SOC Operating Models: 8×5 vs 24/7

Security Operations Centers (SOCs) are the nerve center of modern cyber defense: they collect telemetry, detect anomalies, manage alerts and initiate responses to threats against an organisation’s infrastructure. A core design decision for any organisation building a SOC is its operating cadence—whether to monitor and respond 8×5 (business hours) or 24×7 (around the clock). This choice has meaningful implications across risk, compliance, cost and maturity. 

This article explains what these models look like in practice, the operational trade-offs between them, and how they align with compliance frameworks such as SOC 2, ISO 27001 and enterprise risk management.

What SOC Operating Hours Mean Operationally

At its core, a SOC’s purpose is to continuously monitor systems and respond to threats. A SOC functions by ingesting data from security tools (SIEM, EDR, NDR), analysing threats, coordinating investigation and response, and logging actions for governance and improvement. 

The operating model defines when analysts are actively reviewing, triaging and responding to alerts—not whether tools are collecting logs (that happens 24×7 regardless). Organisations choose different models based on risk, exposure, cost and compliance requirements. 

Operating Model 1: 8×5 SOC

An 8×5 SOC operates during regular business hours—often aligned with a company’s core timezone (e.g. 09:00–17:00 local time).

How it Works

Under an 8×5 model, analysts staff shifts only during weekdays. Monitoring systems continue to collect telemetry, but human review and engagement is only during staffed hours; alerts that arrive overnight wait until business hours before humans triage them.

This model can be feasible for organisations that:

• Do not face heavy overnight or global exposure

• Have limited internal threats outside business hours

• Can accept a detection delay until analysts resume

Within a risk-management framework, an 8×5 SOC effectively introduces a temporal gap in defence. For low-risk assets or internal-only systems, this risk can be acceptable. But for externally facing applications, especially those subject to ransomware and credential abuse, attacker activity frequently occurs outside normal hours.

Pros

• Lower cost: fewer staffed hours and reduced analyst FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) burden.

• Simpler management: easier scheduling, less need for shift rotation or burnout mitigation.

• Fit for low-risk business hours focus: internal or limited exposure businesses may not justify higher tiers of coverage.

Cons

• Delayed detection and response: threats that occur at night or weekends can go unnoticed until the next business day.

• Risk exposure window: attacker dwell time increases when no human is reviewing alerts.

• Compliance tension: frameworks expecting continuous monitoring (e.g., some SOC 2 criteria) may be hard to fully satisfy without compensating controls.

Compliance Impacts

• SOC 2: The AICPA Trust Services Criteria expect organisations to demonstrate system monitoring and incident response controls. While SOC 2 doesn’t strictly require 24×7 staffing, an 8×5 model needs strong compensating controls (automated alert escalation, incident logging) to demonstrate adequate risk coverage.

• ISO 27001: Emphasises Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) and continuous improvement. ISO 27001 does not mandate 24×7 operations, but the risk assessment must justify coverage decisions—and monitoring gaps create clear risk treatment requirements that must be documented and accepted.

In both standards, decisions about operating hours should stem from a clearly documented risk assessment and associated controls to mitigate the uncovered hours.

Operating Model 2: 24×7 SOC

A 24×7 SOC has analysts monitoring, investigating and responding continuously, every hour of every day.

How it Works

In this model, a SOC typically uses either internal shifts (rotating analyst teams) or outsourced partners (follow-the-sun or managed SOC) to ensure coverage. Analysts validate alerts, initiate response playbooks and, critically, take action at any hour. Continuous human presence significantly reduces the time between detection and response.

A 24×7 model is the gold standard for organisations with high exposure: globally connected services, critical infrastructure, high-value data or stringent regulatory expectations.

Pros

• Reduced dwell time: immediate investigation and containment, reducing the window attackers have to move laterally or encrypt data.

• Better alignment with modern threat activity: many attacks occur outside normal business hours.

• Compliance support: continuous monitoring aligns naturally with frameworks expecting real-time detection and reporting (SOC 2 and ISO 27001).

Cons

• Higher operational costs: staffing multiple shifts or outsourcing coverage increases expense.

• Workforce complexity: shift rotations, on-call schedules and burnout risk require strong management.

• Maturity demands: requires mature operations, tooling and governance to be effective.

Compliance Impacts

Continuous monitoring and near-immediate response align well with the Detect and Respond functions of both SOC 2 and ISO 27001 risk frameworks. In a 24×7 SOC, controls can be surfaced, tested and documented continuously—simplifying audit evidence and reducing manual compensating controls.

ISO 27001’s focus on formal risk treatment plans is easier to satisfy when coverage is continuous, reducing residual risk for high-impact systems.

Trade-offs and Risk Alignment

Choosing between 8×5 and 24×7 is a risk management decision. Standards like ISO 27001 and SOC 2 don’t prescribe operating hours, but they do require risk identification, mitigation and evidence that risks are controlled. 

Consider:

• Threat environment: external public services, internet-facing APIs and customer data repositories are high-threat assets that benefit from 24×7 scrutiny.

• Attack surface and business impact: the higher the impact of compromise, the lower the tolerance for detection latency.

• Regulatory expectations: some contracts or jurisdictions expect near-continuous monitoring or documented rapid response actions.

In practice, organisations often adopt hybrid models where core functions are monitored 24×7 (alerts and high-severity incidents), and deeper investigation or remediation happens during business hours. A managed SOC provider can help fill gaps, enabling continuous detection without fully internalising all shifts. 

Operational Maturity and Cost Considerations

An 8×5 SOC can be appropriate at earlier stages of maturity when risk exposure or resources are limited. As the organisation grows, exposure broadens, and compliance pressure increases, moving toward 24×7 coverage becomes a natural operational evolution.

From a cost perspective, staffing a 24×7 team internally can be expensive. Many organisations leverage hybrid or managed security operations to spread risk and cost, enabling continuous detection without the full internal hiring burden.

Final Thoughts

The choice between 8×5 and 24×7 SOC is not just about headcount—it’s about risk appetite, threat exposure and compliance obligations. Organisations that treat cyber defence as a core business risk tend to adopt 24×7 monitoring for high-value assets, using risk assessments and compliance frameworks as the foundation for justification.

If you’re uncertain, start with a risk and impact assessment and iterate: many mature SOCs begin with 8×5 coverage and expand toward 24×7 or hybrid models as risk and regulatory pressures increase.