Organizations are experiencing increased difficulty in managing security operations due to a growing attack surface, a rapidly changing threat landscape, and the proliferation of public cloud services. Over half (52%) of security professionals believe that security operations have become more challenging in the past two years, primarily due to the volume and complexity of security alerts.

SOC modernization is a key initiative for 88% of organizations looking to enhance their security operations. This focus is driven by the need to improve threat intelligence operationalization, integrate asset management data, and automate common security tasks to cope with the increasing volume of security alerts and insufficient staffing levels.

XDR is gaining traction as a component of security operations modernization, with 61% of security professionals reporting familiarity with the technology. However, there is still some confusion about its definition, as 55% view XDR as an extension of EDR, while others see it as a product from a single vendor or an integrated solution. Investment in XDR for advanced threat detection is significant, indicating its growing importance in the field.