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Network Operations Center (NOC)
What is a Network Operations Center (NOC)?
The Network Operations Center (NOC) is a control room at the core of network infrastructure monitoring. From a NOC, IT professionals can make sure the network is working as expected and quickly solve any issues that may come up.
What Are the Key Roles of the NOC?
The NOC team has a few key roles, including managers, engineers, and specialists.
- NOC Manager: NOC managers make sure operations run smoothly, assign tasks to the rest of the team, determine operational priorities, and set procedures for best practices.
- NOC Engineer: Engineers can work on everything from performance to security. They’ll keep watch on the network, identifying and solving problems that come up.
- NOC Training Specialist: Managers and engineers can’t perform at their best without having up-to-date knowledge about emerging technologies. NOC Training Specialists can keep staff trained.
- NOC Security Analyst: These team members collect and analyze data that can be used to find trends or problems with the network, as well as identify opportunities for improvement.
- NOC Technician: Technicians may perform routine maintenance, monitor the network, provide technical support, solve network problems, or configure network devices. Their exact roles will vary based on the size of the organization and the other functions already being fulfilled.
Why Do Organizations Use NOCs?
Some businesses rely more on 24/7 network availability than others, and for the companies that have this high level of reliance, NOCs can be valuable partners. A network operations center can reduce downtime, improve performance, identify problems before they spread, boost user experience, and lower costs.
What is the Difference Between a NOC and a SOC?
The main difference between a NOC and a SOC is that a NOC is concerned with monitoring the network for performance and health issues, whereas a security operations center (SOC) is looking specifically at potential security threats. An organization may have two distinct centers, or the functions of a SOC may be folded into a NOC.
In-house vs. Outsourced NOCs
An organization that owns a network may decide to have an in-house NOC to have more control over operations, staffing, and tools that are used at the center. For businesses that are experienced in running NOCs, this can be a cost-effective, flexible way to keep tabs on the network.
However, the initial setup of a NOC and the cost of staffing it 24/7 can be too much for a smaller organization to shoulder. In this case, working with an outsourced NOC can help a business gain access to the expertise and reliability they need, with the potential scalability to change the scope of the agreement in the future as the company grows.
How TierPoint Can Help With NOCs
TierPoint’s state-of-the-art, interconnected data centers are supported by two highly available Network Operations Centers (NOCs) managed by our Enterprise Operations Center (EOC). Our EOC team provides 24x7 continuous monitoring of TierPoint networks, managed customer environments, and various hosted technologies, providing prompt notifications and issue resolution . In addition to migrating your systems and services to our facilities or platforms, you can also entrust the the day-to-day operations to our team of experts.
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