Network security teams have spent the last decade trying to solve detection. More tools, more AI, more coverage across cloud, on-premises and hybrid environments. And to a certain extent, it's worked - machine-learning tools and anomaly scoring have 'compressed identification times to minutes,' as a 2026 Computer Weekly report put it.
But faster detection doesn't always translate into faster response. The same analysis identified 'organisational latency - the delay between alert and authorisation' as still 'measured in hours or days.'
And that gap has a price tag. Infrastructure downtime still costs a minimum of $50,000 per hour, with 34% of organizations putting that figure at $100,000 or more, according to Business Wire.
Threats are moving at machine speed, but unfortunately for many teams, response isn't.
Three things standing in the way
1. Two teams, one problem - and no shared process
Network and security teams share the same infrastructure, the same threats and the same consequences when something goes wrong. But in most organizations, they don't share much else - different platforms, different workflows. The teams tasked with protecting the same systems often can't see what each other is doing.
When an incident occurs, that separation becomes expensive. Context has to be gathered manually across systems. Handoffs between teams introduce delays. Changes require approvals that move through disconnected tools. Every step of coordination that happens manually is a step that extends the window between detection and resolution.
The teams on the hook for fixing this aren't operating with spare capacity. On the contrary, 81% of security professionals say their workloads have increased over the past year, per the Voice of Security 2026 report by Tines. Manual coordination across disconnected systems doesn't just introduce delays - it compounds them.
2. Alert volume that manual processes can't match
The scale of what teams must respond to has outpaced the processes built to handle it. Network security teams can face upwards of 1,000 incidents a day, each requiring manual research across multiple systems before any decision can be made.
And yet security teams still spend 44% of their time on manual or repetitive tasks that could be automated, according to the Voice of Security 2026 report by Tines and network professionals spend nearly 40% of their week on firewall management and provisioning alone, per IT Pro.
The investment has gone into detecting threats faster. The operational infrastructure to act on them at the same speed hasn't followed.
3. Automation that doesn't scale
Most organizations have some automation in place. The problem is the kind of automation they have. Custom scripts written by individual engineers handle specific tasks, but they don't coordinate across teams, they don't enforce governance and they don't survive the engineers who built them. When that person leaves, the automation either breaks or becomes a liability no one knows how to maintain.
This is one of the most common and underreported ways network security operations break down. Automation built around individuals rather than shared, orchestrated workflows creates single points of failure that quietly undermine response capability, often until an incident exposes them.
According to Gartner, 67% of enterprise network activity is still manual. For most organizations, the automation gap isn't theoretical. It's embedded in daily operations.
What turning hours into minutes looks like
The organizations closing the gap between detection and response share a common approach. They've moved from isolated automation - scripts, runbooks, tool-native triggers - to shared, orchestrated workflows that connect network and security functions end to end.
When an alert fires, context is gathered automatically. Severity is assessed. The right team is notified. Changes are validated, implemented and logged, without manual handoffs creating delays or gaps.
The goal here isn't autonomous security operations. It's operational infrastructure that moves at machine speed - governed, auditable and built for teams to work from together.
Ready to close the gap? Download Tines' Ultimate Guide to Network Operations for a five-step roadmap and join Sif Baksh and the team at Netskope on July 15 for a live webinar exploring what proactive response looks like in practice.
