Gartner’s Changing Views on SOAR & Future of Security Automation

What Is Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR)?

Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) refers to a category of security solutions that streamline security operations by integrating disparate tools, automating repetitive tasks, and providing a unified platform for incident response. SOAR platforms enable security teams to collect threat data from multiple sources, correlate it, and automate response workflows. This reduces manual effort, accelerates investigation, and ensures consistent handling of security incidents across the organization.

A typical SOAR solution combines three core functions: orchestration, automation, and response. Orchestration connects security tools and processes, automation handles routine actions without human intervention, and response manages the end-to-end lifecycle of security incidents. By unifying these capabilities, SOAR platforms help security operations centers (SOCs) handle higher alert volumes, reduce response times, and improve the efficiency of security operations.

This is part of a series of articles about SOAR security

Is There a Gartner Magic Quadrant for SOAR?

Gartner does not currently publish a dedicated Magic Quadrant for Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response. Historically, Gartner evaluated the SOAR market through its Market Guide for Security Orchestration, Automation and Response Solutions, rather than consistently maintaining a standalone Magic Quadrant. Gartner continues to publish research on security automation use cases and maintains a Peer Insights category where organizations can compare SOAR products using verified customer reviews.

The absence of a dedicated SOAR Magic Quadrant reflects the broader consolidation of security operations technologies. Capabilities such as automated alert triage, investigation workflows, case management, and incident response are increasingly incorporated into SIEM, XDR, and integrated security operations platforms. Gartner’s Peer Insights category even identifies the SOAR market as “transitioning to Security Information and Event Management.” Organizations evaluating SOAR solutions should therefore consider Gartner’s SIEM research alongside factors such as integration coverage, playbook flexibility, case management, deployment complexity, and support for AI-assisted investigations.

Why Did Gartner Declare SOAR Obsolete?

High Implementation and Maintenance Costs

Traditional SOAR platforms can require substantial investment beyond the initial software purchase. Security teams must integrate numerous tools, design playbooks, test automated actions, maintain custom scripts, and update workflows whenever the underlying security environment changes. This creates a high total cost of ownership and often requires dedicated security engineers or automation specialists.

For organizations with limited staff or immature incident-response processes, the operational effort may outweigh the time saved through automation. Industry analysis of Gartner’s assessment identifies this high ownership and maintenance burden as one of the main reasons standalone SOAR has struggled to achieve its original promise.

Automation Features Are Moving Into SIEM and XDR Platforms

SOAR was originally positioned as a separate layer that connected security tools and automated incident-response workflows. However, SIEM, XDR, endpoint security, cloud security, and other SecOps platforms increasingly include their own orchestration, case management, investigation, and automated-response capabilities.

This reduces the need to purchase and operate a separate SOAR product. Gartner now labels its SOAR Peer Insights category as “transitioning to Security Information and Event Management,” while its SIEM research describes modern SIEM as a system of record supporting detection, investigation, and response.

The Market Is Shifting Toward Integrated and AI-Assisted SecOps

Modern security operations platforms increasingly use behavioral analytics, machine learning, generative AI, and automated investigation to determine what happened and recommend or execute an appropriate response. These capabilities are more dynamic than traditional playbooks that follow predetermined decision trees.

As a result, the market is moving toward integrated SecOps platforms that combine data collection, detection, investigation, case management, orchestration, and response. Standalone SOAR functionality is likely to survive, but increasingly as an embedded capability within SIEM, XDR, AI SOC, or broader security operations platforms rather than as an independent product category.

Gartner SOAR Alternatives: Which Reports Matter Now?

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Security Information and Event Management

The Magic Quadrant for Security Information and Event Management remains one of the most relevant Gartner reports for organizations evaluating alternatives to standalone SOAR. Gartner published the latest verified edition in 2025. The report compares SIEM vendors based on their Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision, placing them into the familiar Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries, and Niche Players categories.

This report matters because modern SIEM platforms increasingly extend beyond log collection and correlation. They support threat detection, investigation, incident management, response workflows, and security automation, the same operational areas traditionally addressed by SOAR. Gartner describes SIEM as a common SOC technology for threat detection and incident response, making the Magic Quadrant and its companion Critical Capabilities for SIEM useful starting points for evaluating integrated security operations platforms.

Gartner Hype Cycle for Security Operations

The Hype Cycle for Security Operations is also a recurring Gartner report. The latest verified edition is the Hype Cycle for Security Operations, 2026. Gartner describes it as research that helps cybersecurity and risk management leaders plan and implement technologies and services used to protect IT, operational technology, cloud workloads, applications, and other digital assets.

Unlike a Magic Quadrant, the Hype Cycle does not primarily rank vendors. It maps security operations technologies according to their maturity, market expectations, adoption trajectory, and estimated time to mainstream use. Gartner’s Hype Cycle methodology is intended to help organizations understand when an innovation may be overhyped, approaching practical adoption, or at risk of being replaced before achieving maturity.

Gartner Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response

The Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response is another current Gartner report. The latest verified edition was published on October 1, 2025. Gartner states that the report is intended to help cybersecurity leaders identify MDR offerings that align with their business-driven risk requirements.

Gartner defines MDR as remotely delivered, human-led, turnkey SOC functionality focused on disrupting and containing cyberattacks. The Market Guide examines the direction of the MDR market, representative providers, service characteristics, remote response capabilities, and recommendations for selecting an MDR partner.

The Market Guide does not provide the quadrant-style vendor ranking found in a Magic Quadrant. Instead, it helps buyers understand the market, identify representative vendors, and develop evaluation criteria. Organizations should assess MDR providers based on coverage, integration with existing tools, human involvement, response authority, containment capabilities, service-level commitments, reporting, and pricing structure.

From SOAR to Security Automation: What Replaces Standalone Playbooks?

As standalone SOAR tools become less central, security automation is shifting toward more integrated, context-aware approaches. Instead of relying only on manually built playbooks, modern SOCs are adopting automation embedded into SIEM, XDR, MDR, cloud security, identity security, and broader security operations platforms. These tools use shared telemetry, asset context, threat intelligence, and analyst feedback to guide response actions.

This does not mean playbooks disappear entirely. Repeatable workflows are still important for tasks such as phishing triage, malware containment, user account investigation, endpoint isolation, and ticket escalation. The difference is that playbooks are increasingly supported by richer data, AI-assisted investigation, and platform-native response actions. Rather than acting as a separate automation layer, security automation is becoming part of the detection and response workflow.

For many organizations, the replacement for standalone SOAR is a combination of integrated automation, AI-assisted triage, and managed response capabilities. Modern tools can enrich alerts automatically, prioritize incidents by severity, recommend response steps, and trigger containment actions across connected systems. This helps SOC teams move from static, manually maintained playbooks toward adaptive workflows that reduce analyst workload while keeping humans in control of critical decisions.

Future of Security Automation: Core SOAR Capabilities to Look for in Modern Security Platforms

Automated Alert Triage

Automated alert triage helps manage the high volume of security alerts generated by modern IT environments. This capability uses predefined rules, machine learning models, or a combination of both to analyze incoming alerts, filter out false positives, and prioritize incidents that require human attention. By automating the initial sorting and enrichment of alerts, SOC teams can focus on genuine threats and avoid alert fatigue, which is common in manual triage processes.

Effective automated triage integrates with multiple data sources, such as SIEM, endpoint detection, and threat intelligence feeds, to provide context and improve accuracy. It can also escalate alerts to the appropriate analysts or trigger further automated investigation steps. Automated alert triage reduces response times and helps ensure that high-risk incidents are identified and addressed promptly.

Threat Enrichment

Threat enrichment enhances raw alerts by adding contextual information from internal and external sources. This process might include pulling in threat intelligence, geolocation data, asset information, or historical incident records to build a more complete picture of each security event. Enrichment allows analysts to understand the nature and potential impact of an alert, reducing the time needed for manual research and decision-making.

Modern SOAR platforms automate enrichment by integrating with threat intelligence platforms, vulnerability scanners, and asset management systems. Automated enrichment speeds up incident investigation and increases the accuracy of threat assessments. By providing analysts with context-rich data, threat enrichment helps SOC teams make informed decisions and prioritize their response efforts.

Incident Response Playbooks

Incident response playbooks are predefined, automated workflows that guide analysts through the steps required to investigate and respond to specific types of security incidents. These playbooks codify best practices and help ensure that responses are consistent, repeatable, and aligned with organizational policies. Modern SOAR platforms allow for the creation, customization, and automation of playbooks to handle a range of threats, from phishing attacks to ransomware outbreaks.

Automation within playbooks can include data collection, threat enrichment, containment actions, and notification processes. By reducing manual effort for routine incidents, playbooks allow analysts to focus on more complex investigations. Automated playbooks increase response speed, reduce human error, and support regulatory compliance across the incident response process.

Automated Containment Actions

Automated containment actions allow security platforms to take predefined defensive measures as soon as a threat reaches a specified confidence level. Common actions include isolating an endpoint, disabling or locking a user account, blocking an IP address or domain, quarantining an email, revoking active sessions, or updating firewall and network access policies. These actions help limit the spread of an attack while analysts continue their investigation.

The most effective platforms provide approval workflows for containment. Low-risk actions can run automatically, while higher-impact actions require analyst confirmation before execution. This approach balances speed with operational safety and reduces the risk of disrupting legitimate users or business-critical systems because of false positives.

Case Management and Analyst Handoff

Case management provides a central workspace where analysts can track incidents from initial detection through investigation, containment, remediation, and closure. A complete case typically includes alerts, evidence, analyst notes, timelines, response actions, and links to related incidents. Keeping this information in one place improves collaboration and creates a clear audit trail for security and compliance purposes.

Analyst handoff is important for organizations operating across shifts or distributed SOC teams. A modern platform should preserve investigation context, document completed tasks, and clearly identify recommended next steps. This reduces duplicate work, shortens investigation time, and ensures incidents continue to progress when responsibility changes between analysts.

Metrics for SOC Performance

Security operations platforms should provide built-in reporting that measures operational efficiency and security effectiveness. Common metrics include mean time to detect (MTTD), mean time to respond (MTTR), alert volume, false positive rates, incident resolution time, automation success rates, and analyst workload. These metrics help SOC leaders identify bottlenecks and evaluate whether automation is improving performance.

Dashboards and historical reporting support continuous improvement. By analyzing trends over time, organizations can identify recurring incident types, refine playbooks, optimize detection rules, and justify investments in new tools or personnel. Consistent measurement ensures that security operations evolve based on objective data rather than assumptions.

AI-Assisted Analysis

AI-assisted analysis helps analysts investigate incidents more quickly by processing large amounts of security data and presenting relevant findings. AI can correlate related alerts, summarize investigation results, identify unusual activity, generate timelines, and recommend response actions. This reduces the time analysts spend reviewing logs and assembling evidence from multiple systems.

AI should support, not replace, analyst decision-making. Recommendations need to be transparent and supported by evidence so analysts can validate conclusions before taking action. Platforms that combine AI assistance with human oversight can improve investigation speed and consistency while maintaining control over high-impact response decisions.

How to Modernize Security Automation with Intezer's AI SOC

As standalone SOAR gives way to integrated, AI-assisted security operations, Intezer's AI SOC delivers the automated triage, investigation, and response capabilities that once required a separate SOAR layer, without the playbook maintenance burden. Intezer closes MDR and coverage gaps by triaging, investigating, and responding to every alert at scale, speed, and accuracy, combining forensic depth with agentic AI to determine what actually happened. This lets security teams safely offload Tier 1 and Tier 2 investigation work and shift human analysts from processing tickets to supervising outcomes.

Key capabilities of Intezer's AI SOC:

• Full alert coverage.Triages 100% of incoming alerts regardless of severity, so low and medium signal alerts are investigated rather than ignored.
• Forensic investigation.Combines endpoint analysis, memory scanning, reverse engineering, and built-in threat intelligence to determine whether activity is malicious.
• Agentic AI triage.Uses deterministic forensic analysis alongside agentic AI to auto-resolve false positives and surface real threats with supporting evidence.
• Response workflows.A built-in workflow engine replaces standalone SOAR for SOC automation, closing alerts back in source tools, isolating devices, disabling users, and running human approval loops, all triggered by forensic verdicts. Workflows can be generated from plain-language descriptions and refined visually.
• Detection engineering feedback. Feeds investigation results back into SIEM and EDR detection rules to improve MITRE ATT&CK coverage and reduce recurring noise.
• Integrations and access.Connects to SIEMs, EDRs, phishing pipelines, ticketing, and existing SOAR tools for teams migrating gradually, and can be operated through a REST API, Python SDK, and MCP.

To see how Intezer's AI SOC automatically triages, investigates, and responds to every alert at unmatched speed and accuracy, explore the Intezer AI SOC platform.