SOC Maturity Report 2026: the numbers that matter

The SOC Maturity Report 2026 is the second annual edition of the global SOC maturity report published by SOC-CMM®, the organisation behind the model of the same name. The 2026 edition coincides with the model's tenth anniversary, first released publicly in 2016, and it is the most reliable photograph available of how SOCs actually operate: it is built on assessment data and a global survey, not on vendor opinion.

• Data: the survey ran from late January to mid-March 2026 and received 290 responses; roughly 200 valid entries remained after removing inconsistent and spam submissions (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®).
• Sources: 30% of the data comes from assessments performed by support partners, which the report itself rates as the most trustworthy source; 65% comes from the survey and 5% from public submissions.
• Reference model: SOC-CMM v2.4, with 5 domains, 27 aspects, continuous 0 to 5 maturity scoring and a separate capability scale for Technology and Services.
• License: the report is published under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 and is free to download at soc-cmm.com.

What follows is not a full summary. It is the set of numbers a CISO or SOC manager should be able to quote at the next steering committee.

The most uncomfortable finding in the benchmark fits in one sentence: no domain reaches an average maturity of 3 out of 5. The global averages per domain, measured with model v2.4, are as follows (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®).

All five domains are down compared to 2025. The report attributes this to a more representative sample this year, not to an actual decline in SOCs. The hierarchy, however, repeats: Technology is once again the highest-scoring domain, and the hardest aspects sit outside of technology: charter, customers and stakeholders, knowledge management, training and education, forensic analysis, cyber threat intelligence and threat hunting. Effective SOC governance is named the single most challenging improvement topic, selected by 39% of respondents (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®).

There is one objective improvement the report does highlight: reported average coverage of MITRE ATT&CK techniques rose from 45% to 60% in a year (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®). If you want to understand what each domain measures before benchmarking yourself, the SOC maturity model page explains the full structure.

The most important number in the report is not an average. It is a gap. Self-assessments score on average 0.6 maturity points higher than third-party assessments, and the difference repeats across almost every element of the model, for both maturity and capability (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®).

0.6 points in context. On a 0 to 5 scale, 0.6 points is more than the distance between the best domain in the global benchmark (Technology, 2.7) and the worst (Services, 2.2). A SOC that self-assesses at 3.0 is probably closer to 2.4.

The second half of the finding is even more revealing. When maturity is plotted against years of operation, only third-party assessment data shows a clear growth trend; in self-assessment data that trend is not visible. The report attributes this to overestimation, especially in a SOC's first years: teams that are starting out tend to score themselves high, and that early inflation erases the progress curve (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®).

The practical consequence is direct. A self-assessment is useful to structure the internal conversation; it cannot support a board decision, an audit or a certification. If the number is going to leave the SOC, it needs a third party with no stake in the result. That is exactly the job of an independent SOC-CMM assessment.

With third-party assessment data, regional differences are large (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®).

The move of the year is Asia: up 57% from 2025, putting it on par with Europe and the Middle East. The report itself notes that this jump is observed in maturity only, not in capability, and that South America shows a significant capability improvement after being the lowest-scoring element of the dataset in 2025 (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®).

Before using this table as an argument, read the report's own caveats. North America scores 3.8 on few data points, so the figure is less representative. Asia, Africa and South America also have limited samples. And the dataset as a whole skews toward SOCs already interested in maturity: 67% of respondents reached the survey through SOC-CMM's own channels and 65% had already used the model. The real market average is probably below what the report shows.

For an organisation in Iberia or Latin America the reading is twofold: Europe (2.3) sits at the global average, and South America (1.3) has the longest improvement runway, which turns every maturity point gained into a measurable competitive advantage. We maintain an extended, updated analysis on the SOC-CMM statistics page.

The People domain explains much of the global stagnation. Analyst retention has shifted toward shorter cycles: 44% of SOCs now retain analysts for 2 to 3 years, a 129% increase over 2025, with decreases in both the longer and the shorter ranges (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®).

Europe comes out particularly badly: it is at once the region with the longest recruitment time and the lowest retention, and also the region where SOCs are least likely to have formal sourcing and retention strategies. The report connects these facts.

• High workload: named a cause of SOC stress by 53% of respondents (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®).
• High volume of false positives: 47%.
• Insufficient management support: 25%.

A SOC that loses an analyst every 2 to 3 years loses detection knowledge that is almost never documented. The answer is not just salary: it runs through defined roles, a technical career path and an operation that does not burn people out. That is the kind of work we cover in SOC talent and people.

The report dedicates a full chapter to AI and automation, and the conclusion is asymmetric: automation is already paying off, AI is not yet.

Automation is already paying off

74% of SOCs automate alert enrichment, and response automation grew 117% in a year to reach 60% (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®). SOAR has consolidated as the most used automation tool (70%), overtaking SIEM (45%) for the first time. The report itself cautions that a jump this large cannot be explained by one year of maturity progression alone and likely also reflects the change in this year's respondent mix.

AI, between hype and value

The contrast with AI is stark. 57% of SOCs have no AI adoption strategy, and 65% describe themselves as takers: they use off-the-shelf LLMs without modification. The perceived value of current implementations is limited across all SOC delivery models (in-house, MSSP and hybrid), and most respondents expect AI to play a supporting role, not a transformative one, in the near term (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®).

The assessor's reading: automating enrichment and response is now an established practice an assessment can measure with evidence; adopting AI without a strategy, guardrails or defined use cases is not maturity, it is governance debt.

SOC-CMM certification is the least populated territory in the report and the one moving fastest. Today 15 SOCs worldwide are certified: 10 at the risk-driven level, 4 at validated and 1 at defined (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®).

Demand points the other way: 57% of respondents state an intention to certify their SOC, 32% want to do it within a year, and a further 6% are already preparing for the audit. Competitive advantage as a motive nearly doubled from 2025 to reach 21%, with MSSPs leading; and the most demanding level, risk-driven, is now the most commonly targeted (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®).

The arithmetic is simple: with 15 certificates issued and more than half the market stating intent, the first SOCs to certify in each region capture a differentiation that later dilutes. We explain the three levels and the audit process on the SOC-CMM certification page.

1. 1.Set maturity targets per domain. 40% of SOCs are now on par with their target values and only 5% operate with no targets defined (SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®). Staying in that 5% means staying out of the conversation.
2. 2.Benchmark honestly. Use the averages in this report as a reference, not a goal: the report itself warns that the highest-scoring region is not an automatic target and that the sample skews toward already-mature SOCs.
3. 3.Subtract the inflation. If your latest maturity figure comes from a self-assessment, assume the defensible number may sit around 0.6 points lower before taking it to the board.
4. 4.Assess independently and repeat. Only third-party data shows measurable progress; an independent SOC-CMM assessment every 12 to 18 months turns the benchmark into a plan backed by evidence.

Every figure in this article comes from the SOC Maturity Report 2026, published by SOC-CMM® in May 2026 under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license. SOC-CMM® is a registered trademark. Primedefence has been a SOC-CMM Silver Support Partner since November 2023 and is featured in the report's partner insights section; the analysis and opinions in this article are our own.

• SOC Maturity Report 2026, SOC-CMM®, official download of the report and the model: https://soc-cmm.com
• Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• MITRE ATT&CK: https://attack.mitre.org