Introduction
Automation is vital for SecOps teams to stay agile in today’s unpredictable cybersecurity landscape, where the growing complexity of threats and the sheer volume of alerts can quickly overwhelm staff, hindering swift action. By effectively leveraging automation, you can scale operations without overburdening your staff while also reducing the mean time to respond (MTTR). Let your analysts focus on what they do best—automation can handle the rest.
We have seen the transformational impact of automation firsthand in our own Palo Alto Networks SOC and across our global network of XSOAR customers. Through XSOAR technology, the productivity improvement from automation was equivalent to adding 14 virtual full-time employees (FTEs) to our SOC.
Since our inception as the leader in SOAR, we’ve set the gold standard for security orchestration and automation. Continuing to innovate for our global customer base, we’re proud to announce that KuppingerCole has once again ranked us the Overall Leader in their 2024 SOAR Leadership Compass.
“Palo Alto Networks is the Overall Leader and takes a strong position as one of the dominant products on the market today. Palo Alto Networks’s agility and scalability make them a worthy choice for mid-market organizations and large enterprises.”
— KuppingerCole “Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR)” 2024 report
Cortex XSOAR was rated "Strong Positive" in all nine key criteria for the ideal SOAR: security, functionality, deployment, interoperability, usability, innovation, market position, financial strength, and ecosystem, affirming Palo Alto Networks’ position as the leader in SOC transformation with our AI-powered Cortex platform.
KuppingerCole also provided an assessment of the SOAR market which they predict to grow at a CAGR of 14.9%, lifting the market size to US$1.9B by 2025.
Other key findings from the KuppingerCole report:
- As the number and sophistication of cyberattacks have continued to increase over the years, organizations need to be prepared and build a strong security foundation while providing SOC analysts with the right tools.
- SOAR products have been driven by the growing demand to distinguish between related and unrelated events across all connected systems, enrich the event information by acquiring additional intelligence, create and/or coordinate tickets with ITSMs, and assist human analysts with pre-programmed responses in playbooks.
- The SOAR market is mature and as such has a reasonably well-defined terminology and includes capabilities such as data collection, correlation, enrichment, orchestration, automation, and incident response and mitigation.
- While some vendors are optimistic about the transformative potential of generative AI in SOAR solutions, others maintain a cautious approach, observing industry trends and focusing on aligning with customer expectations.
- Some vendors provide SOAR as a service for their customers, and most license their products to managed security service providers (MSSPs) who run it on behalf of their customers.
- Single-vendor XDR offerings that blend endpoint and network detection and response (EPDR and NDR) are gaining traction, offering a streamlined alternative to traditional SIEM and SOAR systems, particularly for mid-market businesses and MSSPs/MDRs.
- SOAR vendors deliver solutions that often require complex on-premises deployments. However, SOAR systems also offer support for various cloud hosted environments such as infrastructure-, platform-, and software-as-a-service applications (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) as well.
- Selecting the right SOAR vendor involves careful evaluation of how well the solution integrates with your existing security tools and aligns with your organization's specific operational needs, ensuring you choose a platform that maximizes efficiency and effectiveness in your security operations.
Download the report for a detailed comparison of leading SOAR vendors, as well as criteria you should consider when assessing SOAR solutions.
To learn more about how you can automate security operations with Cortex XSOAR, check out our virtual self-guided XSOAR product tour.