Modernize your network with Zones’ Network Operations Center (NOC)

Hello everyone, my name is Stan Leszczynski, and I am the Chief Architect of Networking and Network Security in the Office of the CTO at Zones. Today, I would like to talk about Zones' Network Operations Center Services and how they can help your business achieve better uptime, visibility, and cost savings.

First, let’s talk about what a Network Operations Center (NOC) is and what services it provides. NOCs are critical to an organization’s ability to provide stable, secure, and reliable IT services. Traditionally, NOC operators utilize polling tools to monitor and maintain IT assets. These tools are typically stand-alone tools that poll devices at regular intervals and report pre-defined faults to the operators.

IT teams are moving to digitize their organizations and implementing many more complex applications, tools, sensors, and technologies. These technologies require sophisticated network infrastructures that can handle the added bandwidth and security needs, as well as increased connectivity between them. Many organizations are looking to implement things like Zero-Trust networking, SD-WAN, 5G, IoT, and other emerging technologies.

The real challenge lies in managing and monitoring these new complex technologies. It requires specialized skills and expertise and the ability to monitor and troubleshoot the network in real-time. This is where Zones Network Operations Center Services shine.

Market trends

The global NOC market is expected to grow by over 6% by 2024. This growth is driven by the increasing demand for connectivity and visibility and the need for businesses to ensure better uptime, security, and network infrastructure performance.

Understanding the challenges

Organizations today are up against a whole host of challenges from a networking perspective. These include…

• Lack of personnel: Managing a complex network infrastructure requires specialized skills and expertise not readily available in-house. This can result in longer downtime and slower issue resolution times. Turnover of skilled NOC resources also posed a significant challenge for most organizations.
• Limited visibility: Without proper network monitoring and management tools, businesses may not have visibility into their IT resources, which can result in downtime and security issues.
• Reactive: Most NOC operators react to issues in the infrastructure instead of finding and resolving issues before they arise.

Adopting best practices

To address these challenges, businesses must adopt best practices for managing and maintaining their IT infrastructures, such as…

• Network monitoring: A comprehensive network monitoring solution utilizing best-of-breed tools consolidated into one view can provide real-time visibility into the IT infrastructure, which can help businesses identify and troubleshoot issues before they impact network performance.
• Proactive maintenance: Proactive maintenance can help businesses identify and address potential issues before they result in downtime.
• Security management: A comprehensive security management solution can help businesses ensure that their network infrastructure is secure and protected from cyber threats.

How Zones can play a role

At Zones, we offer a range of Network Operations Services to help businesses achieve better uptime, visibility, and cost savings. Our NOC provides 24/7/365 monitoring and management of your network infrastructure and is staffed by experienced and certified network engineers. Our NOC services include…

• Network Monitoring and Management: We monitor your network infrastructure 24/7/365 to ensure it runs optimally and securely. We provide real-time visibility into your network and proactively identify and troubleshoot issues before they impact network performance. We utilize the best industry tools and leverage emerging technologies like streaming telemetry where possible to ensure the highest levels of visibility and to shorten resolution times to their minimums.
• Proactive Maintenance: We perform routine maintenance tasks, such as software updates and configuration changes, to ensure your network infrastructure is performing at peak performance. Zones strives to identify and resolve issues before users report them – A user should never have to report a problem before the NOC is alerted by our tools.
• Security Management: We provide comprehensive security management services, including intrusion detection and prevention, firewall management, and security information and event management (SIEM). Also, full SOC services could be added to the Zones NOC offering.

By leveraging our Network Operations Services, businesses can achieve better uptime and visibility while lowering their total cost of ownership. Our services are customizable to meet the specific needs of your business, and we offer flexible pricing models to fit your budget.

In Summary

Network operations are evolving, and organizations need a partner to guide them through these evolutions. At Zones, we are committed to providing you with the best possible service and support. We designed our Network Operations Center Services to help you get the most out of your IT infrastructure investments.

We are confident that the Zones NOC can meet any organization's IT challenges by leveraging our investments in people, processes, and technologies.

Tell me more »

If you're ready to discuss your specific needs and how we can help you develop a customized solution that meets your unique requirements, connect with a Zones Account Manager.