Machine Intelligence at the NOC

The network operations center (centralized monitoring and control station for telecommunications networks) is primarily concerned with fault management and performance management to maintain network efficiency and customer satisfaction. Ericsson's already highly automated NOC automation has been enhanced with machine intelligence technologies such as advanced analytics, deep learning, and machine inference to drive smart network operations that combine the high performance and ease of use of new 5G systems.

What Are The Specific Challenges Of Machine Intelligence @ NOC?

The key challenges of NOC management today, outlined in the following figure, are:

• ·         Troubleshoot billions of service alarms
• ·         Process approximately 20 million notifications for workflow management by NOC experts.
• ·         Handle millions of emails from the service desk
• ·         Higher costs due to low utilization of workflow management.

Incident management is an area that already uses an expert system-based framework. However, due to the ever-changing nature of the network, both in terms of technology and implementation, it is very difficult to maintain human-written rules in such expert systems. By automating incidents in a data and domain independent manner, automation of network operations center can be vastly improved without the need for expert rules. As an example, failure of one node can lead to cascading failure of the other node, resulting in a large number of alarms. Machine learning techniques can be used to discover concurrent patterns in this set of alarms and other events, allowing you to quickly identify the root cause in most failure scenarios. This frees the NOC operations team to focus on more complex challenges.

How Complex Is This?

Common NOC alarm handling involves mapping incoming alarms to incidents using enrichment, aggregation, deduplication, and correlation techniques. This is difficult due to the unevenness of the alarm information caused by the multi-technology and multi-vendor solutions used in today's communication networks. This heterogeneity makes it difficult to create a harmonious vision of the network and greatly increases the complexity associated with fault detection and resolution.

 Can You Afford To Encode Your Domain Knowledge Long-Term?

Current noc team include rule-based processing of alarms from various sources, such as nodes, service management systems, element / network management systems. The rules are written to transform domain-specific information into an overview of the network in the NOC, and also include coded rules for handling / correlating alarms for proper grouping. I am

                         

The development of such rules is time consuming and manual. Continuous network change with new types of network nodes and the resulting new types of alarms also complicate rule development and maintenance. Also, rule generation / update must be done frequently. Otherwise, the rules database will be incomplete or inaccurate.

Does That Mean Stopping The Development Of Domain-Oriented Rules?

This does not mean that traditional rule development has disappeared, but rather that it is enhanced by a domain-independent, data-driven approach. Additionally, automatic detection of possible correlations between alarms improves the rule-based approach when rules are incomplete or when knowledge of a particular domain has not yet been acquired.

The data-driven approach enables the identification of correlation between domains and the generation of data-based information. Over time, the system evolves into a fully automated solution.

NOC Data Driven Automation

Here is a case study on automatic incident formation, root cause, and self-healing scenarios that we have been working on as part of our investigation.

We apply artificial intelligence principles (data mining and data science) to discover patterns of behavior from large historical data sets. These behaviors or patterns essentially signify the correlation between alarms and co-occurrence patterns. One of the interesting aspects of our approach is that it not only evaluates it as time series data, but it also processes most of the symbolic or categorical information collected from the network from which the potential behavior also considered how to identify it.

This approach helps domain professionals learn unknown evolving behavior patterns when the environment is multi-technology and multi-vendor. These correlated and grouped patterns allow automatic grouping of alarms, configuring automatic detection of network incidents, root cause, and self-healing stages.

With this approach, you can achieve intelligent grouping of alarms and tickets with minimal manual intervention. By automatically identifying critical and missing groups, you can reduce or eliminate manual rule development and reduce the total number of trouble tickets.

Automatic Incident Detection

The grouping of fault conditions and alarms is

Embeds network information such as alarms and events into the phone company's knowledge graph, and includes underlying raw and insightful derived information to enable intelligent and automated NOC behavior.

Automatically capture network data behavior for alarms and events in a digitized, data-driven version. This is called the machine learning generation (ML) rule.

This approach allows you to use automatic identification of merged and hardened states instead of checking individual alarms one by one. The data-based function automatically creates compound conditions from historical information. That is, pattern mining techniques are used to intelligently group alarms across domains. These compound conditions are replaced as ML generation rules that help detect a group of alarms called incidents.

Frequent patterns are sets of elements, subsequences, or substructures that occur in a dataset with a certain frequency. Frequent pattern mining algorithms range from frequent item set mining, sequential pattern mining, structured pattern mining, correlation mining, associative classification, and frequent pattern-based grouping. Finding patterns in your data can help you extract associations, correlations, and other interesting relationships between your input data. Telecommunication network data conforms to an extended variant of the pattern mining algorithm to generate generated machine learning rules.

WILL NOC AUTOMATION ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR HUMAN PERSONNEL?

Whether you're working in a dedicated network operations center (NOC) or operating something similar as part of a team that handles incoming tickets, you've probably heard rumors about the concept of NOC automation. There may have been an understanding that this technology would almost eliminate the need for human workers. Maybe you are already improving your resume, you are considering going back to school or you are even thinking about changing your career. Will NOC Automation really replace HR? Okay. In fact, by contrast, there are five ways you can really do your job better.

Avoid Alert Fatigue

The NOC and its small counterparts handle an incredible amount of tickets daily. Logic predicts that the more tickets you have, the more difficult it will be to work effectively. That is why many people in this space experience exhaustion, also known as alert fatigue. Additionally, the large number of minor issues that have been addressed can hinder proper care in critical situations and can affect the entire organization.

NOC automation can change many of your routine repetitive tasks to your machine, streamlining and optimizing your entire alert process. Add the option for self-service automation. This enables end users to handle many of their own simple demands, such as resetting passwords, and frees trained IT professionals to apply their time and talent to more important tasks.

Improve Communication

When an incident occurs in a busy noc support environment, it's surprisingly easy for a process to become a bottleneck and shuffle. This is especially true in situations where climbing is required. Frontline employees can initiate requests right away, but unless the process is properly managed, they don't know where to go from there. NOC Automation is specifically designed to streamline the notification and escalation process so that everything passes through the pipeline smoothly and in a timely manner.

When IT staff responds to the notification, an automatic follow-up message is triggered after a predefined period of time. When the problem is resolved, the incident will be closed and a recovery notification will be sent. If the problem remains unresolved, an alert is automatically sent to the system administrator for further consideration and action. This keeps the lines of communication open and free, eliminating costly delays.

Greater Incident Management

If the incident is triggered and a NOC employee is available, it is usually okay. But what if that person isn't available or doesn't have the ability to respond in a timely manner? Without some form of automated strategy in place, the risk of a ticket overriding is greatly increased. Implementing NOC automation makes the incident management process much more efficient.

When an incident is triggered, the appropriate person is notified. Here technology really makes a difference. If the person does not respond within the specified time, the system automatically escalates the incident to the next person. In addition, notifications and responses can be sent in a variety of ways, including email and SMS, simplifying the whole process.

Better Knowledge Of Best Practices.

Top-performing NOC teams know that continuous process improvement is needed to stay ahead of the game. This is accomplished through detailed strategic reporting and analysis. If done manually, this can be difficult to do and is probably at the top of the list of least interesting tasks. The good news is that NOC automation can improve tracking and reporting. This means you can use the data you need on the go at the click of a button. You can then conduct advanced analysis to identify and develop best practices for continued success and future improvement.

Management Or Escalation To Clients

Depending on the type of service provided by the NOC, it may be necessary to give the client visibility into the status of the incident. In addition, those with leadership roles within the organization, including management and possibly certain shareholders, must keep abreast of situations such as major disruptions. In either case, understanding who needs to know what and who is responsible for directing this communication and running open dialogues can be a difficult and time-consuming task. 

With NOC automation, you can automatically send alerts to designated parties, keeping them up-to-date and setting up workflows to notify other business parties of critical incidents. In addition, detailed Incident Resolution Performance and Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) reports can be generated to keep management up-to-date and reduce the need for manual monitoring and status reporting. 

In conclusion, NOC Automation is not designed to take over and replace human workers, but is designed to strengthen and complement qualified personnel working inside.

How the Network Operations Center Works?

The Network Operations Center (NOC) is like the nervous system of a company, monitoring the performance and health of telecommunications networks throughout the day. Not all companies need NOC support, but companies that need it are at serious risk without NOC support. For example, internal monitoring may seem like an attractive option due to its low cost, but it does not provide the 24-hour support that today's businesses require network support professionals.

It is better to think of the NOC as the first line of defense against the myriad of chaos that telecommunications networks suffer, but it is not the only one. But what makes them work? What technologies do you need to operate efficiently at all times? We are going to explore.

Structure Of The Network Operations Center

Although the NOC plays several roles, it mainly plays a role in responding to various alerts, such as communication line problems and power outages. NOC engineers process these alerts, withdraw resources to compensate for poor performance, and send personnel to repair physical damage on the line. Beyond this, NOCs can:

• ·         Create reports on network performance, optimization, and health.
• ·         Install, update and troubleshoot software on devices connected to your network.
• ·         Monitor and manage firewalls and network security software.
• ·         Identify and analyze attacks on your network from external sources.
• ·         Network device software patch.
• ·         Provides antivirus support.
• ·         Back up data stored on network devices.

It is difficult for a team to handle this, but the NOC and its trained engineers are trained in that task. But they cannot do it alone. This is where A / V technology comes in. The modern NOC looks like part of a movie and features a range of impressive display and audio technologies that provide a wealth of information to NOC engineers. Its A / V technology includes:

1. Video Wall Display: A video wall consists of a series of displays arranged in a grid pattern and combined so that they can function as a single display unit. The strength of videowalls is their modularity, since they can divide the screen to provide multiple images at once, in large sizes and in high resolution. A common use of video wall technology at the noc support is to keep the visual map of the network as the primary focus. If there are alerts, they will appear first on this map to give the engineer immediate feedback on where the problem is, whether it is related to a particular device, or a line problem.

In addition to this visual map, NOC video walls are used to track weather conditions, along with radar and forecasts that may be related to the location of network assets. Furthermore, NOCs often reserve space for news. It also helps NOC engineers respond to events that may affect the operation of the company.

The NOC video wall is connected to a workstation on the NOC floor, so when an alert occurs, the NOC engineer at his desk can see the details of the alert on the video wall display. So instead of people coming together on two monitors to view the information, everyone at the NOC can see the information associated with the alert and respond more quickly.

2. Workstations With Additional Displays: Since much of the information that NOCs handle is visual, it is important that engineers and technicians can examine this information in as much space as possible. In addition to a rugged workstation, the dual-screen configuration allows technicians and engineers to significantly increase available desktop space. The more space you have, the more data you can monitor at the same time, improving efficiency and response speed.

3. Integrated Audio Input And Output: Audio is generally considered a by-product of NOC performance, but it plays an important role for NOC engineers. Some NOCs can be very large, making it difficult for engineers and technicians to talk and listen to each other. An audio input on each desk lets you raise your voice from your speakers so you can pick them up anywhere in the room. This audio is played through a processor that collects the input signal and feeds it to the speaker output. These speakers can be mounted on the wall in the room or built directly into the ceiling. In most cases, wall mounted speakers are the recommended choice because they are easy to install and do a great job in effectively distributing the audio. However, in rare situations where aesthetics are important or where regulations do not allow for wall mounted speakers, ceiling speakers are a powerful alternative.

Most NOCs have meeting rooms separate from the rest of the NOC floor. This meeting room can be reserved for a variety of purposes, such as acting as a command center during particularly annoying alerts. But when people are inside the meeting room, they are effectively blocked from other NOCs. To address this, A / V integrators provide zonal audio technology to allow people in the conference room to hear the conversation playing on the NOC floor or the sound playing when an alert occurs.

4. Control Interface: all this A / V technology needs to be controlled, the standard option for that is the touch panel interface. This panel can be installed anywhere, even in a separate control room. One option is to install the touch interface on your workstation. This gives all technicians and engineers limited control over the system. The master control panel can be located on the supervisor's desktop.

It's a lot of technology to incorporate into a concert, and it's not something a reputable A / V integrator can't handle without help. Competent A / V integrators can take advantage of NOC designs to provide many options for audio and display device designs to achieve optimal video and audio quality. This means that A / V integrators can offer a customized solution for all NOC needs. Bigger video walls, interactive dashboards for fast collaboration, advanced audio elevation technology - these are a type of A / V decision that an integrator can help with.

And of course, as an integrator, you can provide long-term support as a partner. It tracks the performance of A / V technology to make sure it works to the standard, reacts immediately when technical issues arise, and, where possible, older technologies to newer, better-performing ones. It means replacing technology.

NOC is an important element of network stability and security, and with proper A / V technology that facilitates communication, it can operate with maximum efficiency in the morning, day, and night.

What NOC Managers Need to Know: Next Generation NOC

Modern NOC is more than just a "standard". Increasingly, network operations centers need to run more efficiently and monitor more processes.

Goals for Highly victorious NOCs

A recent survey of network operations professionals found that to create a truly "next generation" NOC, NOC managers needed to create a process that integrated the operations of each IT component. This integrated NOC includes:

Proactive

A high-performance noc team works not only as a reactive type, but also as a preventive type. Deadline NOC methodologies identify problems only after they impact end users, but next-generation network operations centers try to uncover problems before they occur.

Smart Tools For Efficient And Complete Processes.

Gone are the days when the operator sat on the screen and waited for the green light to turn yellow or red. To enable their proactivity, modern NOCs have sophisticated tools with automated monitoring. Real-time data and predictive analytics displayed on the shared video wall allow for more comprehensive monitoring and management.

Qualified And Trained Personnel

Today's NOCs require increasingly qualified engineers who are expected to perform a variety of functions. As NOC responsibilities increase, so does the skill set expected of operators in the NOC environment. Cross training staff ensures that meaningful work is and is not segregated by the "Network" and "Server" groups.

Focus On Network Performance, Not Just Availability

The typical obligation of a network operations center involves monitoring the availability of the network. However, with the increasing importance of technical applications and the changing priorities of organizations, network performance is rapidly becoming the same. Next-generation NOCs see network performance as important as availability.

Enhanced Security Integration

Although there is currently no apparent overlap between network operations and security, NOC experts have revealed in a recent study that the focus will be on security within the NOC in the future. The world of network security and management is increasingly overlapping, especially with a greater focus on cyber security.

Next Level Operations Require Next Level Design

To enable these processes to the next level of NOC, they must be built for success. From video walls, processors, controls to furniture, everything has to be designed for optimal performance. NOC's outdated designs cannot deliver future-proof performance. You cannot implement a very effective NOC without adequate AV infrastructure, just as you cannot build it without a solid foundation.

Build tomorrow's NOC with Constant

To create the next generation NOC, we need to work with experts. With more than 30 years of highly specialized experience created for the industry, we are proving to know NOC's audiovisual and furniture requirements like no other.

An important component of this important command center infrastructure is the audiovisual configuration. The Command Center video wall is the focus of the NOC and displays critical data to all engineers in space. Not all NOCs are active year-round, but most are active. Therefore, the video wall technology chosen for the NOC must be able to withstand constant or near constant use.

In addition, the video wall technology in the network operations center must be kept up-to-date. The lifespan of technology in mission critical spaces is ideally 5 to 7 years. The latest NOCs require the latest technology for the best performance. Display technology has come a long way with unprecedented clarity and brightness since the establishment of the Network Operations Center. A modern video wall offers all operators in space a clear view of important data.

Constant is a mission critical AV integrator with a "vendor independent" approach. This means that we choose among the best products on the market and offer a solution that perfectly suits your NOC. We will not rest until we find the one that best suits your space and operational needs. Visit our gallery to see the next generation NOC types we can create in your space.

Machine Learning CAN Help Your NOC Win the Battle

Machine Learning for NOCs and IT Operations Teams

The increasing complexity of IT, customer expectations for application availability and performance, and the importance of supporting new initiatives and digital services together help network operations centers (NOCs) and operations teams. IT like you. Impose unprecedented demands within large and complex organizations.

Machine learning helps noc support and IT operations teams autonomously respond to incidents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, helping to cost-effectively escalate and meet these demands.

However, before you dive into the world of machine learning and artificial intelligence powered IT Ops tools (sometimes also called AIOps tools), and before you prepare them at the NOC, consider the common issues and how they can be overcome.

Problem 1: Lack of Transparency

In many cases, IT Ops tools with machine learning (ML) technology are opaque. This not only makes it difficult to agree on a result, but can also make it difficult to treat a result. To overcome this problem, companies must choose ML-based IT Ops tools that present their logic in a way that humans can see and understand.

Problem 2: User Has No Control

The second major problem companies face is that many ML-dependent tools cannot edit, preview, and test logic. Therefore, it cannot incorporate tribal / business knowledge. You cannot test logic against past data sets or run a "what if" experiment. To overcome this problem, companies must choose ML-based IT Ops tools with human-friendly dashboards designed to give teams control at all times.

Problem 3: Building Trust Is Not Easy

The last and potentially the most malicious problem is a trustworthy one. After a few months of investing in a new IT operations tool with ML, the organization found that hiring was moderate. Users inside and outside the NOC do not completely trust the new tools, and therefore cannot confidently adopt and use the new tools. In many cases, this is because many ML-dependent IT Ops tools are not deterministic (the same entry provides different results at different times) and are opaque black squares.

Open box machine learning powered IT Ops tools help companies overcome all of these challenges.

These tools are completely transparent, controllable, and reliable, so they can be used by L1, L2, and L3, as well as anyone else outside the NOC, to perform them when performing mission critical activities. You can trust and learn to depend.

BigPanda trains NOC and IT Ops teams within the largest, most complex and dynamic organizations in the world to support digital applications and services in a scalable and cost-effective manner.

Life as a NOC Engineer: What to Expect for Your Role

NOC (pronounced blow) is an abbreviation for Network Operations Center. The NOC is generally configured as a single large room for remote monitoring and management of IT infrastructure. The network operations center generally looks like a "war room" in the movie War Games. The large monitor wall displays real-time data out front, with a row of workstations where technicians can observe vital signs from their assigned endpoints and take measurements as needed.

If you are looking for a NOC engineer or technician, we recommend that you understand their roles, responsibilities, and work environment. To meet the NOC flow, you need your own style of IT professional. Read on to determine if your network operations career makes sense to you.

Obviously, not all companies need such advanced surveillance operations. But any company that directly manages any kind of critical IT infrastructure is sure to have a noc team. So you can probably expect to work with:

• ·         A large company that manages its own IT system.
• ·         Managed service provider
• ·         Third-party NOC service providers
• ·         ISP, satellite communications provider or other telephone company
• ·         Critical mission government or military ministry

Life as a NOC Engineer

There is plenty of room for specialization in these employer categories. For example, satellite communications providers look for new employees with different skills than financial institutions. However, most NOCs require many common skills, such as knowledge of network troubleshooting tools and scripts.

The networks operations position uses not only most help desks, but also the hierarchical system commonly found in IT workplaces. Most job listings require professionals to start from the bottom. However, with the right skills, you will find that promotion is quick.

In a hierarchical work environment, the NOC may give the impression that it is just a glorious help desk, but nothing but the truth. A properly implemented Network Operations Center will not allow technicians to interact with you. They are completely internal departments and actively monitor and solve problems without customer awareness.

Despite this conventional definition of NOC, some employers are quick and lax on the term, so NOC technicians hope to play a dual role in supporting the help desk. Check what you are trying to do before signing with the dotted lines!

 Roles & Responsibilities Of Network Operation

The roles vary from one organization to another because not all NOCs are created in the same way. Entering the door requires bringing some general networking or systems experience. Job offers often cite CompTIA Network +, Cisco CCNA or ISC (2) CISSP certifications as requirements for new NOC technology.

Depending on your skill set and the positions for which you are applying, you may be assigned to monitor and troubleshoot one or more infrastructure categories. Common examples include servers, mail systems, backups, storage capacity, network status, firewall intrusions, QoS policies, malware infections, performance reports, and more. Each has their own path of desired experience and knowledge. Therefore, although there is no NOC certification for cookie cutters, NOC technicians are selected from a variety of IT professionals.

Companies seek the widest range of differentiation among NOC engineers. A financial institution may need a compliance officer, a database engineer, or even a NOC accountant. Web hosting companies, on the other hand, may be more focused on managing Linux servers and the state of the network.

A NOC within a Managed Service Provider (MSP) requires a technician to be responsible for the uptime of their managed applications and infrastructure. Long periods of training may be required to become familiar with the operational aspects of a particular offering. In comparison, ISPs or phone companies focus on network technicians who are familiar with their system (usually Cisco or Juniper).

Third-party NOC providers can only be considered general NOC employers, as they only provide network operations outsourcing services to any or all of the above organizations. You can expect to handle a wide range of fields within an outsourced NOC.

As you can see, most NOCs have similar job descriptions, but their individual roles vary by type of organization. Research the companies that apply to see exactly what you want to monitor and manage. You don't want to sell yourself to an organization whose needs are not in your wheelhouse.

Differences Between Managed Help Desk & External NOC services

Many people use the terms NOC and help desk interchangeably, but it is important to know that they are not. The two often work with IT staff within the company, but there are important differences between the two.

Managed Help Desk Solves Individual User Problems

Simply put, the help desk service is focused on the end user. They work directly with users to resolve technical issues when they arise and turn the help desk into responsive support. Communication is often started by clicking on the support icon, sending an email or calling.

The help desk performs a series of managed service tasks, such as:

• ·         Account rights and access management
• ·         Overcome software and hardware problems
• ·         Detection and removal of malware / viruses
• ·         Email / document retrieval
• ·         Printing problems from installation to output
• ·         Password issues: everything from forgetting to expiration
• ·         Account management for new or retired clients.

The MSP (Management Service Provider) acts as a help desk and can provide on-call assistance for troubleshooting. Or the help desk takes the form of an internal group whose job is to answer questions and answer support tickets.

Background NOC service operations subcontracting

Helpdesks focus on users, while NOCs focus on networks and systems. They act as a kind of mission control center, monitoring and managing the network, including performance and backup processes. The NOC works behind the scenes in a much more proactive way by monitoring infrastructure and responding as needed with Level 1 remediation. The goal is to resolve network problems before the end user fails.

Some specific tasks that allow the NOC to release personnel include:

Management and operation of NMS (Network Management System). NMSs need to keep up as networks change. If the NMS does not match the environment, the problem may happen.

24/7 monitoring and alerts. Alerts can be issued by email or emergency call to a designated engineer, depending on the escalation plan. Similarly, the best NOC alert system filters out annoying alarms when the system detects anomalies that are the result of routine network operations.

Make sure you have enough bandwidth for your application. Bandwidth monitoring is essential. You can lose clients if you experience latency delays or even failures. This is doubled for VoIP providers whose customer satisfaction depends on providing the necessary bandwidth for the service.

Validation of business processes. NOCs can monitor network outages and availability, as well as more. Validate your system and validate again to find a NOC where you can deploy your application at a rate that ensures your system is running at peak performance.

Record monitoring and event management. NOC provides real-time visibility into event logs, servers, and network infrastructure to detect problems before they occur. They work to resolve performance and availability issues before they affect your business.

Level 1 repair fixes issues like restarting app, mounting disk, vendor / vendor ticket open etc. Monitoring your network can be a daunting task until your business is alarmed by disasters and strikes and can stop terribly. This is where it maintains the NOC.

When considering the option of outsourcing or doing your own internal monitoring, consider all actual costs. Also, remember to consider the potentially disastrous costs associated with NOC guaranteed outages.

MSP and NOC Services: How to Get 24/7 Coverage without Adding Staff

Larger MSPs can provide 24/7 service and support. They have their own Network Operations Center (NOC) or already receive these services subcontracted.

Not everything is so lucky. Some small MSPs can only handle trouble tickets and other tasks during business hours. This is bad enough for local clients in the same time zone. They always want to fix their system. This is a situation that is not possible for geographically dispersed clients. Limited service times can severely limit expansion capabilities.

Often the answer is to "rent" a NOC service, leaving your IT staff unavailable for hours. While third-party providers offer NOC services to MSPs, many MSP solution providers also offer them. The advantage of the latter is that NOC services are tightly integrated with already dependent MSP solutions like RMM and PSA.

And due to tight integration, customers are not aware of the difference between a noc support and its staff. With the proper use of NOC, it seems like a much bigger company, with much more staff around the clock.

 NOC Services

NOC services are specifically designed for  MSP customers. Here is a short and dirty explanation. "If you are expanding your business and don't have the right staff to serve you, or if you want to serve your customers 24 hours a day, NOC Services can help you. NOC Services is designed to scale quickly. It will extend the existing in-house staff to provide the supervision and management services necessary to satisfy customer demand. "

This service is specifically designed for customers so you can get your MSP up and running quickly.

Here are the immediate benefits:

• ·         Scale quickly without costly overhead
• ·         Meet and exceed expectations for service level.
• ·         Free up staff and focus on new ways to add value
• ·         Full control over end user interaction.
• ·         Improve profitability with 24/7 service
• ·         Access to the suite of best practice monitors and troubleshooting methodologies

Virtual Surveillance: Front-Line Defense

NOC Services functions as an extension of its staff, except that it does not take vacations. Like your technician, this service monitors customer systems to ensure they function and run correctly.

If problems are found, the service can handle alarms, filter false alarms, and troubleshoot based on predefined workflows and best practices.

This is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, MSP will register with the NOC service to meet your business needs. You can also combine end users into one of three tiered service levels.

You can also customize monitoring thresholds and set notification and escalation policies. Full control over usage, data collection, especially end-user interaction.

Build Or Rent A NOC

As mentioned earlier, large MSP stores often have their own NOCs. So should we build or choose a NOC service? Everything is different

NOC services is an important business and economic decision. "It is important that MSPs constantly evaluate the most valuable services and identify which services they outsource or perform in-house. Essentially, MSPs are in charge of deciding whether to outsource or not. You should receive the same evaluations that your clients receive.

NOC services focus on basic RMM functionality and helpdesks. "The idea of ​​fully outsourcing the NOC and help desk should only be done under appropriate circumstances. For example, it is highly unlikely that a small MSP will need NOC business hours or weekend / holiday support. But you cannot do it yourself. "

And MSP should never say. "But planning not to have a NOC or help desk is a completely different situation. That is the essence of MSP. If you do not plan to develop your own monitoring, administration and help desk functions, we question the real purpose and value for our clients. NOC is a service delivery engine for the practice of MSP.

5 Myths About Outsourcing NOC Services

There are still many misconceptions about outsourcing. This is mainly related to the idea of ​​offshoring, but it is very different. Off shoring is the sending of work from a particular area of ​​business to another country. For example, offshore operators can be used for design, content, accounting, or customer service. This model works for many companies, but we have not considered it here.

In most cases, outsourcing means giving remote third-party responsibilities, such as accounting, cleaning, or technical support. The company is in the same area as you. They do not work in their physical office. Chances are, you've already outsourced some services, and network monitoring doesn't have to be any different. We partner with the Network Operations Center (NOC) and choose to hire a specialist within the organization to handle specific needs: network monitoring. Outsourcing can solve many problems, and you can count on cost savings, increased productivity, assurance that your software and technology are up to date, and an experienced noc team dedicated to success.

Despite the proven benefits of outsourcing NOC services, some skepticism persists. We expose 10 myths that you can believe and can limit your IT department.

Myth 1: Outsourcing Is Expensive

For a company's IT needs, there are rare scenarios where it's cheaper to do it internally. You will need to purchase equipment, purchase software licenses and maintenance subscriptions, and pay for the installation of this infrastructure. Next, you'll need to hire and pay for a trained IT team. This is a large amount of initial investment and time for what a third-party NOC offers as a basic service.

Outsourcing is no longer the domain of medium to large companies. Increasingly, large-scale operations are outsourcing their IT needs to specialized professionals who can focus on this aspect of their business and keep the rest growing.

Myth 2: All NOC Are Equal

This idea is completely false. The NOC depends on the history and offers of the company. Some NOCs are developed as a service provided by MSP and ISP. That is, they offer many different services, but may not be specialized or specifically focused on network operations center services. It may also be limited to a particular type of system or manufacturer. Other NOCs are completely independent companies that specialize in this area. These providers have ready-to-use customization options to meet the unique needs and challenges of your business.

Either way, NOC partners can identify inefficiencies in their current setup and provide solutions so they can continue to loop with frequent updates, clear communication paths (email, text message, phone, etc.). You can, AND transparency.

 Myth # 3: Data Cannot Be Trusted By Third Parties

Data security is a legitimate concern for companies that store confidential information, customer records, and financial data. Security is the starting point for any company that outsources. Experienced NOC services cannot continue to do business if they cannot provide a secure environment for your data.

NOC partners built their business around procedures to protect information from security breaches and cyber attacks. And if you are concerned about all the data you are monitoring, your data will remain completely separate from the data of other customers you have. If you are still not sure, ask your networks operations provider how to protect your network. This makes it easy to share only the data you need to provide the service.

Myth # 4: Having a Remote Team Means Giving Up Control

Do you insist on managing the daily activities of your external cleaning team? No We did a thorough research, analyzed which companies performed the services we needed, and interviewed them to determine which was the best. The same process is used for NOC partners. Review all of these offers to see if it can be flexible to meet your needs, how long you've been in business, and make a phone call. They will be happy to discuss what you are looking for and suggestions on how they can help you.

You don't have to manage your NOC on a daily basis, but you can request regular communication to keep it 100% transparent and up-to-date, especially if something goes wrong. Set up a runbook with the appropriate protocol for all problems. You can also provide an Internet portal where you can check the status of your network at any time.

Myth 5: All NOCs are Abroad

Many NOC service providers are located abroad, but some are not. If this is a deciding factor for your business, don't worry, you have a choice. You can find the best NOC here in America. These NOCs operate in your country, and probably your time zone as well, giving you peace of mind with qualified hands who are familiar with your country's regulations and can easily communicate with them at any time.  

NOC VS IT HELP DESK: Which One Should I Choose?

Technological efficiency has a great impact on your business. You also need to ask yourself if you manage IT technology in the most cost-effective way. Ultimately, you need a solution that helps you maximize your ROI with the best features.

The evolution of managed services has allowed us to minimize costs while improving IT support and infrastructure with 24/7 resources. That is good

IT Help Desk / Service Desk

Imagine an IT help desk as a typical customer service desk that your company calls to solve problems. The IT Help Desk is a great external resource for solving simple problems like resetting passwords.

Unlike NOC, IT help desks are not designed to monitor network surface threats at all times, but when a customer reports and reports a problem, the problem is solved.

NOC (Network Operations Center)

Also known as network operations centers, NOCs tend to take a more practical and practical approach to protecting their networks. NOC is a fully managed and expert external IT team that actively monitors the network for threats, performs regular system maintenance, and also acts as a service desk for internal resources.

The noc support works in a hierarchical system, making it suitable for complex problems. NOC IT specialists can remotely access the entire network and even visit the company on site. 24/7/365 NOCs generally monitor network and system security, performance, and backup processes.

The outsourced NOC services flexibly extend the ICT environment through highly skilled technology and support, and expand capabilities with on-demand enterprise IT services. Only a fraction of the cost of building your own 24/7 virtual NOC.

Which One Should You Choose?

24/7 IT helpdesk

You already have internal IT and are looking for a help desk to solve a simple problem. This frees up internal resources and allows you to focus on other priorities.

The productivity of the internal IT team is hampered. Internal teams can fall behind in solving many simple problems that lack the ability to adequately monitor and protect the network.

The budget is low. If your budget is tight, a help desk can top a NOC. Even if you don't have an internal IT staff, you can pay an external helpdesk to fix a minor problem.

Network Operations Center

Very  little internal IT support. Leaving your network administration to another employee with minimal IT knowledge puts your company's IT landscape at risk. By outsourcing the management of cybersecurity infrastructure, this burden is relieved from internal employees.

24/7 support is required. If you have important data on your business network, you can't afford to experience network downtime in a matter of hours. Hackers always keep in mind that not everyone offers IT support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The outsourced NOC services help accelerate innovation, support critical services, and deliver the experience users demand.

We want to combine low-level equipment and support to solve more advanced network problems. NOC combines a low-level help desk IT solution with advanced network protection and maintenance. NOCs are more expensive, but they can save money for internal IT employees in the long run.

Network Operations Center (NOC) Design Best Practices

The Network Operations Center (NOC) forms the central location of a data center for monitoring work on medium or large networks. In it, NOC engineers monitor and respond to network problems. NOC services form an important link between detecting network problems and implementing the solution (usually a technician is dispatched to a remote site).

Many network operations center (yes, the word "center" is redundant, but useful to understand) are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, but not always. Some companies are in a period of transition of growth. Its network is large enough to justify an investment in the construction of the NOC center, but it cannot justify the cost of staff outside normal or even extended business hours. . In this case, the company uses overtime alarm notifications (via email or phone) to alert on-call technicians of alarms on the network.

At the heart of the noc team is one (or more) central master console. This console accepts input from a few, hundreds, or thousands of remote devices on your network.

When building a NOC from scratch, avoid some common pitfalls that negatively affect performance.

You must work hard to be able to consolidate all the alarms on your network into a single integrated surveillance system. Otherwise, personnel requirements increase due to difficulties associated with alarm monitoring. If you have never experienced the need to monitor a large number of incompatible surveillance systems, you really cannot understand how tedious it is. You must turn your head, learn many interfaces, and struggle to link related alarms from different systems (divided by device compatibility rather than logical division like geography).

You should also make sure that the center console you implement in your networks operations can filter out unwanted alarms. Each network has an adequate number of alarms to log, but does not actually require operator response. The more they are included in the NOC, the more often the NOC technician will be trained to ignore the warning message. A good center console can hide unimportant messages from staff and show truly important messages at the top of the list.

To better understand what CBs need, it is helpful to review the sample kit. I like to use the T / Mon LNX center console. This is because it contains many of the concepts just described.

The most useful thing about T / Mon is that it can know many protocols (both newer and legacy). The count at this point is actually approximately 25, allowing the T / Mon to avoid the multiscreen headache described above. All alarms are likely to be centralized in a central system, allowing the computer to do busy work rather than personnel.

T / Mon intelligently filter incoming alarm messages, allowing your staff to focus on important alarms. You can configure a simple rule that T / Mon will use to decide to show / hide each new alarm message. T / Mon logs all incoming alarms received in the Network Action Center, so you can see all the alarms received after the incident.

When choosing a NOC center console, it is also important to choose a console that has a convenient and intuitive interface. Don't waste time trying to figure out what an alarm means when staff can react to it. Every minute you waste your NOC monitoring, you pay more, and you're more likely to miss issues that can extend network security downtime.

T / Mon contains a pair of interfaces that comply with this standard. The most used within the NOC is the T / GFX software. This was done in Microsoft Windows and used a MapPoint map as the background for the alarm. Reminders are displayed on the actual geographic map rather than a non-visual text message list, so staff (even if not well-trained) can easily see where the alarm is occurring. I will. This is especially useful if you are trying to interpret the root cause of a large number of simultaneous alarms. Knowing that alarms are concentrated in a single area makes it very clear where the problem lies.

However, there are cases in which you do not participate in the NOC. Sometimes you have to go outdoors. You can access the T / Mon Web 2.0 interface from anywhere you have a PC workstation, including laptops at remote sites with LAN access. This web interface is designed for quick alarm review and is color-coded rather than a geographic map.

Of course, the best thing about the alarm interface is that you don't have to install any software to use it. Just enter the IP address of your T / Mon in your web browser and press "Enter". After a page has been loaded for a few seconds, T / Mon no longer needs to refresh the page. This is a feature of Web 2.0 technology. The page updates automatically, but traditional update is not required. Always have current alarm data.