What is a NOC and how it can fill your IT infrastructure needs?
From corporate enterprises to non-profit organizations, NOCs are used across multiple industries and verticals. Depending on the size of an organization, technicians may work from within a NOC command and control room within a data center or corporate office, or from within a separate, dedicated NOC facility. Because of the complexities and costs of operating a NOC, this critical function is often more economical when outsourced to a dedicated NOC services provider who will serve to supplement an organization’s IT operations.
A network operation center, commonly known as a NOC allows organizations and enterprises to manage IT networks 24×7 from a centralized location. Typically, NOCs are demanded from any enterprise or organization that needs nonstop availability through networks, servers and websites. A NOC engineer is responsible for monitoring, maintaining and supporting any issue that may arise in order to guarantee optimal performance. Depending on the size of the company, these centers could be commanded by internal technicians, be that from a standard office or a dedicated NOC facility. However, due to the complexities and financial costs, many companies decide to outsource this business process to a dedicated NOC service provider, who makes to provide 24×7 support and maintenance for issues that may pop up.
Most common services a NOC provides
Initially a set of metrics which represent the needs for assessment for any organization are set up by the organization itself. The objective of those metrics is to monitor on daily basis the infrastructure of a company. If any incident occurs, a NOC technician will make sure to detect and correct it within the timeframe based on the metrics of the company. Typically, it includes monitoring: (1) networks, (2) applications, (3) routers & switches, (4) firewalls, (5) websites, (6) servers, (7) LANs/WANs/MANs, etc.
It is inevitable that there will be outages within a system infrastructure. The worst part of it is that they are often unpredicted and happen at difficult times. A NOC engineer however, will make sure to be available on duty 24×7 stay alert and monitor your network infrastructure.
The level of NOC support based on complexity:
Tier 1 – it is the first line of support that includes basic customer issues such as troubleshooting and resolving basic problems. It may include issues related to usernames and passwords, hardware or software setup, etc.
Tier 2 – requires more in-depth technical support. The staff needs to have higher level of knowledge and more experience to assess and issues and problems that cannot be solved from tier 1 support. Basically, it provides advanced technical troubleshooting support.
Tier 3 – it is the highest level of support which requires expert product and service. Tier 3 engineers define root causes of the problems by going back to product designs and code. Typically, it includes engineers who posses’ high expertise on products and services they support.
Other side functions of NOC
Network Security
Despite not being a resource that is dedicated to security monitoring, NOC serves as a guard for security operations center as well. If a security alert is activated from firewalls or other appliances related to security, NOC can respond to them. A perfect example of this would be in case a ATM experiences an outage or is attacked through skimming. In this case, NOC can raise this issue to those who are responsible to respond in order to prevent delay in intervention. Thus, despite not being dedicated to security monitoring [which is a direct reasonability of Security Operations Centers (SOC)], NOCs escalate security vulnerabilities to the security dedicated teams in order to prevent delay.
MSPs and Help Desks
Additionally, a NOC may serve as an MSP partner through providing first rate support for specialized services. Similarly, NOC can be a great assistance by training and interacting with the the IT staff that in turn interrelates with end-users through help desk support.
So, what are the top 5 advantages of outsourcing NOC services?
Less network stoppage – because the intervention by experts would be immediate.
Less costs – due to the predictability of costs based on data patterns, your company would be easy to save money.
Staff utilization – your IT staff would be able to focus more on critical matters of your business goals.
Avoid staff distraction – with issues that could be resolved far quicker by an experienced NOC team without shifting the focus of your staff to trivial matters.
New perspective on handling IT infrastructure – sometimes it is crucial to invite an outsider to reconsider your activities which can always be improved by engineers who are experienced and are far more exposed to different IT problems.
An outsourced NOC partner brings a fresh perspective. Your NOC partner has eyes on your infrastructure 24×7 with the expertise and experience to monitor your systems in ways you may not have considered.
How can Kosbit help you?
Our NOC team can assist your company through our monitoring and remediation services designed specifically to your IT infrastructure needs. Kosbit is a globally recognized IT company located in Kosovo (South-East Europe). We are the only direct vendor of AT&T to whom we provide Network Engineering Services, Technical Sales Support and IT Managed Services. Interested to know more? Write us at info@kosbit.net
