Introduction:
The term "NOC" refers to Network Operation center. it is a central location form witch network administration manage, control and monitor one or more networks large enterprise with large networks as well as large network services providers always have a network operation centers. it is a room containing visualization of the network or the network can be seen and the necessary software to manage the networks .
A NOC is the focal point for the purpose of network troubleshooting, Software distribution and updating, router domain name management, performance monitoring, and coordination with affiliate networks.
Roles & Responsibilities of NOC Team:
The main role of NOC Engineers are monitoring every netflow, hop, server and endpoint attached to an MSP's(Monitoring Service Provider) client networks. They also monitor infrastructure health, security and capacity along with making the decisions and adjustments to ensure optimal network performance and organizational productivity.
The NOC Engineers are catogorized based on "levels". These levels indicate expertise and problem-solving ability. In case of a hardware failure< an alert may be assigned to a Level 1 technician first, but if upon further inspection the problem goes beyong the failed hardware, the ticket may be escalated to a Level 2 or Level 3 technician.
NOC capabilities consist of:
- Application software installations, troubleshooting and uploading.
- Email management services.
- Backup and storage management.
- Network discovery and assessments.
- Policy enforcement.
- Firewall and Intrusion Prevention System(IPS) monitoring and management.
- Antivirus scanning and remediation.
- Patch management and whitelisting.
- Shared threat analysis.
- Optimization and quality of services reporting.
- Voice and video traffic management.
- Performance reporting and improvement recommendations.
Devices and Softwares used in NOC:
- Computing Devices include Servers (preferably Blade and Rack servers).
- Telecommunication Equipment include ISP (Internet Devices), Network devices (Switch, Routers and Firewall), VoIP, etc.
- Satellite Network Environments process large amount of voice and video data, in addition to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information.
Software used in NOC are
- RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management) software: There are various RMM softwares like, Nagios, Microsoft based System Center Suite 2012 and IBM's NOC-Inside
Here we will discuss IBM's NOC-Inside.
Overview
- NOC Inside automates ITIL® recommended best practices for IT Infrastructure Management that allow customers to establish a NOC in as less as 48 hours.
- The automation tools are installed in customer’s premises and on their servers without any need for remote network connectivity to IBM data centers.
- NOC-Inside is available on a flexible, pay-as-you-go, subscription basis which minimizes upfront capital expenditure and allows leverage of operational expenditure model.
- NOC Inside allows customers to manage their entire IT infrastructure without the need for high cost, technical experts.
- NOC Inside provides automation for agentless IT infrastructure monitoring (networks, systems, applications, middleware and databases), IP traffic analysis, IT Service Desk and IT Asset Management (discovery, hardware & software Inventory)
- NOC Inside provides ready to use reports and dashboards, generates instant SMS or email alerts, escalations and provides an integrated, portal based view of IT Operations in a single console.
- NOC Inside also includes an optional IT advisory service that provides periodic, customized, improvements & recommendations to optimize efficiency of IT operations.
Automation Capabilities
Automation allows for proactive monitoring and management of IT issues. It also helps streamline processes and enhances productivity in managing IT operations. The automation capabilities of NOC Inside are illustrated as below.
The automation included with NOC Inside provides the following capabilities for IT Infrastructure Management.Single Console view for end to end IT Infrastructure management
Comprehensive IT Monitoring
- Agentless Availability & Performance Monitoring
- Supports comprehensive monitoring of Servers, Routers, Switches, Firewalls, Printers, Email servers, Applications, Middleware & Databases
- IT Services & Business Impact Monitoring
- Business Activity & Synthetic Transaction Monitoring
- Ready to use Real time dashboards & Historical reports
- Automated email/SMS alerts & escalations
- Automated corrective or preventive actions on IT availability or performance issues
- Automatic creation/routing of trouble tickets
- Real time Topology views
- Agentless network Discovery & more
Service Desk Management
- Automates ITIL® based best practices for Incident, Problem, Change & Configuration Management
- Includes powerful workflow enabled automation
- Track & manage Incident SLA and Problem OLA
- Raise, track, approve and manage Change Requests
- Includes built in historical reports and real time dashboards
- Supports Email & Web based Call Logging
- Automated email and SMS notifications
- Enables self service via built-in knowledge base
- Provides enhanced collaboration between teams via bulletin board
- Includes full featured integrated Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
IT Asset Management
- Manage and track IT & Non IT assets through entire life cycle
- Includes full featured ITIL® centric CMDB
- Supports agentless discovery & inventory scan
- Deeply integrated with Incident, Problem & Change management
- Track and maintain Contract & Financial information
- Auditing and Tracking for Software & Hardware Inventory
- Track and manage Software License Compliance
- Get alerts on AMC expiry, compliance violation, CMDB changes
- Barcode & RFID integration for asset tracking
IP Traffic Usage Analysis
- Analyze bandwidth usage of congested WAN links by applications, servers, protocols
- Supports Cisco® Netflow, IETF IPFIX and SFLOW® protocols
- Includes optional Software based Sniffer
- Find Top Applications, Protocols or Hosts contributing tnetwork congestion
- Perform usage Analysis by Locations, Departments, etc
- Get automated alerts on Policy Violations
- Name: Harsh Tiwari
- Faculty: Naresh Dhanwani
- Roll No.: JK-ENR-SW-1621
- Date: 05-01-2018
- Session Name: Network Operations Centre (NOC)
- Summary: Learning about Network Operations Centre (NOC)
- Rating: 10+1+7+0+0=18
5 Questions:
- What is the full form of NOC?
- Weite about the roles and responsibilities of NOC Team.
- Which devices and softwares are used in NOC?
- Elaborate about IBM's NOC-Inside.
- Write the difference between NOC & Help Desk.
Outsourcing Network Operation Centers (NOC) can help organizations of all sizes to monitor, measure, secure, and analyze their mission critical data, along with supporting micro-services, managing the network, and more efficiently run business applications.NETRIO Managed IT Services, NOCaaS,noc services, noc services monitoring and outsourcing, outsourced noc.
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