Network Operations Center (NOC) Design: Best Practices

Network Operations Center (NOC) Design: Best Practices

Below mentioned best practices are recommended by ExterNetworks to improve the overall effectiveness of the NOC design and to alleviate monitoring risks.

1. Vendor Ticket Management: A Vendor ticketing system showcases all the information related to the open tickets such as priority task, urgent issues, the person who is handling the task, and the pending issues. It eases the daily routine work & also help in providing the best services to the customers.
2. Incident Management: Identify the incident, find the underlying problem and fix it immediately to ensure the operation is running smoothly & the business is not affected.
3. Standard Monitoring Policy: Define and implement standard monitoring policy & procedures for performance forecasting and capacity monitoring for Telecom network infrastructure.
4. Root Cause Analysis: Use Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to identify root problems for performance improvement & easy connectivity.
5. Documentation & Reporting: Track & document each and every issue to maintain a healthy knowledge base.
6. Escalation: The roles & responsibilities with the appropriate designation is required for every employee working in a NOC. Sometimes the problems are too complex to be resolved by level-1 or level-2 engineers & thus the same need to be escalated to the higher management for assistance.

Managing a Network Operations Center (NOC) –

A typical Network Operations Center (NOC) employs NOC engineers & NOC technicians to monitor large computers & servers from a centralized location. Their duties include:

• Net flow, server, & endpoint monitoring
• Hardware & Software installation
• Network Analysis & Troubleshooting
• Monitor common threats, viruses & DOS attacks.
• Alarms handling & performance improvement
• Monitor power failures & system backups.

Many issues may arise that get in the way of optimal network function, dealing with these problems quickly and efficiently is the duty of the network engineer. Examples of these common issues include DDoS attacks, power outages, network crashes, and black-holes in routing.

A network operations center (NOC) may have personnel who install routers or software like firewalls, but they don’t function as a help desk. The IT help desk & NOC team are different and the terms cannot be used interchangeably. The Helpdesk deals directly with clients whereas the NOC team ensures the client’s uptime is maintained.