Building a strong cybersecurity system is like crafting a high-performance sports car. Just as a car designed for speed requires a specific configuration to achieve its goal, a top-tier security operations center (SOC) needs the right combination of technology and processes to deliver detection and response with velocity.

When a person buys a high-performance vehicle, he or she has certain expectations about speed, handling, and craftsmanship-I know I do. For a sports car, the engine is the most critical part of the vehicle, and really, it's what the car is built around. You might think that it's all about the power an engine generates, but more important than pure power is the actual placement of the engine.

Maximum handling is what makes a sports car exceptional, and a mid-mounted engine rather than one in the nose or the tail helps to achieve this. You see, the engine is the single heaviest part of the car, and by more evenly distributing the weight of the engine across the car's tires, the better they will grip the surface and provide ultimate performance during acceleration, braking, and cornering.

Some of the fastest and best-handling cars in the world today, like the McLaren 720s, Porsche 718 Caymen GT4 RS, Audi R8, and Ferrari F8, feature the mid-engine design because it helps to deliver the best possible performance, which is what sports car enthusiasts, and the engineers who design the cars, really want.

There's a similar comparison to be made for SOC performance and technology.

Maximum handling for a SOC analyst comes from being in the middle of all the disparate point solutions of the security technology stack. By deploying a powerful and purpose-designed solution at the mid-point of the SOC, with the ability to collect telemetry from the multiple security tools that are typically distributed throughout a business environment, efficiently apply analytics to that telemetry to detect threats, and then rapidly respond and remediate the threat, the performance of the SOC analyst is optimized. It's not just about having the best firewall or endpoint security tool, but rather about creating an ecosystem that enables powerful outcomes with simplicity and efficiency.

With that incredible sports car, the ability to smoothly and efficiently transfer the power generated by the engine through the wheels and tires to the pavement while providing precision steering to respond to what the road presents is paramount. And within your SOC, the right combination of technology, tools, and processes will help you improve your performance and drive outcomes faster, such as detecting threats sooner, prioritizing threats by impact, speeding up investigations, and accelerating response.

During RSA Conference? in San Francisco this year at booths N-5845 and S-1027, we are unveiling our new sports car, one designed by security practitioners for security practitioners. It will deliver the ability to integrate with the core components from all the various vectors of security environments and correlate the data from those sources with unmatched intelligence, so that SOC analysts can quickly make informed decisions to respond to each unique situation. With a completely new design approach, it's absolutely gorgeous and it's going to be a blast to drive, so come check it out!

In advance of the conference, take a few minutes to watch this new episode of ThreatWise TV that touches on the seismic shift we are seeing across the security threat landscape and the resulting impact on the SOC.

Watch more ThreatWise TV episodes

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