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APCON Provide Insight into the Daily Challenges of a Network Operations Center Manager
March 2014 by Marc Jacob
APCON opens the discussion on what life is like in the Network Operations Center (NOC). Providing an overview and sharing how to address the obstacles and “not so perfect” day-to-day operations, APCON released a free downloadable eBook titled ‘A Day in the Life of a Network Manager’ to inform engineers on how modern network monitoring tools can significantly impact stability in the high-pressure, high-stakes world of the NOC.
“In the Internet age, there are few roles more important than those that maintain large-scale enterprise networks,” said Richard Rauch, president and CEO of APCON. “Although a ‘perfect day’ is hardly attainable in the Network Operations Center, modern network monitoring equipment can provide a consistent, stable platform for keeping watch over systems critical to large enterprises and individuals alike.”
Life in the NOC is Rarely a Perfect Day
Network outages or slowdowns can quickly cost millions for an enterprise, and oversubscribed servers or monitoring tools can easily lead to dropped data, meaning companies lose the complete visibility they need to ensure data integrity and security. In this high-stakes environment, network operators and network engineers are in a constant state of diagnosing, repairing or escalating issues as quickly as possible.
The Answer to NOC Chaos: Intelligent Network Monitoring
The evolution of network management tools and tactics have not only made it possible to more effectively and cost efficiently manage networks with smaller staffs. It also makes it possible to manage multiple remote data centers from one central control facility. Even totally lights-out, or “dark”, data centers, where no human is actually assigned to work, can be operated remotely if companies make wise decisions to provide remote data centers with the right network monitoring switches and connectivity before problems even arise.
“At APCON, we’ve taken great effort to design solutions that provide the assurance and stability needed to maintain 100-percent network visibility,” said Rauch. “Intelligent network monitoring switches provide the ability to remotely connect and share expensive monitoring tools across an entire network giving operators and network engineers a real time situational awareness to confront daily Network Operations Center challenges.”
