Cybersecurity is no longer optional for growing businesses. As your scaleup gains traction, it simultaneously becomes a more attractive target for cyber threats. The question isn't whether you need cybersecurity expertise, but rather how to acquire it: either through building an in-house team or outsourcing to specialised providers.
This decision is particularly challenging for scaleups - companies that have proven their business model and are experiencing rapid growth. With limited resources and competing priorities, how should you approach cybersecurity to protect your assets while enabling continued growth?
The Current Cybersecurity Landscape for Scaleups
Scaleups face a unique cybersecurity dilemma. Unlike established enterprises with mature security operations, you're building your security posture while experiencing rapid growth. And unlike early-stage startups, you now have valuable intellectual property, customer data, and a reputation worth protecting.
Recent data shows that mid-sized growing companies are increasingly targeted by threat actors who view them as "soft targets"- organizations with valuable assets but without the robust security infrastructure needed to protect them. According to various industry reports, over 60% of cyber attacks target small and medium-sized businesses, with the average cost of a data breach for these organizations exceeding $200,000 - enough to force many out of business.
In-House Cybersecurity: Pros and Cons
There are a number of advantages to building an internal team:
- Institutional knowledge: In-house security professionals gain a deep understanding of your business model, technology stack, and unique security needs. This contextual knowledge is valuable when designing security controls that align with business objectives.
- Cultural alignment: Internal teams naturally align with your company's values and priorities. Security decisions are made in the context of your business goals and risk tolerance rather than through the lens of an external provider.
- Responsiveness: Having security experts down the hall (or in your Slack channels) means near real-time responsiveness to security questions and incidents. This agility can be critical during security events.
- Long-term investment: Building internal cybersecurity capabilities creates an asset that grows with your company. The expertise you develop becomes part of your organization's competitive advantage.
However, it also comes with significant challenges:
- Talent acquisition and retention: The cybersecurity skill shortage is well-documented. According to research from Cybersecurity Ventures, there are projected to be 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity positions globally through 2025. Attracting top talent is difficult and expensive, especially for scaleups competing with big tech salaries and benefits.
- Coverage and scalability: Cybersecurity requires 24/7 monitoring and response. Building a team with sufficient coverage requires multiple hires and can be financially prohibitive for growing companies.
- Knowledge gaps: No individual security professional excels in all domains. An internal team may have excellent application security skills but lack expertise in cloud infrastructure or compliance requirements, for example.
- Technology investment: Effective security requires substantial investment in tools and technologies. Security information and event management (SIEM) systems, vulnerability scanners, and threat intelligence platforms all add to the total cost of ownership (TCO). Added to that is the time, effort and knowledge required to manage and maintain these tools.
Outsourced Cybersecurity: Pros and Cons
The advantages of outsourcing include:
- Immediate expertise: Managed security service providers (MSSPs) and cybersecurity consultants bring specialised expertise across multiple domains without the recruitment challenges.
- Cost predictability: Security service contracts typically offer fixed monthly costs, making budgeting more predictable than building an in-house team with variable expenses.
- Scalability: External providers can scale services up or down based on your needs, allowing you to adjust security coverage as your business grows.
- Broader perspective: Security providers work with multiple clients across industries, giving them unique insights into emerging threats and best practices that benefit your organisation.
- Technology access: Providers leverage investments in leading security technologies across their client base, giving you access to enterprise-grade security tools without the full implementation cost.
You should also consider the challenges associated with outsourcing:
- Alignment with business objectives: External providers may not fully understand your business priorities or risk tolerance, potentially leading to security recommendations that don't align with your goals.
- Response time: While many providers offer 24/7 monitoring, their response to business-specific questions may be slower than an in-house team embedded in your operations.
- Service level limitations: What's covered (and not covered) in service agreements can create security gaps if not carefully managed. Many basic outsourcing packages handle monitoring but leave remediation responsibilities to your team, for example.
- Cultural and communication challenges: External teams may use different communication tools and practices, creating friction when security issues arise that require immediate attention.
The Strategic Advantage of Managed SOC Services for Scaleups
For most scaleups, using a managed Security Operations Centre (SOC) offers compelling advantages over building an internal security team, particularly when combined with select in-house security coordination. This approach provides enterprise-grade security capabilities without the prohibitive costs and management challenges of creating a SOC from scratch.
The Managed SOC advantage:
- Immediate operational capability: While building an in-house SOC typically takes 12-18 months to reach full operational capability, a managed SOC provides immediate protection from day one. This rapid deployment is crucial for scaleups where security gaps represent significant business risk.
- Continuous monitoring: Managed SOCs provide 24/7/365 security monitoring by rotating teams of analysts - a level of coverage that would require at least 8-12 dedicated security professionals to achieve internally, representing an investment of around £1-2 million annually for salaries alone.
- Threat Intelligence integration: Leading managed SOC providers aggregate threat intelligence from thousands of global sources and across their entire client base. This collective intelligence means threats discovered at one client immediately inform protections for all clients - creating a security ecosystem no individual company could match.
- Regulatory Compliance support: For scaleups navigating complex compliance requirements (GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2, ISO 27001), managed SOC services often include compliance-focused monitoring, documentation, and reporting capabilities that simplify certification processes.
- Technology stack management: Managed SOC providers continuously update and optimize their security tools, eliminating the need for your team to evaluate, implement, maintain, and update complex security technologies.
Making the Right Decision for Your Scaleup
When evaluating your cybersecurity approach, consider these factors:
1. Growth trajectory: Companies expecting rapid growth benefit substantially from Managed SOC services that can scale security operations immediately without recruitment delays.
2. Regulatory environment: Industries with stringent compliance requirements (FinTech, healthcare) often find Managed SOCs with compliance expertise particularly valuable.
3. Technical complexity: Even with complex technology stacks, managed SOC providers with experience in your specific technologies can often provide more comprehensive coverage than a small internal team.
4. Risk profile: Companies with highly sensitive data actually minimise risk by leveraging the advanced detection capabilities and collective intelligence of managed SOC services.
5. Resource allocation: Every pound and hour spent building security operations internally is a resource not invested in your core business - managed SOCs allow scaleups to maintain focus on growth and market differentiation.
Next steps
For scaleups looking to balance security needs with growth priorities, Managed SOC services offer a compelling alternative to the resource-intensive process of building an internal security operations capability. By strategically combining managed security services with targeted internal expertise, you can achieve an enterprise-grade security posture without diverting critical resources from your core business objectives.
The most successful approach starts with selecting the right managed SOC partner - one that understands your business model, demonstrates technical expertise relevant to your stack, and offers flexible service models that can evolve as your security needs mature. With this foundation in place, you can focus on what you do best: scaling your business in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
