A Network Operations Center, or NOC for short, is a high-tech command center where IT experts keep an eye out on the nuts and bolts of your network, to ensure they are running smoothly. Pronounced as KNOCK, the NOC is the control room of your organization's IT resources and the central location for your team to monitor and troubleshoot network-related problems. NOCs are also where critical operations like patch management, domain name management, and software distributions are handled.
Read on to learn all about NOC, including how they work, why you need one, its best practices, and more.
How do NOCs work?
Typically, large enterprises have a separate control room that's fitted with monitors to oversee the IT operations spread across the organization. These monitors display the status, availability, and performance of different workstations, servers, and other critical devices in your network. Ideally, each workstation or cluster of devices will be connected to a monitor to provide the information required for a quick and efficient response.
One or more IT technicians watch over these monitors continuously to identify problems and troubleshoot them immediately. This troubleshooting process may also be tiered, where the easy issues are fixed by level 1 technicians while the more complex issues are handled by expert technicians. In many NOC setups, there's also a PA system for technicians to communicate with each other quickly. Based on each NOC's setup, the alert details are also streamed to a wall screen for everyone to track and review.
Sometimes, organizations would prefer to outsource this monitoring and management to a specialized NOC services company.
Why Do Organizations Need NOCs?
In simple words, a NOC helps to maintain the optimal performance of your network. It also secures your network from unauthorized access and programs and ensures their continuous availability.
Besides these, NOCs also help organizations in other ways:
- Improved Efficiency When you have a dedicated IT team to ensure system uptime and performance, the overall efficiency of your organization will be high. This dedicated team of technicians will ensure that the systems are working optimally always, and in turn, this will increase the productivity of employees. More importantly, when you have a dedicated NOC team, the internal IT team can focus on new initiatives.
- Highly Scalable NOCs are highly scalable and can grow with your organization. It can even be used to remotely monitor devices that are physically located in a different geographical region. You can also scale down at any time, depending on your business needs and traffic fluctuations.
- Reduces Downtime A NOC reduces downtime because technicians have the visibility to proactively address problems before they impact the entire organization. If you're a Managed Services Provider (MSP), you can comfortably meet the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with your clients. Such reduced downtimes can save money for your organization and build your reputation.
- Quick Response A NOC enables your technicians to quickly respond to an issue and address the underlying problem immediately. Plus, it also streamlines incident management while providing complete visibility of the issues to everyone involved in IT monitoring.
- Resource Optimization NOCs provide information on the availability and working of different devices in real-time. Using this information, you can know how well your resources are being utilized and can make capacity-planning decisions accordingly. Also, you can use this monitoring data to identify areas for improvement and security gaps and make the necessary changes for building a more robust network.
Due to the above reasons, many organizations set up a dedicated NOC within their organization to reap its many benefits. However, it's important to know that a NOC entails heavy investments for setup and maintenance.
Moving on, let's dive into some best practices.
NOC's Best Practices
To make the most of your NOC, you must follow the best practices described below.
- Regular Training Regular training on the latest trends and techniques can help your NOC team to gain excellent knowledge and expertise. Provide frequent training sessions and ensure that all members are aware of any changes in your organization's policies. In turn, this training will translate to improved efficiency in resolving issues.
- Policies and Procedures A clear and detailed set of policies and procedures act as a wireframe for the NOC team. When every member is aware of the process for an event, the resolution process moves quickly and there's reduced friction among team members.
- Define Roles Another important aspect is to define the role and responsibility of every member of the NOC team. Again, this reduces confusion on the scope of work of every individual and enhances collaboration. It also boosts employee morale and can lead to a positive and productive work environment.
- Establish a Culture of Communication Good and unambiguous communication is the heart of efficient NOC operations, so make sure you equip team members with the tools they need to effectively and instantly communicate with each other. Also, consider providing communication training to employees as a part of their orientation program.
- Make Documentation Essential Documentation is an afterthought in many organizations, but this approach can cause you to lose out on historical data. Instead, make documentation a priority, so every incident and the associated resolution is documented. You can use this information as a reference point and can also help new team members to better handle known issues.
- Select the Right Tools The tools you choose for your NOC have a big bearing on its efficiency and effectiveness. Ideally, the tool you select should be simple to use while providing comprehensive control and visibility to the NOC team. It should also provide them with the right context and background information for quick troubleshooting. With this tool, your team should quickly identify issues, and drill down into the metrics to know their underlying causes. It also helps if the tool you select is scalable to meet your growing business needs.
Thus, these are some practices that help you to get the most out of your NOC.
Bottom Line
In all, the NOC is an essential part of your business, as it can keep your IT infrastructure running smoothly and efficiently. In turn, a well-oiled and optimally functioning infrastructure can translate to higher employee productivity and efficiency. If you're a services provider, it can help you to meet the SLAs entered into with your client. All this means you can save costs, get the most out of your resources, and boost your image as a reliable service provider.
We hope this information helps you to make an informed decision about setting up a NOC for your organization. For more guides, browse www.ittsystems.com.
