Significant events of 2006:
- Nintendo released the Wii gaming console
- NASA launches the New Horizons space probe
- GlowTouch introduces NOC services
Okay, one of those may be a little different from the others in that it has a daily impact on any organization with a network operations center. A NOC is akin to the central nervous system. When it is working correctly, it is not even an afterthought. But when there is a problem, not only does the entire organization know, but there are also external effects.
NOC management is a different type of outsourcing, one that falls under the broader as-a-service category of technology in which an outside party act as an extension of the client. This is how our experience began. We were providing traditional BPO services – tech support, customer care, sales assistance – for a technology company when the client decided to outsource its server and network health monitoring to us, too.
Success creates a positive feedback loop, and our work in this arena began to expand, particularly among hosting companies that often have very extensive server farms and for whom maximum uptime is seen as the norm. Effective service requires vigilance, rapid response when necessary, and the ability to recognize and categorize potential threats. In practical terms, this entails watching over infrastructure in real-time, addressing server alerts, coordinating incident management, and capacity handling, all of which can interrupt service availability to end-users.
Experience Summary
Nearly 15 years of experience in server monitoring and administration
Currently monitoring more than 25,000 servers
Expertise includes web, mail, backup, storage, virtual and cloud servers
Consistenly achived 99.9% uptime
By 2010, we had sole responsibility for monitoring all servers for one of the industry’s largest hosting firms. And the work does not only impact the company and its primary users; there is also an additional layer of customers served by the host’s extensive reseller community. What began with basic monitoring and reporting grew into server administration encompassing hardware, application layers, and networking.
By 2016, several other provider brands were working with us. In keeping with the proactive nature of NOC work, administrators had the freedom to independently research network or system activity to identify potentially troublesome configurations or security concerns. In addition to analyzing both live data and log files, the team has played a vital role in improving the platform’s health by reporting and resolving various hardware and application issues.
With computing increasingly moving to the cloud, outsourcing NOC management has multiple benefits. Cost is typically a reason for seeking an outside partner, but that is not the only consideration, and for some companies, it’s not even the primary factor. Knowledge Processing marks an evolution in the outsourcing relationship, changing it from vendor/supplier to a situation in which the external partner is an extension of the client’s organization, working either autonomously or collaborating with an in-house team.
Is outsourcing NOC services right for you? These are some of the ways our team can help:
Dedicated IT Infrastructure Monitoring
- Unless you want to pay for 24/7 in-house personnel
- Incidents are addressed immediately, at any time
Server Security Administraition
- Free your staff for mission-critical functions
- Issue prevention and remediation
Data Migration Services
- As your network grows
- Done with virtually no downtime
Regular Patch Management and Maintenance
- Avoid costly disruptions
- Expert help as your network becomes more complex
Systems are becoming increasingly complex as organizations and consumers alike demand more from technology. There is nothing wrong with that, so long as the individual parts work well together. If monitoring has become an afterthought as your business has grown, it may be time to discuss how an outsourcing partner can add value to your operation.
