24/7 Security Operations Centre, delivered as a service on Microsoft Sentinel.
Building an in-house SOC requires three shifts of analysts, an enterprise SIEM, and runbooks tested under fire. Most UAE businesses cannot justify the cost or attract the talent. SOC-as-a-Service delivers the same outcome under a per-user monthly fee: 24/7 monitoring, named on-call engineers, written SLA, monthly reports. Built on Microsoft Sentinel with ingestion from M365, Azure, endpoints, network, and identity.
- 24/7Monitoring
- 5minP1 alert response
- SentinelSIEM substrate
- MITREATT&CK mapped
Six operational SOC functions, monitored 24/7.
24/7 alert monitoring and triage
Sentinel alerts triaged by tier-1 analysts within 5 minutes for P1, 10 for P2, 30 for P3. False positives suppressed, true positives escalated to tier-2 with context. Daily shift handover, no gaps.
Detection engineering and tuning
Detection rules continuously tuned to your environment. New rules added based on threat-intel feeds, MITRE ATT&CK gaps, post-incident lessons. Suppressions reviewed monthly to avoid alert fatigue.
Proactive threat hunting
Weekly threat hunts targeting specific hypothesis (e.g., "look for evidence of credential dumping" or "look for unusual outbound DNS"). Hunts documented; findings either become detection rules or get investigated as incidents.
Incident response engagement
P1 incidents trigger immediate engagement: containment within 1 hour, forensic preservation within 4 hours, written post-incident review within 5 business days. Regulator-notification templates ready.
Threat intelligence and IOC ingestion
Sentinel ingests Microsoft Threat Intel, MITRE ATT&CK, and curated external feeds. IOC blocklists pushed to your tenant continuously. Active campaign indicators (e.g., a new ransomware group active in MEA) flagged proactively.
Monthly KPI and quarterly business review
Monthly: incidents detected and resolved, SLA compliance, top alert categories, dwell time trend, MITRE coverage map. Quarterly: security roadmap, threat landscape, detection-rule effectiveness, recommended investments.
Four reasons UAE security leaders pick our SOC service.
Microsoft Sentinel as substrate, not bolt-on
Sentinel is our primary SIEM. We have deployed and tuned it for dozens of UAE tenants. Native integration with Defender XDR, Entra ID, Purview, Azure, M365 means alerts have context that bolt-on third-party SIEMs lack.
Written priority-tiered SLA, service credits
5-minute P1 alert response, 10-minute P2, 30-minute P3. Service credits if missed. Real minutes on the contract, real consequences when missed.
UAE-payroll analysts, regional context
Analysts based in UAE. Local context for regulator notifications (DFSA, ADGM, DHA timelines), local threat landscape (UAE-specific phishing campaigns), Arabic-language attack indicators. Offshore SOCs miss this.
Regulator-ready reporting
Monthly reports formatted for DFSA, ADGM, DHA submission. Annual audit-evidence pack for ISO 27001 / SOC 2 / NESA. We have answered regulator questions on prior engagements; we know the format and the depth expected.
Six profiles where in-house SOC is not viable.
Mid-market SMBs
Too small for three SOC shifts, too large to leave security to part-time IT staff.
DFSA, ADGM-licensed firms
Regulator expects demonstrable continuous monitoring; SOC-as-a-Service provides evidence.
DHA, DOH-licensed healthcare
Patient-data sensitivity requires 24/7 detection; outage window during incidents is unacceptable.
Multi-branch retailers
Wide attack surface across stores, e-commerce, POS networks needs central monitoring.
Manufacturers with OT exposure
Plant-floor networks connected to corporate IT need monitoring extended to OT zones.
Cyber-insurance applicants
Underwriters require evidence of 24/7 SOC; in-house build-out is slower than service onboarding.
Four ways to get SOC capability.
| Feature | GR SOC-as-a-Service | Build in-house SOC | No SOC (alerts go to IT) | Offshore-only SOC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
24/7 coverage | 3 shifts to hire | |||
P1 response within 5 minutes | Variable | After business hours wait | 15 min remote | |
Sentinel detection engineering | Need senior detection engineer | No SIEM | ||
Proactive threat hunting | Need senior hunters | Limited | ||
UAE-context awareness | N/A | |||
Senior escalation in UAE | 5 min P1 | Same building | Reactive | Subcontracted |
Cost to operate | Per-user monthly | Salaries + tooling + benefits | No SOC cost, high incident cost | Lowest visible |
Time to operational maturity | 8 weeks | 12-18 months | N/A | 4-6 weeks |
From baseline to operational 24/7 SOC in 8 weeks.
- 1
Sentinel deployment and log ingestion
3 weeks
Sentinel workspace deployed in your Azure tenant. Log sources connected: M365, Defender, Entra, Azure, network, endpoints. Baseline detection rules applied. Initial false-positive suppression.
- 2
Detection tuning and tier-1 activation
2 weeks
Detection rules tuned to your environment. Tier-1 analysts take operational ownership at week 5. SLA enforcement starts. Daily shift-handover protocol live. First weekly KPI report.
- 3
Threat hunting and IR playbook
2 weeks
Weekly threat-hunt cycle begins. IR playbook authored, reviewed with your team. MITRE ATT&CK coverage map produced. First simulated tabletop drill.
- 4
Steady state
Continuous
Steady-state operations from week 9. Monthly KPI reports, quarterly business reviews, semi-annual red-team simulations, annual ATT&CK coverage refresh. Continuous detection engineering as threat landscape evolves.
“Our previous arrangement was alerts emailed to our IT lead who triaged them when he could. Mean dwell time on suspicious activity was over 48 hours by our measurement. After moving to GR SOC-as-a-Service, dwell time dropped to under 1 hour on incidents that mattered. The Sentinel-driven view catches things we would never have spotted manually. Cost is well within our security budget; the comparison to building in-house was not even close.”
What buyers ask before engaging.
Services that pair with SOC-as-a-Service.
Book a scoping call and we will return a SOC proposal in 5 business days.
A 30-minute call covers current security state, log sources, compliance posture, target onboarding date, and SLA tier. Output: written proposal with scope, onboarding plan, SLA, and fees.
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