12 Network Operations Center (NOC) Best Practices

Network Operations Center (NOC) Best Practices

The NOC ensures that an organization’s IT and network infrastructure continues running smoothly and meets the needs of the business.

Some best practices that an organization can implement to optimize the performance include:

1. Continuous Monitoring: A corporate NOC is responsible for preventing and managing network disruptions, which can occur at any time. A NOC should perform round-the-clock monitoring to ensure that it can identify and address potential issues as quickly as possible.
2. Invest in the Right Solutions: A NOC analyst is expected to promptly identify, investigate, and address potential issues before they cause significant business disruption. As a result, they need access to tools that provide the visibility, analytic capabilities, and control required to fulfill this purpose.
3. Use a Tiered NOC Model: Optimizing NOC productivity and effectiveness requires making the best potential use of resources. A tiered NOC model helps to ensure that highly skilled personnel aren’t wasted on trivial issues and that lower-tier analysts know when and how to escalate when needed.
4. Take Advantage of Automation: Managing a system on the scale of a corporate network is a big task, and manual processes are unlikely to scale or keep up effectively. Intelligent use of automation is essential to ensure that the NOC can identify, diagnose, and correct potential issues while minimizing operational disruption.
5. Define and Track Metrics: Quantifiable metrics are the best way to identify room for improvement, track progress, and demonstrate value to the business. Identifying and tracking useful metrics supports these functions and helps to build a culture of continuous improvement.
6. Training and Development: NOC analysts are responsible for maintaining the organization’s network infrastructure, which is constantly shifting as new solutions are introduced. Regular training and skill development are essential to ensure that analysts have the knowledge and skills that they need to perform their roles effectively.
7. Develop a Hiring and Retention Strategy: NOC analysts require a specialized set of skills that can make them difficult and expensive to hire, train, and retain. A hiring and retention plan should offer appropriate compensation, training opportunities, and a clear path for promotion and advancement within the organization.
8. Plan for Issues: Cyberattacks are a common occurrence, and some run the risk of creating large-scale operations disruptions. Having a business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan in place helps to minimize operational disruption and restore external services as quickly as possible.
9. Document NOC Operations: Every NOC process, solution, and function should be fully documented. This ensures that essential information is available when it is needed to resolve a potential issue.
10. Integrate Visibility and Control: NOCs need various capabilities to monitor, manage, and control the various systems under their purview. Selecting an integrated platform or integrating standalone solutions helps to eliminate potential visibility gaps and improves operational efficiency.
11. Build for Scalability: As technology advances, corporate IT networks are only growing larger and more complex. NOC systems and processes should be designed for scalability to ensure that they can keep up with the evolving needs of the business.
12. Encourage Communication: Communication both inside and outside of the NOC is essential for its success. NOC analysts should know how to escalate issues internally and also how to communicate with external stakeholders to address potential issues.