If you’ve seen any famous hacker movies like War Games or The Matrix, you might think you know what a Security Operations Center (SOC) looks like. Your vision is probably of a room with walls covered in high-resolution large-screen visual displays, with dozens of sophisticated workstations running multiple monitors each, and lots of dark polished glass — all illuminated by the flickering of consoles. There, analysts gaze with rapt attention at multiple maps and dashboards, ready to stop international cybercriminals in their tracks with a few perfectly timed keystrokes.
Unsurprisingly, the reality is far less glamorous. A better analogy from Hollywood comes from The Wizard of Oz. Look behind the curtain, and you’ll discover that actual security operations centers are often relatively small physical spaces that rarely contain huge wall-mounted monitors. They do, however, represent the brains and nerve center of enterprise-grade cybersecurity operations programs. SOCs house the people and technologies that work together to monitor and protect corporate IT networks, reliably keeping them safe at all times of the day and night.
In essence, an SOC contains all the resources that an organization needs to detect, analyze and respond to cybersecurity incidents. Its most important resource is the people who work there — usually a combination of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 analysts. These professionals have developed specific processes for detecting vulnerabilities, identifying threats and responding to incidents, and they leverage a carefully chosen set of technologies to get their jobs done.
In an SOC, analysts work to improve an organization’s security posture by responding to evidence that unusual things are taking place in its IT environment. They must figure out what’s going on as quickly as possible so that they can put a stop to malicious activities before they cause real harm.
Most SOCs rely on security information and event management (SIEM) technologies. These are systems that gather data from many different places, including end user devices, networking equipment, firewalls and other security solutions. A SIEM is like a giant library, where security analysts go to browse or sort through information in order to discover patterns of unusual activity. The analysts rely on logical analytic skills including deductive and probabilistic reasoning to connect the dots, determining which of the SIEM’s alerts are most likely to indicate actual attacks, and which among these pose the severest threats.
Security analysts’ jobs are challenging. There’s a great deal of critical thinking involved, as well as close collaboration within teams. Cybercriminals are constantly cultivating new strategies and inventing new tactics, so security analyst must always be learning about the latest threats if they are to stay ahead of the attackers.
Though the number of people working in an enterprise security operations program typically varies depending on the size of the company, most SOC employees serve in the Tier 1 analyst role. Tier 1 SOC analysts serve on cybersecurity’s front lines. They’re responsible for the initial triage and analysis of alerts that the organization’s security tools generate, as well as for taking calls from end users with security questions. Tier 1 analysts look for trends and anomalies in SIEM log data to help them identify the incidents that are most worthy of further attention and deeper scrutiny.
When Tier 1 analysts need additional support from more senior cybersecurity professionals, they turn to Tier 2 and 3 analysts. These are experienced SOC analysts with deeper expertise in incident handling, correlating information from multiple data sources, or specific areas like malware identification, containment strategies, or threat intelligence.
Depending on the nature of the event in question, security analysts may also call in external specialists in incident response, threat hunting, penetration testing, or forensics. Or, in larger programs, such specialists may be part of the core SOC team.
Building a top-performing SOC is the key to maintaining a highly effective security operations program. Here at BTB, we’re proud to have developed our own proprietary modular technology platform that enables us to identify threats quickly and eliminate them at speed. Called RADAR, it’s customized to gather data from the endpoint devices and security solutions that are already in place in our clients’ environments. This means that we don’t face the same interoperability challenges that bedevil single-vendor SIEM platforms.
RADAR relies, in part, on BTB Threat Analysts and machine learning in order to constantly improve its ability to determine whether or not alerts are evidence of truly malicious activity. Because RADAR is always “learning” from additional data about your environment, its ability to detect attacks gets better and better over time. This allows our analysts to spend less time responding to false positive alerts, and more on higher-value investigative and creative work.
Our SOC also benefits from a unique company culture. We prize diversity — of cognitive and learning style as well as background — and constantly strive to hire analysts with strong logical and analytic skills with a variety of previous work experiences and educational histories. And we focus on creating a welcoming, collaborative environment where anyone with the desire to excel can learn, grow professionally and become a better security analyst.
Are you interested in learning more about how a top-performing security operations center works? Want additional information on how our managed detection and response clients stand to benefit from 24x7x365 cybersecurity monitoring? Contact us to request a free, no-obligation demonstration, today.
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David Ter Molen brings more than 20 years of legal experience to his role as General Counsel at Netrix Global. David oversees all legal operations and corporate compliance affairs of the company and its global affiliates. In addition to overseeing the day-to-day legal affairs of Netrix Global, David successfully guided the company through its 2020 recapitalization by an affiliate of OceanSound Partners and the company’s subsequent acquisitions and divestitures.
Prior to joining Netrix, David was in private practice for 17 years, most recently as a partner at Freeborn & Peters in Chicago.
David received his JD from Northwestern University School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude, and his BA from Dartmouth College. Prior to law school, David worked at Accenture as a business and technology consultant.
Ashish has been part of the organization since 2000, starting with Structure Technologies which merged with Netrix in 2012. During the 20+ years, Ashish has worked in various areas of the organization, from Engineering, Project Management, Sales Engineering, and Technical Architect and Team Management to Product Management and Product Development. Ashish has expertise in Unified Communications and Contact Center and started the development of TetraVX Products at Netrix. As a Technical Fellow,
Ashish brings deep technical expertise, an understanding of business operations, and a customer perspective to help Netrix implement new systems, products, and services. Currently, Ashish leads the Product Development organization to develop secure, scalable and easy-to-use products.
Ashish has a Computer Science degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has Product Manager, Product Leader, and Product Executive certificates from The Product School.
Ashish lives in the Dallas, TX area with his wife and two children. He and his family enjoy vacations involving nature, learning about different cultures, watching movies, and going to the Dallas Mavs games.
Don is the SVP, Global Professional Services (Delivery) at Netrix Global. He has more than 20 years of experience building, managing, and growing professional and managed services businesses.
Don joined Netrix Global in 2013 as a Partner, driving significant growth in the Microsoft Alliance nationally and professional services delivery business. In 2020, Don led the M&A growth strategy and execution, which included the acquisition of five businesses and one divesture. In 2022, Don was asked by the board to take a leadership position over the global professional services business and lead growth, transformation and development of the teams and services while completing the integrations and value delivery of all acquired companies into one global organization.
Don’s earlier career included working as a technical consultant with specializations in infrastructure, collaboration, and messaging platforms. In 2001, Don joined Project Leadership Associates as a consultant and over twelve years focused on growing the Microsoft Strategic Alliance and professional services organization. While growing and leading in his various roles at Netrix, Don returned to school as an avid continuous learner to complete his bachelor’s degree in data Analytics in 2018 from Rasmussen University.
Creativity and focused action drive results.
Sarah has over 25 years of experience in marketing and strategy consulting, primarily in the B2B SaaS data protection and cybersecurity domains. Her experience ranges from working with companies as small as 4 employees to large enterprises. She specializes in building and scaling marketing and channel teams for growth and integrating acquired companies for rapid impact.
Prior to Netrix, Sarah derived success from her expertise with multichannel go-to-market strategies across complex global markets for companies including Sungard Availability Services, RSA, FireMon, and Dell EMC. Through leadership roles in product marketing, channel marketing, demand generation, market intelligence, and strategic communications, Sarah has honed a multidisciplinary marketing approach that enables her to consistently exceed KPI objectives and growth targets.
Sarah has also established an industry-focused perspective through consulting work in the areas of healthcare tech, database services, and career assessment tools. Sarah holds a Master of Science in Marketing with a concentration in Market Analytics, an MBA, and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Bentley University. She is an ICCS® certified career consultant, guest lecturer, and certified personal trainer.
Take care of your employees and they will take care of your customers.
Jay brings more than 25 years of client-facing consulting experience to Netrix. Jay started in information technology with two manufacturing companies before moving into consulting in 1997. Jay began consulting as a delivery engineer covering all aspects of integration and design around desktop operating systems starting with Windows 95 to Windows 10. Jay also focuses on working with law firms to help them with their digital transformation.
Jay joined Netrix in 2015 to start the End User Compute practice as Windows 10 was about to be released. Within two years of starting that practice, Netrix became Microsoft’s Windows 10 Partner of the Year. Jay now has moved from engineering to a sales leadership role overseeing all aspects of the Microsoft relationship. Jay holds a Bachelor of Computer Information Systems Degree from Devry University. He is happy to be a proud parent of a young son and has married his wife, Manali, for over 20 years. Jay and his family like to travel, cook, and watch basketball and movies.
The best way to attract top talent is to learn how to retain top talent.
Michael has over 20 years of experience in talent acquisition working with both start-up companies and Fortune 500 corporations. Throughout his career, Michael has demonstrated a strong commitment to finding and attracting top talent and has a proven track record of delivering outstanding results in a variety of roles and industries.
Michael started his career in Talent Acquisition as a headhunter with an external recruiting agency. He brought those skills to the corporate side working with IBM, HP/HPE, Nutanix and OVH US. He is known for his ability to create and maintain strong relationships with hiring managers, HR teams, and other key stakeholders, and is committed to delivering a seamless and positive candidate experience.
Michael has a B.S. in Finance and Business Administration from the University of South Florida. He is a devoted Washington Capitals’ fan. He loves entertaining guests on his patio with his craft cocktails, wine, charcuterie, and cheese boards.
Jim joins Netrix Global with over 20 years of experience in B2B technology marketing. Jim’s success in delivering revenue growth and measurable outcomes through strategic development, customer journey orchestration, brand management, and revenue marketing is credited to his fervor for ensuring both his customers and his team’s success.
Before joining Netrix, Jim held various marketing and strategy positions at start-ups and global 500 companies, most recently leading marketing and strategy initiatives at Entrust and Thales. He is a strong advocate of using cybersecurity and cloud computing technologies to create a competitive edge and enhance business outcomes. His goal is to help clients maximize the benefits of these technologies. Jim is often invited to speak at industry events where he shares his expertise and insights.
Jim has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from the University of California and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern California.
Vladimir Gotsev has over 25 years of experience in Information Technology, serving in various roles since joining the team in 2005. As a leader he championed several professional services practices throughout the years. He led the managed services practice and security practice from the ground up and launched many service offerings and partnerships at Netrix.
Vlad led the transition to the Netrix Professional Services practice in 2021. Throughout his career Vlad’s passion and focus has been to help customers define and execute their digital transformation strategy while maximizing business value.
Vlad currently leads the professional services delivery organization focusing on Security, Cloud, Applications, Data and AI/ML, Collaboration, and everything in between.
Vlad holds a Masters’s degree in telecommunications and holds several expert-level IT certifications. He is a proud father of two boys. In his spare time, he is enthusiastic about traveling the world.
Grow people to grow revenue, not the other way around.
Joshua Hoffman joins Netrix as Chief Revenue Officer, where he is focused on growth, sales, partner channels and customer experience in order to further extend Netrix Global as a trusted technical partner. Josh brings a wealth of global experiences from various revenue-focused executive leadership positions at companies that include Dell, Avaya, Palo Alto Networks, Poly, and Datto. Josh has been widely recognized for delivering exceptional growth in results, company culture and professional development.
Josh holds a BBA magna cum laude from St. Edward’s University and has participated as a mentor and program leader in the MBA program at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business. He has had multiple engagements with the state and federal government, as well as charitable organizations, as a presenter and influencer for key legislative initiatives and has served with distinction as a volunteer First Responder across the state of Texas.
Work hard, play hard, enjoy the journey.
Russ’ 28 year background in technology spans from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 giants such as Oracle. He has a wealth of experience leading teams, delivering value to shareholders, driving technological advancement, and scaling organizations—and he has been invited to speak on these topics by major news media outlets and at leading industry conferences.
Prior to being appointed CEO at Netrix Global, Russ was a member of the company’s Board of Directors in conjunction with a successful run as CEO of Infrascale, a cloud-based data protection, backup, and disaster recovery solution provider. Russ served as President and CEO of the U.S. business of OVHcloud, a cloud computing company based in France, where he oversaw the acquisition and integration of vCloud Air from VMware in 2017. Before OVHcloud, Russ was a member of the Executive Leadership Team at GoDaddy, following the company’s 2013 acquisition of Media Temple , where he had served as President and COO. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Children’s Science Center of Northern Virginia and the Advisory Board at Virtru.
Russ graduated with a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from James Madison University, where he remains an active alumnus and Chairman of the Advisory Council for the Madison Center for Civic Engagement.
Embrace change, new ideas, and reward performance.
Dean Gels brings over 20 years of corporate finance and leadership experience as CFO to Netrix Global. He joins the team from his most recent role as CFO for LRN. His work history extends to several high-growth tech companies, including MSA Security, OVHcloud, Borderfree, and RBC Capital Markets.
Earlier in his career, Dean was the VP of Corporate Development at Borderfree (NASDAQ: BRDR) managing the sale of the business to Pitney Bowes for $489 million. Prior to that, he was a Technology Investment Banker at RBC Capital Markets completed more than 40 deals, amounting to $17 billion in aggregate transaction value.
Dean proudly served as an infantry officer in the United States Army in the Pacific theater during his 5-year commitment. Dean holds an MBA from Boston University and a BS from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Lindsay Haun has over 18 years of proven achievements providing big picture leadership and strategic planning and innovation in customer support and operations within global, customer-focused technology organizations. As a support focused professional with hands-on experience, she brings strong leadership and business process improvements.
Prior to joining Netrix, Lindsay was a key player, holding various roles, at technical companies including MySpace, Media Temple, Uber, OVHCloud US, and Infrascale. Lindsay specializes in, and has had proven success with, improving the experience for customers and those that work directly with customers. At Netrix, Lindsay is responsible for spearheading support operations within our MSP organization to ensure our processes are streamlined, customer-centric, and scalable.
Lindsay is a proud Mom to a spirited toddler, a pop culture trivia enthusiast, and a self-described Star Wars nerd.
Greg Price is an executive with 25 years of experience serving the healthcare and information technology spaces. He has in-depth expertise in Executive Leadership, IT strategy, solution assessment, enterprise integration, application development, business intelligence, revenue cycle management, and electronic medical records in behavioral health, pain management and addiction settings. Greg has extensive knowledge in US and International business operations, with a specific focus on the India and the Philippines markets. In these specific regions, he has managed entities from inception to operations with more than 200 people.
Prior to leading the Healthcare Practice at Netrix, Greg was the CEO of Price Consulting, Inc., the creator of the Substance Abuse and Medication Management System (SAMMS). SAMMS is an EMR for behavioral health, pain management and addiction clinics. SAMMS is in use in 250+ clinics in 37 states and serves over 60,000 patients each day. SAMMS clients include clinics, hospitals, county health departments, correctional facilities, large clinic groups, and both state and federal government agencies.
Eric has over 20 years of experience in IT operations and managed support industry. He provides operational leadership over all Netrix Managed IT Services businesses. Eric is ITIL Foundation certified and focuses on delivering an industry-leading customer support experience, driving process improvement, and implementing best practices. His most meaningful accomplishment has been the ability to foster an environment of continuous improvement, learning, and career growth for the employees he leads at Netrix.
Before joining Netrix, Eric managed an internal IT service desk and NOC support operation for a large Fortune 500 company headquartered in Philadelphia. He oversaw the daily operations of a high-performing support team that managed over 75,000 contacts per month.
Eric attended Kutztown University, where he studied Business Administration and Management. He holds certifications in ITIL Version 3 Foundation Certification (EXIN), Management & Leadership (Dale Carnegie), and Gartner Customer Relationship Management (Gartner). Eric resides outside of Philadelphia, PA, with his wife, Maren, two children, Will and Sam, and Dublin, the family dog. He comes from a large family, and they all make it a point to unite always to celebrate their birthdays and major holidays together.
James has been a part of Netrix since 2006. During that time James has worked in different facets of the organization that includes, Direct selling, Sales leadership, Channel and Strategic Partnerships. James has been part of the Operating Committee for the Netrix Collaboration group known as TetraVX. James is a graduate of Arizona State University.
James is the proud father of two sons. In his downtime, he enjoys adventure traveling, golf, and fishing.
Ryan brings over 20 years in the professional and managed services field focused on Microsoft solution selling. Ryan joined Netrix in 2013 from Project Leadership Associates. Today he leads a team of sales engineers working with customers so they understand how transforming to the cloud can be effective in helping them meet business goals and resolve pain points.
Ryan holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from Purdue University.
Ryan and his wife Lee are proud parents of three children, a Great Dane dog named Moose and are avid boaters.
Mike has 25 plus years of client-facing IT consulting experience with Netrix. Mike has been with Netrix for ten years in multiple sales leadership roles and leverages his knowledge in developing, deploying, and executing sales models and Go-to-Market for Mid-Market and Enterprise segments. Mike has extensive experience working with clients to understand their current state, future state, hurdles to success, and ultimately how to bridge the divide to exceed their goals. Mike leads the Account Management Mid-Market team working with existing clients to execute their digital transformation.
Mike holds a degree in Political Science and Business Communications from the University of Kansas. Mike is a proud father of two. He is actively involved with endurance racing, from 17 Ironman total distance finishes to summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Justin Rapacz has over 25 years of experience in Information Technology, with many of those years spent at Netrix serving in various roles since joining the team in 1998. Leading several professional services practices throughout the years, Justin made the transition to leading the Netrix Managed Services practice in 2016.
With a deep technical foundation, Justin’s focus in managed services has been on delivering both technical and business value to his customers. Today Justin leads the recurring services delivery organization servicing the end-user to the hybrid data center and everything in between.
Justin has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems from DeVry Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He is the father of two boys and enjoys travel, technology, pinball, and cooking.
Adam brings over 17 years of experience in IT operations, cloud infrastructure, security, and compliance management to Netrix. As a leader, he has established, scaled, and run global IT teams that excel in providing world-class service to the organizations they serve. Experienced in both startups and established companies, Adam has a demonstrated track record for transforming IT teams to deliver and exceed mission-critical business objectives.
Prior to Netrix, Adam managed global IT operations organizations at VMWare, OVHcloud US, and AWS.
Adam is a proud husband and father of two boys. In his downtime, he enjoys personal fitness, cooking, and fishing.
Brian joins Netrix with 27 years of experience in strategy, vision-setting, planning, and execution. He has built brand experiences for millions of users and managed critical Fortune 100 customer relationships by scaling product, marketing, and operational organizations that put customers first. Before Netrix, Brian served as the COO at Infrascale, Head of R&D for Virtru, and General Manager for OVHcloud US.
Brian’s success stems from working for technology industry giants, including HP, Palm, eBay, AT&T, YP, and GoDaddy – as well as startups. As the Chief Operating Officer at Netrix, he strives to meet customer needs and achieve company goals. He manages both the customer-product interaction functions — including product management, product development, infrastructure operations – as well as internal functions of enterprise systems and IT. Brian is an advocate for efficient processes, effective use of resources, delighted customers, happy employees, exceptional results, and unrestrained creativity.
Brian holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Michigan and a Master of Business Administration from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. He is a proud pug owner, a Peloton enthusiast, a home-improvement junkie, and sings with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington.
Carolyn has over 20 years of experience driving employee engagement and aligning talent strategies to meet business objectives. Her collaborative approach has built cultures of initiative, ownership, and results for organizations undergoing rapid change and growth.
Before joining Netrix, Carolyn led people strategy at technology companies such as Infrascale and OVH US. She also spent several years with CGI, a global technology and services provider, leading a team of 20 HR professionals supporting 6,500 employees worldwide, responsible for talent strategies, workforce development, and employee engagement.
Carolyn has a BA in Psychology from the University of Western Ontario and holds her SHRM-SCP and SPHR certifications. She is an avid hockey fan and loves anything chocolate!