WHAT DO NOC PERSONNEL MONITOR?
The Survey Respondents were asked four questions about what their NOC personnel monitor. The results from NOC respondents are shown in Figure 1.
FIGURE 1: What the NOC Monitors
The data in Figure 1 clearly shows that the NOC is almost as likely to monitor performance, as it is to monitor availability. In addition, while there is still more focus in the NOC on networks, there is a significant emphasis on applications.
FACTORS DRIVING OR INHIBITING CHANGE
As shown in Table 1, over a quarter of the total base of survey respondents indicated that the NOC does not meet the organization’s current needs. This level of dissatisfaction with the NOC is supported by the data in Figure 2 that shows almost two thirds of the respondents believe their organizations will attempt to make significant changes in their NOC processes within the next 12 months.
FIGURE 2: Interest in Changing NOC Processes
FACTORS DRIVING CHANGE
The Survey Respondents were asked to indicate which factors will drive their NOC to change within the next 12 months. Their responses are shown in Figure 3.
FIGURE 3: Factors Driving Change in the NOC
Given that NOC personnel spend the greatest amount of time on applications, it is not surprising that the top driver of change is “greater emphasis on ensuring acceptable performance for key applications.” A related driver, “the need for better visibility into applications,” is almost as strong a factor driving change.
One of the interviewees is the global networking manager for an energy company. He stated that currently the NOC does not play a role in resolving application degradation issues. Within his company application degradation issues are handled by network engineers. However, he pointed out that this approach has some limitations. In particular, application degradation issues can occur anytime and typically need to be addressed immediately. As a result, these issues are assigned to engineers around the world based on the time of day and who is working at that hour. Assigning application degradation issues to these engineers inhibits their ability to perform other job responsibilities. In addition, if the problem is not resolved before they leave work for the day, they either must brief another engineer in a different part of the world on the issue and what has been done, or put off working on the problem until the next day. The Energy Manager went on to say that they are currently in the process of providing training to selected NOC personnel to help them resolve application degradation issues. He commented that he has some concerns about how successful the current NOC personnel will be at resolving application degradation issues due to the specialized nature of the task.
