June 28, 2023
If you are operating a small business or an MSP, then you understand the complexities involved in the management of the workload of your IT team. But, the help of the NOC or the Network Operations Center offered by your ISP can help you streamline and simplify your IT operations.
However, what is NOC, how does it operate, and how can it aid your IT departments and MSPs in reducing their workloads? Our blog post will answer all your questions and explain the importance of collaborating with NOC for your business success.
The role of the NOC is to offer round-the-clock monitoring and support for your company's network infrastructure. The dedicated team of experts would constantly monitor your network identifying and resolving issues before they lead to major disruptions.
Whenever issues arise, the NOCs resolve them by themselves or by operating with the other teams in the organization, like the IT operations or the help desk, to identify the underlying source of the problem. They would eventually support the users to access the network resources safely. It might involve offering step-by-step instructions or troubleshooting tips. In a few instances, the NOCs might remotely access the users' computers to resolve the issues directly.
The NOCs serve as a valuable resource for the company of every size. Smaller businesses need more internal resources to support the full-time network operations team; therefore, outsourcing to the NOC is the most affordable solution. The NOC eventually supplements the existing in-house network operation teams for the bigger companies with additional capacity and expertise for business internet support.
The NOC offers various services to its customers. Although not all NOCs are made equal, they generally offer a few of the following noteworthy services:
Network monitoring and management involves tracking every network device, server, and database to ensure that they operate appropriately and that the data passing through them is safe. Network monitoring comprises three main elements:
Network devices: It includes routers, firewalls, switches, and other hardware that forms the entire network infrastructure.
Network servers: The computers hosting the different applications offer services to their users on the network.
Network databases: Stored data used by the different applications on this network.
The following are the key elements forming the main foundation for strong security monitoring and management systems. Every item is vital with their rights combined while creating extensive security strategies helping to safeguard your system, organization, and users from highly sophisticated attacks with business VoIP phone support.
Firewalls: Firewalls act as the initial defense against cyberattacks by blocking unauthorized traffic from entering the network.
Antivirus: Antivirus software safeguards your system from malicious viruses and programs wreaking havoc on your system.
Intrusion prevention systems (IPS):Intrusion prevention systems monitor the traffic for suspicious activity and block malicious traffic before it reaches your system.
Threat analysis: Threat analysis identifies your system's potential threats and risks and develops mitigation plans.
Incident response: Incident response consists of a set of processes followed during a security attack or a breach. Policy enforcement: Policy enforcement ensures that the users comply with the security processes and policies.
Policy enforcement: Policy enforcement ensures that the users comply with the security processes and policies.
It is the process of software and application management throughout their lifecycle. It includes the following in the network operations center:
Installation: There are numerous factors of consideration while installing a program, like its compatibility with other programs, system requirements, and licensing. Strong software and application management plans will evaluate every aspect making the process efficient while reducing disruptions.
Updates: It is important to update the software and applications timely to maintain security, functionality, and compatibility. The efficient software and application management plan includes processes for regularly checking for updates and installing them timely.
Troubleshooting: Irrespective of the sound installations and updates in the plans, issues arise. The properly documented and troubleshooting plan helps you locate and resolve issues instantly, which involves dealing with the developer or vendor of the software.
Patch management: Patch management is essential to keep the applications and software updated. The process involves identifying whenever the patch is available, testing them to ensure it works, and deploying them correctly. The patch is the ideal code for fixing the bug or vulnerability in the application's operating system.
Communications management appears at how securely and effectively the employees of an organization are sharing information between themselves and their clients. It includes developing and implementing communication strategies while assessing their potential in the bid to optimize them.
Email: Sending an email is a quick and easier process. You just need an internet connection. But, the emails are easily deleted or ignored, and it is tough to convey emotion or tone through written words.
Voice: Voice communication, whether over the phone or in person, is highly immediate than email, which effectively conveys emotions; however, it is more disruptive when used differently.
Audio: The audio-only communication like podcasts or recorded messages becomes the best middle ground between voice and email. It is less disruptive than the voice call but can convey emotions and tones more effectively than written words.
Video: Video communication linked with the closed world allowed face-to-face interactions even at a distance during the pandemic. The companies' continued growth in exploring remote work options and video communications allows the participants across time zones and geographies to convey challenging information building great business relationships.
BCDR services can aid organizations can keep their operations running even during massive disruptions such as power outages, natural disasters, catastrophic events, and data breaches. The following are three major elements included in BCDR are:
Data storage: Data storage lays a strong foundation for BCDR planning. You should securely start storing the firm's critical data for easier and quick access during disasters or outages.
Backup: The backup is mainly the data copy that gets restored during the IT system failure, cyberattack, or natural disaster, compromising the data integrity and the system. Testing the backup systems daily is vital to ensure they operate whenever required.
Disaster recovery: Disaster recovery is restoring your systems and data during a massive outage or disaster. It is vital to test the disaster recovery plans timely as a way to make sure of the reliability.
Network analysis and reporting are the main aspects of enhancing the performance of this network:
Network performance: It refers to testing the speed along with the efficiency with which data is transmitted across the network using the metrics like latency, packet loss, jitter, throughput, etc.
Network health: is the analysis referring to the overall stability and reliability, offering better information regarding uptime and the potential issues leading to disruptions.
Optimization proposals: These are the suggestions to enhance the performance of the network, including the changes to the hardware, software, and network configuration. Internet provider NOC support may include how the network gets used, like implementing the latest policies or procedures.
Keeping track of every vendor, contractor, and freelancer your company employs is frustrating. Along with the other duties, the NOC helps keep track of every contact, payment jobs and license on your behalf.
Vendor: The vendor is normally the person or the company selling the services or goods to the other company. They are contracted to offer distinctive services or products which are paid based on every project.
Contractors: The contractor is the person or the firm offering services to the other company based on contracts. These get paid on an hourly or project basis and are not considered as the company employees they are working for.
Freelancers: work for themselves, offering their services and skills to companies or people based on the contracts. The freelancers are generally paid by the project setting their hours.
The NOC is the facility responsible for maintaining optimal network performance and ensuring that the company's IT infrastructure meets every service level agreement requirement. Alternatively, SOC or Security Operations Center is tasked with safeguarding the company against cyberattacks that else would disrupt businesses.
The SOC is the centralized facility in the company or the third-party service provider that houses the information security team and is responsible for monitoring, detecting, analyzing, and responding to cybersecurity incidents on a round-the-clock seven days a week.
The proactive approach sets foot with extensive network infrastructure monitoring. ISPs or NOCs employ advanced technologies and tools to continuously monitor the key network components like routers, switches, servers, and firewalls. Collecting real-time data on the network performance can help them identify the potential bottlenecks, issues with latency, or equipment failures that would impact the internet connectivity.
The monitoring systems offer better visibility into the network traffic patterns, bandwidth use, and the device's health. Through proactive notifications and alerts, the NOCs/ISPs can instantly identify the deviations or anomalies from the normal network behavior enabling them to take preemptive action to mitigate the potential issues.
Proactively monitoring clients' business internet connections involves analyzing the network performances and traffic patterns. They use monitoring tools to gather data on the metrics like packet loss, latency, throughput, and jitter. Establishing the baseline performance benchmarks can promptly detect deviations while troubleshooting them.
Analysis of the traffic is yet another important feature of proactive monitoring. The NOCs closely evaluate the network traffic to identify unusual patterns or other suspicious activities that indicate security threats and congestion. Monitoring the traffic in real-time can help them implement the quality of the service or QoS measures for emphasizing vital business applications and ensuring optimal performance.
Proactively monitoring bandwidth usage and planning for future capacity needs are important for businesses. The ISP network operations support or NOCs constantly monitor their business clients' bandwidth consumption to ensure they have the resources to handle peak demands. It involves tracking bandwidth usage trends, identifying potential bottlenecks, and optimizing network configurations to prevent congestion.
Through the analysis of the historical data, the ISPs or the NOCs starts to anticipate future bandwidth requirements based on business growth, emerging trends, or seasonal fluctuation. It is the proactive approach allowing them to scale network resources up in advance, preventing issues with connectivity during times of higher demands.
Proactive monitoring is closely linked to meeting and exceeding the SLA or Service Level Agreement commitments. They maintain a strong SLA framework outlining the distinctive performance metrics, response times, and uptime guarantees. Proactive monitoring ensures they instantly identify potential SLA breaches and take the right actions before clients experience any side effects.
The regular reporting and communication between the ISP or NOC and their business clients foster accountability and transparency. It allows the timely identification of issues, continuous improvement, and performance assessment.
Metro Wireless NOC (Network Operations Center) services can assist you if you are searching for a path for accelerating your business growth and increasing profitability. Our experienced team of IT professionals can help with scaling instantly without incurring overhead costs. It can free up your staff to aim for higher-value services.
Furthermore, the flexibility of our services is designed to meet your ever-changing needs with your business growth. Irrespective of your requirements, whether it is a change in the demand for the services or exponential growth, we are happy to help you succeed. For more information regarding our NOC services and to receive a quote, click here!
Tyler Hoffman
