How to avoid cybersecurity overload

Do you ever experience cybersecurity overload? This is when security professionals find themselves using dozens of separate applications to manage, detect and respond to threats.

According to a study in 2020, the average organisation uses 45 cybersecurity applications. The volume of information security teams receives from different software, and the quirks and learning curve associated with each platform, means they can quickly become overwhelmed.

But another way is possible.

SoftwareOne’s new Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service for Microsoft Sentinel makes this powerful security suite accessible to organisations of every size and maturity. Let’s see how it keeps your environment protected – and helps you avoid cybersecurity overload.

What is Microsoft Sentinel?

Microsoft Sentinel is a market-leading, cloud-native SIEM and SOAR solution. It provides cybersecurity teams with an extremely powerful suite of tools to collect multi-cloud, multi-device and on-prem data, detect threats, investigate them, and respond to incidents.

Sentinel helps you overcome cybersecurity overload by providing a ‘single pane of glass’, where you can manage all your security tasks. Rather than using dozens of separate cybersecurity software, this one platform consolidates all major security activities in one place.

Microsoft Sentinel adoption challenges

While Sentinel is widely viewed as world class by professionals (it gets an impressive 4.4/5 on independent review site G2), it is important to be aware that it is a large, powerful platform. As a result, it is often most easily adopted by enterprise-level businesses that have their own Security Operations Centre (SOC) in place. Companies with an SOC have the people, expertise, and resources to really get the most out of Sentinel.

But for organisations that do not have an SOC, adopting Sentinel can be challenging:

• Configuration: Configuring Sentinel to your organisation’s tech stack, industry and processes requires in-depth knowledge. Many organisations simply don’t have the people or know-how to use Sentinel effectively.
• Resources: While Sentinel can, in theory, be used by any business, it’s most beneficial when you have a well-resourced SOC. The team can deal with the notifications Sentinel sends and use its tools to manage threats. Without a well-resourced SOC, Sentinel can be unwieldy.
• Time: If your organisation currently uses dozens of security solutions, migrating from them to a single, unified platform can be highly disruptive. In the long run, Sentinel will save time and money, but the learning curve and adoption process often takes several weeks - or even months.

A Managed Detection and Response service for Microsoft Sentinel

To help your organisation adopt Microsoft Sentinel – and get the most out of the platform – we have developed SoftwareOne Managed Detection and Response for Microsoft Sentinel. It provides organisations of any size, industry and maturity level, with all the support needed to make Sentinel work for them.

This managed service means your organisation get:

• Access to a world-class security platform

Sentinel is among the most powerful, innovative and future-ready security solutions on the market. Our service gives any organisation access to its incredibly rich features, without the learning curve or additional resources typically required.

• 24/7 support, worldwide

SoftwareOne’s global Security Operations Centre provides 24/7 support. With locations in 60 countries, we are able to continuously monitor Sentinel for your organisation, wherever you are based.

• Sentinel configured for you

Our SOC staff, who have enormous experience with Sentinel, actively resolve incidents and provide support and advice to help you configure the platform to your operations. We also speed up incident resolution with our library of 450+ pre-defined security use cases – and we’re continually expanding our library.

• Up and running in days

With SoftwareOne’s highly knowledgeable analysts and consultants on hand, you can get Sentinel operational in days – or even hours. Our teams have experience with Sentinel and other Microsoft security technologies, and can support organisations of all sizes, industries and in different geographies with every stage of Sentinel deployment.

Our MDR service in action

A SoftwareOne customer with 12,000 employees had 17 data sources integrated into Sentinel. In one month, our MDR service helped the customer to:

• Log almost 1.5 billion events
• Analyse 15,600 security alerts and pick up 6,900 security incidents
• Automatically identify 4,000 false positives for auto closure
• SoftwareOne’s Blue Team investigated 2,900 incidents for the client, and discovered 320 true positives
• 180 of these incidents were resolved by SoftwareOne
• The client only needed to resolve ten incidents themselves (as they required manual actions)

By using our MDR service for Sentinel, this client was free of cybersecurity overload, knowing that over 99% of their security analysis and incidents would be detected and resolved quickly by our experts.

We’re serious about keeping your data safe

It is natural – and sensible – to be cautious about using an external partner to manage your cybersecurity. However, with SoftwareOne, you can rest assured that your Sentinel instance is in the best hands.

We’re members of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA)

Microsoft describes MISA as an “ecosystem comprised of the most reliable and trusted security vendors across the globe”. Becoming an MISA member demonstrates a business has achieved an exceptionally high standard of security expertise, and has a comprehensive knowledge of Microsoft’s security portfolio. Membership of MISA is only possible via nomination and requires partners to undergo rigorous evaluation. Fundamentally, membership of MISA shows Microsoft views SoftwareOne as a reliable partner.

What is more, our MDR service for Sentinel has achieved a Microsoft-verified Managed Extended Detection and Response (MXDR) solution status. To achieve this status, we underwent a robust evaluation to demonstrate:

• We have a proactive, professional SOC
• We conduct 24x7x365 proactive hunting, monitoring and response
• Our solution integrates with Microsoft’s security platforms

Microsoft MSPs and certifications

SoftwareOne is a Microsoft Azure Expert MSP, and our 5,500 technology professionals around the world hold thousands of Microsoft security accreditations between them

ISO certifications and other technology

We have been independently certified to numerous global security standards, including ISO 27001:2013 and ISO27017 SOC 2 Type 1. We are also an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner.