Overall, the data in Table 1 is somewhat positive. However, there is a notable exception. Over a quarter of the total base of Survey Respondents indicated that the NOC does not meet the organization’s current needs.
One of the interviewees was the IT manager for a manufacturing company (The Manufacturing Manager). The Manufacturing Manager described his concerns about the ability of the network support organization to meet the organization’s current needs. He referred to the support organization as not being very network-savvy and that once they are alerted to a possible trouble, they follow a simple script to try to resolve it. He said that his organization is not satisfied with the role and performance of the network support group and has considered outsourcing the function. They ultimately decided to keep the function in-house, but are committed to improving its ability to respond to problems.
WHAT DOES THE NOC DO?
When it comes to how the NOC functions, one of the most disappointing findings is that just under two thirds of the NOC respondents believe that the NOC tends to work on a reactive basis, identifying a problem only after it impacts end users. The CIO stated that the most frequent question he gets from users is, “Why don’t you know that my system is down? Why do I have to tell you?” He said that the fact that end users tend to notice a problem before IT does has the affect of eroding the users’ confidence in IT in general.
The conventional wisdom in our industry is that NOC efficiency is reduced because of the silos that exist within the NOC. In this context, silos means that the workgroups have few common goals, processes and tools. Just under half of the survey respondents indicated that their NOC has functional silos. In addition, a small majority (61%) of NOC personnel feel that they use many management tools that are not well integrated.
One of the interviewees was the network and systems manager for a multi-national conglomerate, and will be referred to as The Management Systems Manger. She stated that it is challenging to bring together the IT groups necessary to resolve a problem. She added that the group responsible for the performance of applications and servers has very little understanding of the network. The Manufacturing Analyst stated that having management tools that are not well integrated “is a fact of life.” He added that his organization has a variety of point products and does not currently have a unified framework for these tools. This is one of the issues his company is hoping to change with a NOC redesign project currently underway.
WHERE DOES THE NOC SPEND MOST OF ITS TIME?
The survey respondents were asked to indicate where NOC personnel spend most of their time. Table 2 shows the answers of just the NOC respondents.
TABLE 2: Where the NOC Spends the Most Time
One obvious conclusion that can be drawn from the data in Table 2 is that NOC personnel spend the greatest amount of time on applications. An additional conclusion is that NOC personnel support a broad range of IT functionality.
The Manufacturing Analyst said that his organization focuses on the availability of networks and does not get involved in problem resolution. He added, however, that there is a project underway to change how the NOC functions. The goal of the project is to create a NOC that is more proactive and which focuses both on performance and availability.
When analyzing where the NOC spends its time, however, equally interesting is the vast gap in perceptions between members of the IT organization based on whether they work inside or outside of the NOC. Table 3 indicates where NOC personnel say that they spend the greatest amount of time and contrasts that to where non-NOC personnel believe NOC personnel spend the greatest amount of time. As is clearly indicated, NOC personnel say they spend the most time on applications. However, non-NOC personnel not only do not perceive this, but roughly half of them believe that NOC personnel spend the greatest amount of their time on the WAN. This perception gap clearly supports the previously mentioned survey data that indicates the role of the NOC is not well understood outside of the NOC.
TABLE 3: Contrasting Views of the NOC
While the general trend is for the NOC to be more involved in supporting applications, not all organizations are heading in that direction. The Management Systems Manager pointed out that her organization does not focus on applications. In her company there is a separate performance and availability group that focuses on the performance of applications and servers.
