NOC Services
Introduction
No matter what kind of business you run, your IT infrastructure and applications are bound to be affected by outages. Every second of downtime can cost you time and money. A properly built, well-managed Network Operations Center (NOC) not only mitigates these losses, but also improves network, infrastructure, and application performance. leaves your technology investments—and the business activities that rely on them—exposed and vulnerable.
This guide explores the purpose and functions of a modern NOC, the challenges NOCs face, and how virtually all of them can be resolved or avoided by outsourcing NOC support to a reliable third-party support provider—one that can effectively operationalize those challenges away while providing a more cost-effective option for getting the support you or your customers need.
Whether you already have an internal NOC and are considering augmenting or replacing that operation with outsourced support, or you’re trying to identify the optimal support option for a currently unsupported environment, this guide surfaces the critical information you need to make an informed decision. If any of these points resonate with you, do not hesitate to contact us with questions or schedule a free NOC consultation to connect with our Solutions Engineering Team. Learn more about our industry NOC service delivery platform below.
What does a NOC do
At its core, a successful NOC performs three functions:
Event Monitoring and Management
The NOC team responds to inputs from event monitoring and management systems as well as calls, emails, and other sources.
Read MoreTicketing
From the event monitoring sources, people, and tools in the NOC create incident, change, and service request records.
Read MoreTroubleshooting and Resolution
Processes and procedures guide the NOC to address each task and work to resolve issues.
Read MoreThe Basics of a Network
Operations Center
What is a NOC?
What is the purpose of a NOC?
A high-functioning NOC does more than just keep your network, infrastructure, and applications up and running. It quickly informs impacted users of a problem, enabling them to shift their attention to other tasks without skipping a beat.
The faster users realize a billing application is down, for example, the faster they can shift to email or other tasks. Across the organization, these downstream actions add up to immense savings in time and attention that would otherwise be lost to miscommunication and confusion. This productivity advantage is the number one reason smart companies approach their NOC service as a business investment.
In short, the value that a NOC returns to the business should be far greater than the investment necessary to make it effective.
You know a NOC is working well and to its full potential when it is delivering measurable ROI back to the business it serves.
In addition to detecting issues, the NOC oversees corrective actions to restore functionality after an outage. It is here that the NOC offers an excellent opportunity to keep the business moving during downtime by improving communication between key stakeholders both those whose work is impacted and those fixing the problem.
Unlocking this capability within your NOC requires a centralized operational framework to deliver information and take action at lightning speed—shortening response and resolution times while giving staff the information they need to adjust to the outage quickly.
To see more clearly how a NOC can save your business the high costs of low productivity, let us briefly revisit its basic functions.