Explaining NOC vs Traditional IT Support

Understanding NOC vs Traditional IT Support

Businesses of all sizes rely heavily on their IT infrastructure. To ensure the very best performance, security and uptime, lots of SMEs are turning to managed service providers, or MSPs, for their business IT support needs. One of the key services offered by MSPs is Network Operations Center (NOC) services. But what exactly are NOC services and how do they differ from traditional IT support?

Our blog post will explain what NOC services are, how they work, how they differ from traditional IT support service and what benefits they can bring to you.

 
What is NOC?

First of all, let’s make sure you’ve got a sound understanding of what exactly NOC is. NOC stands for Network Operations Centre, which is a centralised location where a team of IT experts monitor and manage IT systems for multiple customers and sites. NOC services are a type of IT management service that MSPs can offer to their customers, especially SMEs, who want to outsource their IT support and maintenance.

NOC services involve two main aspects: monitoring and management.

Monitoring
“Monitoring” allows the MSP/IT support company to connect to and have visibility of every element of your IT network, including endpoints (your PCs/Laptops), servers, routers, switches, firewalls, virtual machines, data and software. The NOC team will have a variety of rules and alerts set up to identify any potential issues as early as possible and, in some cases, even allow their own RMM (remote monitoring and management) software to carry out early remediation work automatically.

For example, if the event of disk space running low, some basic housekeeping tasks (set up by the NOC team as part of the automation process) may be carried out automatically to improve the situation without any human intervention.

The big hoo-ha? Those services meant an issue was addressed before anyone even realised it was an issue. Now imagine having the same systems and processes for issues that will really cause a headache to your business, or worse, a security vulnerability.

Management
“Management” refers to the actions that the NOC team takes to manage everything they can see on the network, normally across a wide range of customers. They will use monitoring to action certain tasks, such as restarting devices on a regular basis to help with ongoing performance or update firewall or endpoint management policies. External factors may also influence the decisions made by the NOC team to manage devices, such as known threats or viruses which need patches deploying quickly and efficiently across a large number of devices. This may be a vulnerability in an operating system or a firmware update to a physical piece of equipment.

All of this monitoring and management can help stop issues before they become problems and keep the network as secure as possible with the quick roll out of the latest patches and updates.

 
How is NOC different from traditional IT support services?

A normal IT help desk is mostly reactive, rather than proactive, dealing with issues as they are made aware of them manually. These issues may be raised by an end user or could be highlighted internally, either through monitoring software or through a physical review, but the remediation work is normally carried out by a human on a case-by-case basis. Reactive services normally actioned on a site-by-site basis, rather than en-masse, meaning that the deployment is much slower (for example, an important security update must be rolled out at every site/customer that is managed, rather than en-masse).

Reactive IT still plays a very important role, as in IT things still go wrong from time to time or users need help and guidance, but it should work alongside NOC to minimise issues and reduce downtime. NOC services can also free up the time and resources of the IT help desk team, allowing them to focus on more complex or urgent issues that require human intervention or on-site support.

 
Benefits of NOC Services for SMEs

• Improved uptime, as proactive monitoring and management help prevent issues and minimize downtime.

• Enhanced security as NOC teams can quickly identify and address security threats, protecting your sensitive data.

• Increased efficiency due to NOC services streamlining your IT operations and improving overall efficiency.
  
  
• Scalability as with NOC services, you can easily scale to meet your changing business needs.

 
Choosing between NOC services and traditional IT support depends on your specific business requirements. If you need a proactive, scalable, and cost-effective IT solution, NOC services may be the right choice for you. By partnering with a reputable MSP that offers NOC services, you can ensure that your IT infrastructure is well-managed, secure, and optimized for performance.