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SOCaaS or In-House Team? Detailed Cost and ROI Analysis for Polish Companies (2026 Edition)
Published: 00:00 01/08/2026
Cyberbezpieczeństwo
SOCaaS or In-House Team? Detailed Cost and ROI Analysis for Polish Companies (2026 Edition)
The decision to implement a Security Operations Center (SOC) is no longer just a technical wish list item for the IT department. With the NIS2 directive coming into force, increasingly aggressive ransomware groups, and rising insurance requirements, Polish boards are facing a concrete dilemma: build their own team from scratch or trust an external partner (SOC as a Service)?
Let's face it – this is primarily a financial decision. It could cost your company millions of Złoty annually, or... allow you to save the lion's share of your security budget while simultaneously increasing your protection level.
In this article, we will break down the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of both models. Without sugarcoating, we will calculate how much it truly costs and reveal expenses that vendors often "forget" to mention over coffee.
Part 1: In-House SOC – How Much Does It Really Cost?
Many IT managers, when sitting down with Excel to plan the budget (CAPEX), enter the price of SIEM licenses and the salaries of "three IT guys". Unfortunately, operational reality (OPEX) verifies these assumptions quite brutally. Especially when we realize what the 24/7/365 monitoring requirement – which is now standard for essential entities under NIS2 – actually entails.
1. Human Capital: Math You Can't Cheat
This is where we most often make estimation errors. It seems that three people are enough for three shifts. Nothing could be further from the truth. To ensure continuity of monitoring on a single shift (e.g., Tier 1 support), you need a minimum of 5-6 full-time equivalents (FTEs).
Why so many? Because a week has 168 hours. Add to that vacations, sick leaves, training (a necessity in this industry, not a benefit), and life in general.
Real, market personnel costs (Warsaw, 2026 estimates):
- SOC Manager: 360,000 PLN - 480,000 PLN (total employer cost). Someone has to build the strategy and take responsibility for it.
- Senior Analyst / Threat Hunter (Tier 3) x1: approx. 300,000 PLN. The brain of the operation, the person for the toughest cases.
- Incident Responder (Tier 2) x2: 2 x 220,000 PLN = 440,000 PLN. The people who react when things get serious.
- SOC Analyst (Tier 1) x6 (shift system): 6 x 140,000 PLN = 840,000 PLN. They have their eyes glued to monitors at 3 AM on a Sunday.
- Recruitment and Onboarding: Conservatively counting, 20% of annual salary.
Annual Total (Salaries alone): Well over 2 million PLN.
We must also remember retention. The average tenure of a SOC analyst in one place is barely 18-24 months. Professional burnout, or alert fatigue, is a real problem in this industry. When a specialist leaves, the cost of replacing them is often equivalent to six months of their salary – we lose time on recruitment, onboarding, and regaining full team efficiency.
2. Technology (SOC Stack) – SIEM Alone Is Not Enough
People need tools to work with. And sure, "Open Source" is free, but only in theory. In practice, it requires massive engineering effort to maintain, integrate, and parse logs. On the other hand, commercial Enterprise-class solutions mean massive license invoices.
- SIEM (e.g., Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel): You typically pay for data volume (GB/day). For a mid-sized company (approx. 500 employees), this is an expense of 200,000 - 400,000 PLN annually.
- SOAR (Automation): Essential so analysts don't drown in repetitive tasks within a week. Cost: approx. 100,000 PLN annually.
- Threat Intelligence Feeds: High-quality threat data (IOCs) costs between 50,000 to 150,000 PLN. Without this, your SOC is simply "blind" to new hacker campaigns.
- Infrastructure (Storage/Cloud): Log retention (1-3 years for legal requirements) means additional tens of thousands.
3. Processes, or "Papers" That Must Live
Technology changes daily. A team that doesn't train moves backward. Certifications like SANS, OSCP, or CISSP are an expense of at least 50,000 PLN annually for the team. Add to that hundreds of senior hours spent building and updating Playbooks so that procedures actually work, instead of just looking nice in a binder.
Part 2: SOC as a Service (SOCaaS) – Economies of Scale
The SOCaaS model works a bit like cloud computing, but for security. The provider (MSSP) invests in top-tier technology, builds processes, and hires an army of experts, and these massive costs are spread across hundreds of clients.
What Do You Really Gain by Outsourcing?
- Eliminating Barrier to Entry: Instead of putting up 3 million to start, you pay a monthly subscription. You shift costs from capital (CAPEX) to operational (OPEX), which usually makes CFOs very happy.
- Flexibility: In case of a merger, acquisition, or sudden growth, you simply upgrade the package. In the In-House model, you would have to recruit and train new people frantically.
- Network Effect (Collective Intelligence): This is perhaps the most important advantage. If the provider detects a new ransomware variant at one client, they immediately update detection rules for everyone else – including you. Building your own team, you unfortunately only learn from your own mistakes.
Example SOCaaS Calculation (SME / Mid-Market)
Let's take the same organization that would spend over 2 million on its own staff:
- Setup fee (audit, implementation, log integration): 50,000 - 100,000 PLN (one-time).
- Monthly Subscription (Monitoring 24/7, Detection, Response): 20,000 - 60,000 PLN monthly (depending on endpoints/EPS count).
Annual TCO of SOCaaS closes in the range of 300,000 - 800,000 PLN.
We are talking about savings in the range of 60-75%. This results from simple math: an analyst on the night shift at a provider monitors 20 companies simultaneously, not just one. Your risk is the same, but the cost is shared.
Part 3: Case Study – In-House vs SOCaaS in Practice
Let's analyze two scenarios for a typical Polish manufacturing company (500 employees, covered by NIS2 as an important entity).
Scenario A: Building the Fortress (In-House)
The Board decides: "We want full control, we do it ourselves."
- Month 1-6: Recruitment of manager and team assembly. Hardware purchase, SIEM selection.
- Month 6-12: SIEM implementation, rule writing. The team is still gelling. Monitoring practically works 9-5, at night it's just "on-call".
- After a year: 2.5 million PLN spent. 24/7 monitoring still limping because two key employees left. Problems with false alarms appear, frustrating the IT department.
Scenario B: Strategic Partnership (SOCaaS/Hybrid)
The Board decides: "We want results, not resources."
- Week 1-4: Environment audit, EDR sensor installation, secure log connection to provider's cloud.
- Month 2: Full 24/7 monitoring is active. Detection and neutralization of an old malware infection the company didn't even know about.
- Cost after a year: 400,000 PLN.
- Bonus: The company hired one internal CISO who supervises the provider and looks after long-term strategy (cost included in budget).
When Is Building Your Own SOC Worth It?
There are situations where In-House SOC is the best – or only – choice:
- You are a Target (APT) – e.g., defense industry, sectors with high espionage risk. Here, paranoia is advised, and air-gapped data isolation might be a necessity.
- Enterprise Scale – if you have 50,000 employees, the scale justifies having your own department. Unit costs (per employee) then drop to a level where it simply pays off.
- Legal Specifics – rare cases where the law categorically forbids processing certain data outside the company's physical location.
Hybrid Model – The Golden Mean for 2026
For many digitally mature companies, the best solution is the Hybrid SOC model, which combines the benefits of both worlds:
- SOCaaS Provider: Does the "heavy lifting" – 24/7 monitoring, filtering false alerts (Tier 1), handling incidents at night and on holidays.
- Your Team (In-House): A small cell (e.g., CISO + 2 seniors) focuses on:
- Security strategy and architecture.
- Threat Hunting (hunting for threats specific to your business).
- Cooperation with DevOps and business departments.
- Supervising the quality of SOCaaS provider's work.
You pay a fraction of the full In-House price, protect your people from burnout (offloading monotony to the provider), but the "brain" of the operation remains inside the company.
How to Decide?
Before you sign an invoice for millions of Złoty, ask yourself three simple questions:
- Business Risk: Can I afford to stop production on Saturday at 3 AM? If not – you must have 24/7 monitoring.
- Budget: Do I have real funds for 6 FTEs, Enterprise licenses, and continuous training? If not – the service model is financially safer.
- Core Business: Does my company make money on cybersecurity? If you manufacture windows, building your own "army" of cyber-soldiers is likely not your business goal. Outsourcing allows you to focus on what you actually earn from.
Remember, regardless of the model: The most expensive SOC is the one that doesn't work when it's truly needed.
Want to Calculate This Precisely?
Every company is different. If you are wondering which model would be best for you, contact us. We can prepare a free TCO analysis for your organization, comparing the costs of building your own team with implementing SecurHUB Managed SOC service.
FAQ
Is SOCaaS data safe?
Yes. Professional providers (MSSPs) operate based on rigorous ISO 27001 standards and are audited more frequently than internal departments. Logs are usually sent via an encrypted channel, and access to them is strictly regulated. However, signing the appropriate agreement (SLA and NDA) is key.
Does the NIS2 directive allow SOC outsourcing?
Yes. The NIS2 directive does not impose an implementation model. It requires organizations to ensure effective monitoring, detection, and response. For many companies, outsourcing is actually the preferred path to quickly achieving compliance, as SOCaaS providers already have ready-made processes and technologies that meet regulatory requirements.
What are the biggest "hidden costs" of building an in-house SOC?
The biggest underestimated cost is employee turnover (HR). The cost of recruitment, onboarding, and lost knowledge when a senior leaves is enormous. Other hidden costs include: continuous training, maintaining server infrastructure for SIEM (storage, power, cooling), and time lost "fighting with tools" instead of analyzing threats.
How does the Hybrid model differ from full SOCaaS?
In the SOCaaS model, you outsource the entire operation (24/7). In the Hybrid model, you share responsibility. The provider typically takes on the "heavy lifting" (frontline, nights, weekends), and your internal team focuses on strategy, security policies, and responding to the most critical incidents during business hours.
How long does it take to launch a SOC / SOCaaS?
Building your own SOC from scratch is a process taking from 6 to 18 months (recruitment, hardware purchase, implementation). Launching a SOCaaS service (connecting logs, configuring rules) typically takes from 2 to 6 weeks. This is a key difference if you need to meet regulatory requirements quickly.
About the Author
SecurHUB Team
SecurHub.pl Team
SecurHub.pl expert team specializing in cybersecurity and data protection.
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