Not Enough Security Staff? How to Bridge the Cybersecurity Talent Gap with 24/7 MDR Services

It's 2 AM on a Sunday, and your security alerts are firing. Your network monitoring system has detected suspicious activity that could indicate a breach. Who's monitoring your network 24/7? Who's investigating the threat before an attacker can gain a foothold?

For many mid-market organizations, the answer is troubling: often, it’s no one.

The cybersecurity talent shortage isn't just an industry statistic; it's a reality keeping IT and Security leaders awake at night, especially those at mid-market organizations. After all, you face a particularly challenging position: your company may be too large to ignore sophisticated cyber threats, yet too small to compete with enterprise-level organizations for scarce security talent.

This creates a dangerous gap where critical security operations go understaffed or entirely unmanned. The choice isn't just about cost – it's about ensuring comprehensive protection when cybersecurity talent shortage solutions are desperately needed.

As cyber threats continue to evolve and multiply, you must make a strategic decision: should you invest heavily in building an in-house security team or partner with a trusted Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider to augment your staff and gain 24/7 coverage?

The Reality of the Cybersecurity Talent Crisis

According to ISC2's latest cybersecurity workforce study, the global cybersecurity workforce gap reached 4.76 million unfilled positions in 2024, with the shortage particularly acute in North America. It’s no wonder that finding qualified security professionals with the specialized skills needed to defend against sophisticated threats is more difficult than ever.

Unfortunately, mid-market organizations bear the brunt of this crisis. While Fortune 500 companies can offer competitive salaries, signing bonuses, and comprehensive benefits packages, mid-market firms often find themselves outbid for top talent.

The result is extended hiring cycles that can stretch six months or longer for critical security positions, leaving your organization vulnerable during the interim.

The experience gap further complicates the problem. Entry-level cybersecurity graduates require significant training and mentorship to become effective, yet many organizations lack the senior staff needed to provide that guidance.

Meanwhile, experienced professionals command premium salaries and have their pick of opportunities, often gravitating toward larger organizations or specialized consulting firms.

The financial impact extends beyond salary costs. Unfilled security positions create operational risks that can translate into downtime, incident response costs, and potential breach damages.

For mid-market companies operating on tighter margins, these risks can be particularly devastating. The 2024 IBM Data Breach Report shows that the skills gap is increasing the cost of a breach, contributing $1.76M USD in average breach costs.

What is the True Cost of Building an In-House Security Team?

Many organizations underestimate the true investment required to build an effective 24/7 in-house security operation. The sticker shock goes far beyond base salaries, which already average $95,000 for entry-level analysts and can exceed $180,000 for senior security engineers.

Financial Realities

Building a minimal 24/7 security operations capability requires at least six to eight full-time employees to provide around-the-clock coverage, accounting for weekends, holidays, vacation time, and sick leave. When you factor in benefits (typically 25-35% of salary), training costs, and the inevitable turnover in cybersecurity roles due to burnout, the annual investment can easily reach $1.2M – $1.8M for a basic team.

Plus, you need to consider the technology and infrastructure investment. Effective security operations require sophisticated tools for threat detection, incident response, vulnerability management, and compliance reporting.

Licensing costs for enterprise security platforms can range from $50,000 to $500,000 annually, depending on organizational size and requirements. Add in the hardware, networking, and facility costs for a security operations center, and the technology investment alone can approach seven figures.

The opportunity cost of extended hiring cycles often gets overlooked. While positions remain unfilled, existing staff must cover additional responsibilities, leading to burnout and potentially more turnover.

Operational Challenges

Even with adequate funding, operational challenges make in-house security teams difficult to sustain. True 24/7 coverage requires careful shift planning and sufficient depth to handle surge capacity during incidents. Most mid-market organizations struggle to maintain this coverage without significant overtime costs or coverage gaps.

The skills diversity required for modern cybersecurity operations presents another challenge. Effective security teams need specialists in threat intelligence, threat hunting, incident response, malware analysis, digital forensics, compliance, and emerging technologies.

Finding individuals with deep expertise across multiple domains is increasingly difficult, leading many organizations to accept skill gaps that create blind spots in their security posture.

Lastly, keeping pace with the evolving threat landscape demands continuous training and skill development. Cybersecurity professionals need regular training on new attack techniques, emerging technologies, and evolving compliance requirements.

The costs of training, certifications, and conference attendance can easily reach $10,000 – $15,000 per employee annually for organizations committed to maintaining current expertise.

The Expertise Dilemma

The tension between junior and senior talent presents a no-win scenario for many organizations. Junior staff members are more affordable and available, but they lack the experience needed to handle sophisticated threats or mentor others. Senior professionals bring critical expertise but command premium salaries and often have multiple job offers.

Organizations that rely heavily on junior staff often discover they've created elaborate training programs for other companies. After investing 12-18 months in developing a junior analyst's skills, that professional becomes attractive to competitors willing to offer significant salary increases. The resulting turnover undermines continuity and forces organizations into perpetual hiring and training cycles.

Why Do Traditional Hiring Approaches Fall Short?

The common belief of "we'll just hire more junior people and train them" is short-sighted in cybersecurity skill development. Unlike many IT disciplines where skills transfer relatively easily, cybersecurity expertise requires pattern recognition that only comes from experience.

Although junior staff can handle routine tasks and known threat indicators, they struggle with the ambiguous, novel scenarios that characterize advanced threats.

Remote work has also complicated security hiring in unexpected ways. While expanding the geographic talent pool, remote work has intensified competition for cybersecurity professionals.

For example, a mid-market manufacturing company in Ohio may compete directly with Silicon Valley startups and New York financial firms for the same remote workers but may not be able to offer the competitive perks or compensation to its top candidates.

Competition with technology giants and consulting firms further constrains the talent pool. Large tech companies offer stock options, comprehensive benefits, and prestigious projects that many mid-market organizations can't match.

Meanwhile, consulting firms provide career advancement opportunities and diverse client experiences that appeal to ambitious professionals.

Can MDR Services Be a Strategic Solution to Solving the Skills Gap?

MDR services have emerged as a practical solution to cybersecurity talent shortage challenges. Rather than building internal capabilities from scratch, organizations can access enterprise-grade security operations through specialized providers who have already solved the recruiting, staffing, training, retention, technology, and expertise challenges.

What MDR Actually Provides

Modern MDR services deliver comprehensive security operations that would require significant in-house investment to replicate at scale. This includes 24/7 monitoring of security events across endpoints, networks, and cloud environments, with immediate escalation and response to confirmed threats.

Unlike traditional managed security services that simply forward alerts, MDR providers actively investigate suspicious activity and take containment actions to limit potential damage.

The expertise depth available through MDR services typically exceeds what most mid-market organizations could maintain internally. MDR providers have security specialists in threat hunting, malware analysis, digital forensics, and incident response – expertise that would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to maintain in-house.

These specialists work across multiple customer environments, giving them exposure to threat patterns and attack techniques that any single organization might encounter only rarely.

Plus, continuous threat intelligence represents another significant advantage. MDR providers maintain relationships with a range of industry threat intelligence feeds, participate in information sharing with federal agencies and law enforcement, and analyze attack patterns across their entire client base. This collective intelligence helps identify emerging threats and attack techniques before they impact individual organizations.

The Economics of MDR Services

The financial comparison between MDR and in-house security operations often surprises IT leaders. While MDR services typically cost $15,000 – $50,000 monthly depending on organizational size and requirements, this represents a fraction of the total cost of in-house capabilities.

An in-house security team costing $1.2 – $1.8M annually can instead be delivered through an MDR provider with 24/7 SOC services at $180,000 – $600,000 annually, while often providing superior coverage and expertise.

The predictable monthly expense structure of MDR services also provides budget advantages over variable staffing costs. Organizations avoid the surprise costs of turnover, extended hiring cycles, emergency contractors, and training programs. Instead, they receive consistent service levels with defined response times and escalation procedures.

Time-to-value represents another economic advantage. Building an effective in-house security team can take 12-18 months or longer, assuming successful hiring. MDR services can be operational within weeks, providing immediate security improvements while organizations focus on other business priorities.

Risk Mitigation

MDR services help organizations reduce several categories of operational risk. Staffing risks disappear when security operations don't depend on individual employees. Coverage gaps from vacation, illness, or turnover become irrelevant when MDR providers maintain adequate depth and redundancy.

The knowledge retention risk that plagues in-house teams also diminishes with MDR services. When key security personnel leave an organization, they often take critical knowledge about threats, vulnerabilities, and incident response procedures with them. MDR providers maintain institutional knowledge across their entire team, ensuring continuity even as individual analysts change.

Access to specialized expertise during major incidents provides another risk mitigation benefit. While in-house teams might struggle with sophisticated attacks or industry-specific threats that exceed their experience, MDR providers can deploy specialists who have handled similar incidents across multiple client environments.

How to Make the Strategic Decision Between In-House vs. External?

The choice between in-house security teams and MDR services requires careful evaluation of organizational capabilities, constraints, and objectives. Rather than defaulting to either approach, IT leaders should assess their specific circumstances using a structured framework.

Assess Your Current Capabilities

Start by honestly evaluating existing security capabilities and staffing. If you have an established security team and successful hiring track records, you may benefit from continued in-house investment. However, those struggling with unfilled positions, high turnover, or capability gaps should seriously consider MDR alternatives.

Budget constraints and growth trajectories also influence the decision. Mid-market organizations experiencing rapid growth may find MDR services scale more easily than internal hiring.

When In-House Makes Sense

In-house security teams work best for organizations with unique requirements that don't fit standard MDR service models. Highly regulated industries with specific compliance needs, organizations with proprietary technologies requiring specialized expertise, or companies with substantial security budgets may benefit from internal capabilities.

Organizations with successful track records hiring and retaining cybersecurity talent should also consider continuing in-house development. If you've built effective security teams before and have the budget to compete for top talent, internal capabilities might provide greater alignment with business objectives.

When MDR Provides Better Value

Most mid-market organizations find MDR services provide better value than in-house alternatives. This is particularly true for companies that have struggled with security hiring, experienced high turnover in security roles, or lack the budget for comprehensive in-house capabilities.

Organizations requiring immediate security improvements should also favor MDR services. If you're currently understaffed and facing extended hiring timelines, MDR can provide immediate protection while you develop longer-term staffing strategies.

Applying a Hybrid Approach for 24/7 MDR

Many successful organizations adopt hybrid models that combine in-house capabilities with MDR services. This might involve maintaining internal security leadership and strategic roles while outsourcing operational monitoring and response.

Alternatively, you might want to use MDR services for after-hours coverage while maintaining in-house capabilities during business hours.

Real-World Considerations for Implementing MDR Services

Successful MDR implementation requires careful attention to integration and change management considerations. The goal is augmenting existing capabilities rather than simply replacing internal staff with external services.

Integration with existing security tools and processes often requires initial coordination. Therefore, you should always choose to work with an MDR provider who offers the flexibility of integrating with your current security tool stack and flexible BYOL models. Planning for these integration requirements helps ensure smooth transitions and maximum value from MDR investments.

As you evaluate MDR vendors, your selection criteria should emphasize compatibility with organizational culture and communication preferences. The best MDR providers become extensions of your internal team, providing regular updates, clear escalation procedures, and collaborative incident response.

Evaluate potential providers based on their communication quality and partnership approach, not just technical capabilities.

The Path Forward

The cybersecurity talent shortage isn't a temporary challenge that will resolve itself through market corrections or educational initiatives. As you evaluate your current security capabilities and staffing challenges, consider whether continuing traditional hiring approaches will realistically meet your organization's security needs.

MDR services offer immediate access to enterprise-grade security expertise that would take years and significant investment to build internally.

Rather than viewing managed services as admission of failure, forward-thinking IT leaders recognize them as strategic force multipliers that enable focus on core business objectives while maintaining robust security posture.

The question isn't whether to outsource security operations; it's how to do so strategically while maintaining appropriate oversight and internal capabilities.

Organizations that embrace this reality and choose high-quality MDR partners position themselves for better security outcomes at lower costs than traditional in-house approaches.

The cybersecurity talent shortage affects every organization, but those that adapt their strategies to current market realities will maintain better protection while avoiding the costs and frustrations of perpetual hiring cycles.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mitangi Parekh Content Marketing Director

As the Content Marketing Director, Mitangi Parekh leads content and social media strategy at eSentire, overseeing the development of security-focused content across multiple marketing channels. She has nearly a decade of experience in marketing, with 8 years specializing in cybersecurity marketing. Throughout her time at eSentire, Mitangi has created multiple thought leadership content programs that drive customer acquisition, expand share of voice to drive market presence, and demonstrate eSentire's security expertise. Mitangi holds dual degrees in Biology (BScH) and English (BAH) from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.