The guide to NOC monitoring: Functions & Benefits

The Networking Operations Center (NOC), also known as network management center, is a center from which network management is exercised over a large group of network systems. Such monitoring is done by a group of expert IT professionals on a round the clock basis. The primary purpose of such services is to protect the network of the organization from network interruptions. The reason for Network disruption can be many and whenever it happens, the valuable time and effort of the employees is wasted in futility in trying get the network working. This additional effort can be saved by saved by getting the help of NOCs.

There are many companies with in-house monitoring team at place. These teams usually do their work quite efficiently, but they still have a major drawback of limited availability. The in-house monitoring system works only during the office hours. Therefore whenever a network problem occurs during off hours, there is no one to stop the damage. This drawback is not present if you opt for specialized firms, as there you get the support of 24x7 NOC services. Whenever a problem arises with your network, no matter at what time, the professionals of NOC would be there to rectify it immediately.

The primary purpose of these IT professionals is to monitor every hop, netflow, server, and endpoints of the client’s system. They are also responsible for monitoring, adjusting, modifying the client’s network so that it can function optimally. The NOC technicians can do all this in real time with the help of remote monitoring and management software. The functionality of NOC technicians is wide-ranging, and therefore is systematically divided into a hierarchical order. Technicians are divided on various levels and each of these levels have different functionalities. If, for instance, the issue of hardware failure arises, then the task might be given to the level 1 technician; however if the issue turn out to be more severe, the task is shifted to higher level technicians. Some of the major functions of NOC technicians are: network monitoring, incident response, application software installation and updating, software troubleshooting, performance reporting, patch management, threat analysis, antivirus scanning and remediation, communication management, and policy management. Other than these functionalities, the NOC technicians also take care of your data. They make sure that your data has a backup and that it can be effectively used back whenever required.

All the mentioned functionalities of the NOC makes sure that your system is working efficiently and productively. By using the 24x7 NOC services, you don’t ever have to worry about your network requirements, all problems would be fixed before you even know. The constant functionality of your network makes sure that no amount of your productive and valuable time is lost in network repair or maintenance, this further adds up to your company’s overall productivity.