SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) is the air traffic controller for your security tools: it connects them and runs pre-built response playbooks so routine threats get handled quickly and the same way every time.

If you've read our other entries, you know that EDR watches your endpoints, XDR watches across your environment, MDR adds people who do the watching for you, and SIEM keeps the records. SOAR is the piece that acts on all those alerts.

What does SOAR stand for?

• Security: it's a cybersecurity tool.
• Orchestration: connecting separate security tools (firewall, EDR, email filter, identity platform) so they share information instead of working in silos.
• Automation: running pre-built playbooks without waiting for someone to click buttons. Block an IP address, disable a user account, isolate a device.
• Response: taking action on a threat, not just spotting it.

Put together, SOAR is the system that ties your security tools together and lets them respond to threats automatically, following playbooks written ahead of time.

A simple way to picture it

Think of an air traffic control tower at a busy airport. Radar (your SIEM), cameras (your EDR), perimeter sensors (your XDR) and a team of monitors (your MDR analysts) all feed information to the tower.

SOAR is the controller who turns that information into instructions: divert this plane, send the fuel truck to that gate, get maintenance to the hangar. Each tool gets the right instruction at the right time, and most of it happens without anyone improvising over the radio.

How SOAR differs from the other security acronyms

• EDR detects and responds on endpoints (laptops, desktops, servers).
• XDR detects and responds across endpoints, email, network, cloud and identity.
• MDR is a service: people who do detection and response for you.
• SIEM collects and stores event logs so you can investigate and document what happened.
• SOAR automates the response by connecting the tools and running playbooks.

In short, the detection tools find the problem, SIEM keeps the record, and SOAR coordinates what happens next.

What SOAR does in practice

• Runs playbooks automatically. When someone reports a phishing email, a playbook can pull that message from every inbox, block the sender, check the attachment in a sandbox, identify who clicked and trigger password resets.
• Reduces alert fatigue. Security tools generate a lot of alerts. SOAR can sort them, close the obvious false positives and send the rest to a person.
• Standardizes the response. Instead of figuring it out as you go each time someone clicks a bad link, you have a documented playbook that runs the same way every time.
• Coordinates across tools. Your firewall, EDR, identity platform and ticketing system get the same information at the same moment.
• Logs every action. That record is useful when an auditor or a cyber insurance carrier asks how incidents are handled.

Why it matters

Most small and midsize businesses don't have an in-house security team watching alerts around the clock. Attackers count on alerts being missed or answered late. Automation shortens the gap between detection and containment, which matters most with fast-moving threats like ransomware.

For high-compliance businesses such as medical practices, financial firms and law offices, SOAR also helps show that incident response is a working, documented process and not just a policy document in a drawer. If you're building that process, our article on a cybersecurity incident response plan is a good place to start.

Who needs SOAR?

SOAR platforms are most common in larger organizations with a dedicated security operations center (SOC) and the staff to build and maintain playbooks. Most small and midsize businesses get the benefit indirectly, through a managed detection and response service whose analysts use automated playbooks behind the scenes.

For most of our clients, the practical answer is that you don't need to buy a SOAR platform. You need a security partner who already has that automation in place, so you get consistent response without building it yourself.

How NerdSquad fits in

NerdSquad Managed IT Services is a Managed Service Provider (MSP) that designs cybersecurity programs with security built in from day one. Our Endpoint 360 plan includes 24/7 SOC/MDR monitoring and SIEM, so alerts are watched, investigated and acted on without you staffing a security operations center.

We also help medical practices and financial services firms connect this work to their compliance documentation, so you can show how incidents are detected and handled.

Talk to NerdSquad

Already a client? Call (239) 465-0079 or submit a ticket. If something is down, call so we can start right away.

Not a client yet? NerdSquad Managed IT Services is a Managed Service Provider (MSP) based in Naples, Florida. We support businesses onsite across Southwest Florida and remotely nationwide. Book a discovery call or call (239) 465-0079.

Related: Cybersecurity services for businesses