Compare the one-time cost of switching to a managed SOC with the yearly saving against running monitoring in-house, and see when the switch pays back.
Enter the one-time cost of moving to a managed SOC or MDR service, any written credit against it, and the yearly saving: what a comparable in-house setup would cost each year (people for round-the-clock cover, SIEM and EDR licences, training) minus the managed service fee. The tool grows the saving each year by the percentage you enter and shows when the one-time cost is recovered.
Worked example (illustrative). Covering 24×7 in-house needs at least five analysts on rotation; at an illustrative ₹9 lakh a year each that is ₹45 lakh, plus ₹10 lakh of tools: ₹55 lakh. A managed SOC for the same estate is quoted at ₹46 lakh, so the saving is ₹9 lakh a year. With ₹4 lakh of onboarding, payback is under six months; at 8% salary growth the net saving over three years is about ₹25 lakh.
Limits. Many MSMEs would never build a 24×7 team, so the honest comparison is often managed service versus business-hours monitoring plus risk. Count the cost of a gap, not only salaries. See in-house SOC versus managed.
Cost Estimates, Best-Fit Selection and Checklists
What a 24×7 in-house security operations centre really costs an Indian MSME — staff rotation, tools, training, attrition — compared with a managed SOC or MDR, with a payback worked example.
