Disruption is now a constant reality of global operations. A system outage in one region can ripple through suppliers across continents, and local incidents can go viral before official channels can even respond.

For today’s security teams, the challenge isn’t in managing the incident itself. It’s keeping pace with how fast information about it spreads. Traditional GSOCs were built for fixed assets and localized threats, not for a world where risk can surface anywhere, at any moment, and data emerges in real time.

Across industries, security leaders are rethinking what a modern operations center looks like. The emerging model is virtual: decentralized, cloud-based, and powered by AI, human-verified contextual data, and collaboration tools that teams already use.

What is a virtual GSOC?

For decades, Global Security Operations Centers were physical command hubs, i.e., rooms filled with screens and staff monitoring threats around the clock. That model worked when risks were local and slow-moving. 

Today, information and misinformation move instantly across digital and physical domains, leaving traditional control rooms struggling to keep up.

The virtual GSOC is the natural evolution. It delivers the same mission of protecting people, assets, and operations, but with greater speed, reach, and efficiency. In the virtual GSOC:

• Automation replaces manual monitoring. 

• Verified information replaces noise. 

• Insights flow directly into familiar tools like Teams and Slack

The result is a faster, more scalable model of situational awareness that enables proactive decision-making and turns security from a reactive function into a driver of business resilience.

Best practices from leading virtual GSOCs

Both Nutrien and DoorDash replaced centralized command centers with connected networks that combine verified alerts, automation, and everyday communications tools. The result is the same: faster awareness, stronger coordination, and security operations that actively enable the business.

Nutrien: A connected model for global situational awareness

For Nutrien, the world’s largest provider of crop inputs and agricultural services, moving to a virtual GSOC was less about new technology than about transforming how information flows across a global enterprise. 

With more than 26,000 employees and 1,500 sites worldwide, Nutrien needed visibility without the cost and complexity of a 24/7 command center. Instead of scaling by adding staff, the security team scaled through connectivity, integrating samdesk for real-time, verified risk detection, Esri ArcGIS for visualization, and Teams and email for instant communication.

When a verified alert aligns with a Nutrien site or traveler route, it appears automatically in ArcGIS and routes to the right team in seconds with no analyst intervention required.

This shift turned their GSOC from a static control room into a cloud-based network that delivers verified, contextual alerting wherever it’s needed. The result is faster decisions, higher engagement, and a new role for security as a business enabler, giving leaders the confidence to make decisions quickly and safely.

Watch Nutrien describe its transformation to a virtual GSOC

DoorDash: Delivering real-time risk detection to a distributed workforce

With thousands of delivery workers operating across hundreds of cities, DoorDash needed a way to detect and respond to emerging risks instantly, without adding layers of manual monitoring.

DoorDash built a virtual GSOC anchored by samdesk for verified, real-time risk detection. When major incidents occur, like the Mall of America lockdown or the French Quarter shooting, samdesk delivered verified alerts up to 40 minutes before public confirmation, allowing the team to push live safety updates directly to Dashers within minutes.

Read how DoorDash detects risk to its distributed assets and personnel

Building a virtual GSOC

A virtual GSOC simply enhances the tools most GSOCs already have, such as alert data, mapping tools, and communication platforms. Teams can move from reacting to events to anticipating them.

The path to get there doesn’t require a massive overhaul. Start small:

1. Map your critical people and assets in a tool like ArcGIS

2. Integrate verified alerting tools like samdesk

3. Automate how alerts reach the right teams through channels they already use, such as Teams, Slack, or email

4. Pilot the workflow to work out any kinks

5. Scale with purpose across the business

These five key steps are outlined in detail in our latest guide, The Future of Security Operations is Virtual. 

Download the guide

See how other organizations are enhancing risk detection and emergency communication with samdesk. Request a demo.