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SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response)

SOAR platforms integrate multiple security tools, automate repetitive tasks, and streamline incident response to help SOC teams manage alert overload and respond faster.

What is SOAR?How it typically works?Common techniquesImpactFurther reading

What is SOAR?

SOAR stands for Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response. It describes a category of platforms designed to make security operations centers (SOCs) more effective by coordinating tools, reducing manual work, and enabling consistent, playbook-driven responses. The idea came from the growing alert volumes produced by SIEM and detection tools. Human analysts alone cannot handle every alert. SOAR bridges that gap by automating enrichment and containment, leaving analysts to focus on investigation and decision-making. It helps organizations reduce mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR), two key performance indicators in modern cybersecurity.

How it typically works?

  1. Ingestion: SOAR ingests alerts from SIEM, endpoint tools, IDS/IPS, and cloud platforms.
  2. Enrichment: it pulls in context from threat intelligence, user directories, and asset databases.
  3. Correlation: alerts are grouped into cases, reducing noise.
  4. Automation: playbooks execute actions like IP blocking, host isolation, or account suspension.
  5. Analyst interaction: complex steps are presented as guided workflows.
  6. Documentation: incidents are recorded for audit, compliance, and lessons learned.

Common techniques

  • Alert triage automation: prioritize and enrich alerts automatically.
  • Playbooks: predefined workflows for incidents such as phishing or malware.
  • Case management: ticketing features for analyst collaboration.
  • Tool orchestration: integrations with firewalls, EDR, and cloud security.
  • Automated containment: isolate endpoints or accounts rapidly.
  • Audit reporting: create consistent compliance records.

Impact

SOAR enables security teams to scale without linearly adding analysts. It reduces alert fatigue, improves consistency in investigations, and ensures rapid containment of threats.

Analysts benefit from guided playbooks that structure responses, while managers gain clear visibility into operations through dashboards and reports.

In large enterprises, SOAR also supports regulatory requirements by ensuring evidence is documented and workflows are repeatable.

Further reading

  • Gartner: SOAR definition. Read more
  • Palo Alto Networks: SOAR explained. Read more
  • IBM Security: SOAR overview. Read more
  • SANS Institute: Automating incident response. Read more
  • CISA: Building incident response maturity. Read more

Related topics

SIEMXDRIncident ResponsePlaybooks & Runbooks