Every organization reaches a point where its internal cybersecurity team can no longer meet the demands of today’s evolving cybersecurity landscape. The team may be overwhelmed by alerts and unable to support broader objectives, or may lack expertise to configure critical tools like a SIEM or broader information security systems. Whatever the limitations, the organization must choose one of two options:
One of our customers, an API platform developer, recently faced this same conundrum. After crunching the numbers, they found the right answer for them. Let’s explore their story and the “build vs. buy” question.
The API platform developer set an ambitious goal for fiscal year 2026: generate $10M in net new revenue. Their target audience was a previously untouched market of enterprise clients, but there was a problem. These potential customers demanded specific cybersecurity certifications, such as ISO, FedRAMP, and HIPAA, in order to do business with the developer.
The technical program manager explained, "[Hitting our revenue goals] is dependent on building a robust security framework that reassures our customers, both large and small, that their data is safe." They simply could not qualify for these certifications without strengthening their security posture and that would require adding specialized resources. Before making that determination, it's worth evaluating your existing security stack architecture to understand whether gaps stem from tooling debt or simply from a lack of skilled personnel to operate what's already in place.
In exploring whether to recruit internally or evaluate MSSP partners, they encountered a few roadblocks.
Organizations seeking to expand their internal cybersecurity team must contend with four challenges:
A 2025 report from IANS Research and Artico Search found that 60% of cybersecurity professionals are considering a job change in the next year, double the United States national average. The survey respondents, especially senior professionals, cited a lack of satisfaction with career growth.
Recruiting for high demand roles incurs significant costs, and turnover forces your recruiting team to start the process over again. Between recruitment marketing, interviewing, onboarding, and training, each role is a costly investment in cybersecurity talent that may walk out the door within a year.
Facing these challenges, the API management platform developer chose to pursue an MSSP partnership with SecureOps. One of their primary motivations was speed of deployment, which proved far faster with an MSSP. "We started the evaluation six months ago and in the next couple months, we'll have a SOC launched," said the technical program manager. Moreover, partnering with an MSSP enabled the internal team to focus on security maturity while offloading the monitoring and maintenance. He added, "They could focus on maturing the business, standing up the threat hunting program, and improving the incident response plans, checklists, playbooks, and automations — all the fun stuff."
Our role in the expanded security team included:
“As a leader of the team, my vision is always how can we be the best,” said the technical program manager. Together with the help of SecureOps, our customer took a big step towards that end. With expanded security resources, the developer could begin applying for the high-value certifications that enterprises expect and pursue their revenue goals.
This approach also addresses a critical challenge facing internal SOC teams - MSSP solutions for SOC burnout ensure continuous coverage without overwhelming individual analysts.
Learn more about how this customer overcame their security limitations and built resilience in their organization. Read the full story.