NOC vs. SOC:
Comparing Outsourced Services

Why Your Organization Needs NOC as a Service The NOC as a Service support model assists enterprises and broadband service providers (BSPs) in eliminating the overall operational costs and complexities of establishing and maintaining a 24x7 Network Operations Center (NOC). By doing so, the organization can better allocate their resources to projects that generate more revenue or value to the organization. For reference, the Software as a Service (SaaS) model commonly refers to a method of software delivery and licensing in which software is accessed centrally online via a subscription, rather than being bought and installed on individual computers. By contrast, NOC as a Service (NOCaaS) is commonly used to describe one of two situations: 1) Outsourced NOC services (hiring third-party NOC service providers); and 2) a managed service. We'll dive into the differences between the two a bit later in this article. What are Outsourced NOC Services? A Network Operations Center (NOC) handles problems related to managing, proactively monitoring, and controlling the systems within your IT infrastructure. That includes your network devices, servers, applications, websites and databases. These IT assets are the backbone of your organization and an Outsourced NOC ensures your systems are always available and operational for your employees and customers. When your network, website, servers, or applications go down or experience an impairment, the NOC is responsible for identifying the source of the problem, and getting everything fully functional again. The NOC is not only making sure your IT systems stay up and running, they're also optimizing network infrastructure, developing methods to better detect outages and devising methods to restore system operations quickly and efficiently. A NOC monitors the health and availability of your organization's networks, routers and switches, servers, applications, websites, firewalls ,VPN tunnels, wireless access points, and power and facility systems. Other functions of the NOC may include network performance reporting and improvement recommendations, outage response, capacity planning, phone-based alerting following defined escalation procedures, and facilitating communications between departments, partners, vendors and other stakeholders. An Outsourced NOC Services provider like iGLASS Networks, offers all of these benefits as a service to their customers. Their services are very focused on the availability and operability of your IT infrastructure and applications. This is typically their sole area of focus. How is this different from Managed Services? Managed services usually refer to a simplified and standardized set of services to manage devices, computers, applications, and other infrastructure components of an organization. They tend not to be focused on a single function and are often offered by Managed Service Providers (MSPs). An MSP may offer you any number of services, including design and engineering, help desk, technical support, support of back office applications, cybersecurity services, PEN testing, and hosted software licenses for platforms like Office365 or Salesforce. Many MSPs also offer equipment and software sales, and localized installation and support. While some MSPs offer NOC Services, often these services are limited to what their chosen software platform supports, with limited customization or subject matter expertise. This tends not to be the best solution for organizations looking for a more comprehensive, flexible and customized NOC solution, but can be more cost effective than standing up an internal NOC team. Internal NOC Team vs. Outsourced NOC Service Provider As iGLASS details in their " Beginner's Guide to Outsourced NOC Monitoring Services ," Network Operations Centers need at least two people working at all times. When you add in a NOC Manager, that works out to a staff of at least eleven people for 24x7 coverage. While the salary of NOC technicians varies depending on experience and geographic location, the national average salary of an in-house NOC technician is around $70,000, with managers earning around $80,000. In salaries alone, this becomes a $780,000 annual operating expense, or $65,000 a month (not including benefits). An organization must also consider the necessary hardware and software needed. Enterprise IT networks often consist of hundreds of pieces of equipment. Collectively, the cost of staffing, providing hardware, software, and the housing of the actual NOC center in an appropriate facility to protect the equipment (with proper cooling, power redundancy, immediate fire suppression, etc.) can easily cost an organization hundreds of thousands, to millions of dollars annually. Since maintaining an internal team can be extremely expensive, working with an Outsourced NOC Service Provider is often the best decision for organizations looking to maximize the value derived from their limited IT resources. While MSPs usually offer limited options, some Outsourced NOC Service Providers offer turn-key solutions, with low up-front investments, necessary monitoring hardware and software, a trouble-ticketing platform, and human-driven alerts and escalations by phone (not just emails or SMS messages). These providers usually include platform maintenance and upgrades, and 24x7 monitoring plans can start as low as $3,000 per month for 100 infrastructure assets. To learn more about outsourcing NOC services and how they compare to SOC services, please check out our recent blog, " NOC vs. SOC: Comparing Outsourced Services ." For more insights and assistance, get in touch with our team .

A post on the benefits of outsourcing your Network Operations Center (NOC) and, specifically, Network Monitoring.

Learn about our NOC & Help Desk Services for Broadband Service Providers!

In the broadband space, many people use the terms Help Desk and NOC interchangeably, but it’s important to know they’re not one and the same. Although the two often work together, there are key distinctions between the two. Managed Help Desks Problem-Solve for Individual Users whereas NOCs Focus on Infrastructure. Put simply, a help desk is focused on end-users. They […]

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iGLASS Networks Joins the ISPN Family: Bringing 24x7 NOC Service to the ISPN Solutions Toolkit

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