Why Organizations Use Network Operations Center

Investigate how network operations centers help enterprises maintain peak performance and how AI contributes to more dependable network service. What exactly is a network operations center (NOC)? A network operations center (NOC) is a central site where computer, telecommunications, or satellite network systems are monitored and maintained 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It serves as the initial line of protection against network outages and malfunctions.

Why do Businesses Utilize NOCs?

There are several reasons why organizations use network operations center. Telecommunications, financial services, manufacturing, and the energy industry all work around the clock and require consistent connectivity. Continuous network monitoring is required to maintain this current condition of 24-7 worldwide operations. This can make managing network services within typical IT services difficult. NOCs undertake this monitoring for enterprises, dealing with issues that may impair network performance as rapidly as possible, such as identifying malware and regulating the number of users and website traffic. They also aim to optimize the network through upgrades and maintenance and boost network performance.

Ideally, a NOC staff operates behind the scenes, with the end user unaware of their activities. If a NOC is correctly working, the end user will have a smooth, continuously connected experience with no difficulties such as extended downtime, malware infestation, or poor network operation.

How Network Operations Center Works

NOCs collaborate with enterprises to manage their complex networking environments, which include servers, databases, firewalls, devices, and associated external services. Depending on the firm's demands, the IT infrastructure may be situated on-premises or with a cloud-based provider.

NOCs are often organized in tiers. Incidents are classified into one of three severity levels, with one being the most minor, such as reviewing warnings from infrastructure equipment, and three being the most serious. If a technician cannot handle an issue in a timely way, the issue will be escalated to a more experienced technician. NOC engineers then debug any developing issues and seek solutions to avoid future network outages and connection concerns.

Some businesses prefer to run their NOC and keep the infrastructure and operations hub on-site, frequently within the data center. On the other hand, other firms outsource this function to a third party specializing in network and infrastructure monitoring and administration.

Capabilities of NOC

The NOC manages network systems such as data storage, software updates, and connection. A NOC will undertake the following activities and operations:

• Updating, troubleshooting, and installing software on network-connected systems
• IT infrastructure and equipment management
• Backing up data and maintaining its network accessibility
• Providing antiviral assistance
• Firewall and network security software monitoring
• Patch administration
• Services for email management
• Network monitoring includes examining the network's health, reporting on performance, and optimizing the network.
• Recovery after a disaster

Benefits of Network Operations Center

NOCs, whether in-house or hired through a third-party vendor, provides various benefits to businesses.

More efficient IT departments: By offloading NOC duties from the internal IT team, staff may concentrate on essential projects and new initiatives.

Scalability: A NOC may grow alongside a company as it grows into new locations and markets and provide the scalability required for daily or seasonal traffic surges.

Downtime is eliminated since a NOC is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to verify that all software, hardware, and networks are operational.

Rapid incident response: NOCs are meant to continuously monitor network systems, identify problems promptly, and prevent problems from becoming problems. Because of the "always on" design, accidents are dealt with fast.

NOCs, give real-time data on the health of your network, identify areas for development, and implement these enhancements to strengthen your network.

Outsourcing vs. In-House

An in-house NOC necessitates large resources, but the investment is worthwhile for some corporate technology or communications firms. They choose to run their networks internally to preserve complete control over network operations.

Other businesses, government agencies, or institutions may be unwilling to devote the large resources required to employ and operate an in-house unit. Outsourcing a Network Operations Center, where trained specialists manage the task and a trustworthy vendor, can be less expensive and time-consuming for these enterprises. A third-party NOC delivers high-quality, standardized network administration for these businesses without the burden of employing, managing, and supporting an internal workforce. NOCs allow a company's principal technical personnel to focus on key business tasks since they are an extension of the company's current workforce.

NOC vs SOC vs Support Desk

A network operations center (NOC) and a security operations center (SOC) both provide mission-critical activities, but the objectives of a network operations center, a security operations center, and a help desk differ significantly. When difficulties develop, all three provide support, albeit help desks are frequently more focused on the end user. Let's take a look at each and see how they vary.

NOCs, as previously said, focus on network management to maintain network uptime and promptly identify problems. They often function in the background to offer a smooth experience.

A security operations center (SOC) similarly operates behind the scenes, focusing on network and information security, executing threat analysis and monitoring for assaults on a consumer network. SOCs are taught to identify and neutralize cyber-attacks as they occur. Whereas the NOC's objective is to provide 24-7 network connectivity, a SOC's mission is to analyze risks and construct defenses against assaults that might eventually disrupt the 24-7 network.

Help desks, among other things, identify network problems. The help desk, on the other hand, primarily engages with the end user, such as an office worker experiencing a break in network access or a field technician encountering difficulties with an equipment connection. NOCs seldom engage with end users, preferring to collaborate with managed service providers and/or a company's own IT staff.

Neither team operates in isolation; NOCs may be on call to assist the help desk. For example, if a customer care representative is having difficulty logging onto the network, the issue would be escalated to the NOC if it could not be handled at the help desk.