NOC vs Help desk?

Given the lack of trained, qualified, and experienced technicians who can handle levels 1 to 3 (commonly known as the IT skills gap), using a NOC is a more efficient and cost-effective option than hiring custom technicians. Given the skills gap, many MSPs find it extremely difficult or simply impossible to fill their company with enough technicians who have the right skills to grow their business profitably. Given the high demand for these technicians, the right technicians have a salary that has also increased accordingly, making it even more difficult to make a profit by trying to employ large numbers of people.

However, a NOC eliminates the skills gap by offering all the resources an MSP needs for its technical staff for a fixed monthly fee. As the MSP business grows, more resources are deployed and scalability increases, protecting MSP margins and achieving 24x7x365 results.

NOC vs. Help desk

Despite the many things a network operations center is, there is one thing it absolutely is not: a helpdesk. This is an important distinction that can be easily confused for business owners if not properly explained.

what is an noc? The big difference.. A helpdesk interacts with end customers. A NOC interacts with MSPs.

The NOC provides background maintenance, troubleshooting, and support so that the MSP can respond to problems and ensure customer availability. The help desk, on the other hand, is a call center that can be used to answer questions directly from end customers who are actively experiencing a problem. In other words, if an end user has a problem, they can call the helpdesk. If the MSP has a problem, it will contact the NOC.

NOC vs. SOC

Although they may seem and sound similar, there are vast differences in the objectives of a network operations center and a security operations center, also known as SOC.

The main criteria that both a NOC and a SOC have in common is that they work with the MSP to solve IT-related problems and never with the end user. However, when a NOC focuses on remote monitoring and maintenance of a customer's IT environment to comply with SLAs and ensure customer availability without technical disruptions, a SOC is much more security oriented. SOCs monitor emerging vulnerabilities, attack methods, and threats across a network of clients and are ready to identify anomalies and mitigate emerging cyberattacks.

Most SOCs use a SIEM (security information and event management) process, which summarizes information from various security-oriented data flows in the system. From network detection and vulnerability assessment systems to governance, risk and compliance (GRC) systems, penetration testing tools, intrusion detection and prevention systems and protocol management systems. The analysis of network behavior and much more is collected and analyzed by SOC technicians who are trained security experts.

NOCs and SOCs provide many services, all critical business values ​​for an MSP, but their tasks or objectives rarely overlap. Including these teams in a broader range of services offers MSPs a greater advantage than trying to merge the tasks associated with these groups into a hybrid team.