Encryption is disproportionately launched on Friday nights and the eve of public holidays, precisely because the gap between detection and someone acting on it is widest then.

Managed SOC, MDR and MSSP — what is the difference

The three terms are used interchangeably in the market and they are not the same thing. The distinction that matters commercially is not the technology, it is who is allowed to act when something is found.

Term	What it is	Who acts on a detection
Managed SOC	The operation: people, shifts, platform and detection engineering.	Depends on the contract. Often it notifies and you act.
MDR	The outcome that operation is contracted to deliver: detection plus response.	The provider, within agreed limits — isolate a host, revoke a token, lock an account.
MSSP	The wider commercial wrapper: SOC plus vulnerability management, GRC, vCISO and more.	Varies by service line inside the contract.

Most organisations searching for a managed SOC actually want MDR. Being told at 3am that a host is encrypting files is not the outcome anybody is buying; having it isolated is. Hard2bit delivers both under a single contract, and the response authority is written down before go-live rather than negotiated during an incident.

Build in-house or delegate: the arithmetic

The build-versus-buy debate usually gets argued on philosophy and settled on headcount. Covering 24/7/365 with no single point of failure takes roughly eight to ten analysts once shifts, holidays, sickness and attrition are accounted for. That is before the SIEM licence, the detection engineering, the tuning and the on-call burden that quietly drives your best people out.

This is why so many in-house SOCs end up running 8x5 and describing it as 24/7. It is not a failure of intent; it is what the rota costs. Where an internal team already exists, the honest answer is often neither build nor buy but a hybrid: your team keeps business hours and knows the estate, and we take nights, weekends and holidays. You keep the context, we absorb the rota.

What drives the price

We do not publish a rate card, because the range is too wide to be useful: a single service on business hours for a small estate and full 24/7 coverage with response authority across a multi-site group are not the same purchase. What we can be transparent about is what moves the number, so you can size it before talking to us.

Coverage window. 8x5, 16x5 or 24x7. This is the single largest factor, because it is a staffing cost, not a licensing one.
Telemetry volume. Endpoints, identities and log ingestion. Sending everything is rarely the right answer — part of onboarding is deciding what genuinely needs to be watched.
Response authority. Whether we advise or act. Acting requires agreed limits, tested playbooks and rehearsal, and it is what separates a managed SOC from MDR.
Regulatory obligation. NIS2 and DORA reporting deadlines change what evidence has to be produced and how fast, which changes the reporting workload.
Estate complexity. One cloud tenant and one office is not the same as OT, several subsidiaries and legacy systems that cannot take an agent.

Onboarding runs two to six weeks for most environments. The first week connects telemetry and agrees escalation paths; the rest is tuning, because a SOC that goes live untuned buries you in false positives and teaches your team to ignore it. We run in parallel before we take the rota.

24/7/365 Monitoring

Continuous visibility across critical assets, endpoints, network, and cloud environments (Azure, AWS, Google Cloud).

Proactive Detection (Threat Hunting)

We actively hunt for attacker behaviors and anomalies — not just alerts — to stop threats before payload execution.

Response & Containment

Fast isolation, credential/token revocation, and account actions using SOAR playbooks and analyst-led decisions.

Threat Intelligence

Curated intelligence (TTPs/IoCs) to anticipate ransomware operators and targeted threat actors.

Managed SOC (MDR) — Frequently asked questions

What is a 24/7 managed SOC?

A 24/7 managed SOC is an external security operations centre that watches your environment every hour of every day, including nights, weekends and public holidays. Hard2bit staffs the rota, runs the detection engineering and takes the first containment actions, so there is always a named analyst awake and accountable rather than an alert waiting in a queue until Monday.

What is the difference between a managed SOC and MDR?

A managed SOC is the operation: the people, the shifts and the platform. MDR (Managed Detection and Response) is the outcome that operation is contracted to deliver — detection plus the authority to act. In practice most “managed SOC” buyers want MDR: not only being told that a host is encrypting files at 3am, but having it isolated. Hard2bit delivers both under one contract.

How much does a managed SOC cost?

There is no single number, because the two things that move the price are how much telemetry you send and how many hours you need covered. A single service on business hours for a small estate sits at one end; full 24/7/365 coverage with response authority across a multi-site estate sits at the other. The usual drivers are the number of endpoints and identities, log ingestion volume, coverage window (8x5, 16x5 or 24x7) and whether we act or only advise. We price against your estate rather than a list.

Is a managed SOC cheaper than building one in-house?

Below a certain size, yes, and the reason is arithmetic rather than marketing. Covering 24/7/365 with no single point of failure takes roughly eight to ten analysts once you account for shifts, holidays, sickness and attrition — before the SIEM licence, the tuning and the on-call burden. Most organisations that build in-house end up with 8x5 coverage and call it 24/7. Where an internal team already exists, the honest answer is often a hybrid: you keep business hours, we take nights and weekends.

How fast do you respond to a critical incident?

Critical incidents are escalated through agreed emergency channels in under 15 minutes, with the preliminary impact assessment already under way and first containment actions in motion. The number that matters more than the SLA, though, is who receives it: escalation goes to a named person on your side, agreed during onboarding, not to a generic inbox.

Which technologies does Hard2bit's managed SOC integrate?

We operate tool-agnostic but with deep expertise in modern SIEM/SOAR and EDR/XDR. We integrate platforms such as Microsoft Sentinel and Defender, Cortex and other enterprise stacks, plus our own analytics layer for behaviour-based detection. If you already own a SIEM, we operate it rather than asking you to replace it.

How long does it take to go live?

Two to six weeks for most environments. The first week is connecting telemetry and agreeing escalation paths; the rest is tuning, because a SOC that goes live untuned buries you in false positives and trains your team to ignore it. We run in parallel before we take the rota.

Can you monitor remote workers and mobile devices?

Yes. Using lightweight EDR agents and identity telemetry (MFA and Entra ID), protection follows the user rather than the office perimeter. For most of our clients identity is now the primary attack surface, so identity signals carry the same weight as endpoint ones.

How does a managed SOC support DORA and NIS2 compliance?

Both regulations demand continuous monitoring, incident handling and evidence you can show an auditor. NIS2 also sets notification deadlines measured in hours, which is difficult to meet without someone watching at night. We provide structured incident classification, timelines and reporting artefacts built for that, and the same evidence serves ISO 27001 and ENS audits.

How do you handle privacy and data protection?

We align with GDPR principles and strong security practice. Telemetry is processed under encryption and controlled access, with operational safeguards designed for EU environments. Data residency is agreed before onboarding, not afterwards.

Concepts from our cybersecurity glossary that connect directly with this service.

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