Given our hybrid working environment, organisations nowadays rely on broad, intricate, and modern yet efficient networks for their day-to-day operations. Employees and customers rely on the technology they use for working together and communicating in their jobs. Over the course of the last few decades, two strategies for ensuring that these networks remain intact and operational are a Network Operations Center (NOC) and Security Operations Center (SOC). A NOC and SOC may be the best option for your business to ensure it remains operational.
To ensure the protection of these networks, these two tools have collaborated to provide the best level of network protection needed.
We’ll cover more of what they are in this article, as well as how to properly use them to keep a network healthy and secure. In addition, we’ll discuss the fundamental distinctions between a SOC and a NOC and explain why modern businesses must use both in their IT and cyber security strategies.
What is a NOC?
A Network Operations Center or NOC is a central place where IT staff monitor services with remote monitoring and management tools. They help in monitoring and maintaining a network. A NOC is often used by large businesses with broad networks and by commercial network service providers. The typical setup in most organisations includes workstations where the precise state of the network can be examined with network management platform, along with other devices that provide visualizations of the networks being monitored.
How does a NOC work?
A Network Operations Center or NOC is used to monitor equipment and services. They are the first line of response when something in the network goes wrong. Whenever an alert is raised, the NOC Analysts will respond by following a playbook based on the equipment or service failure. The NOC has playbooks to go through depending on the severity of the issue. It’s their job to monitor and respond to alerts, bring them back online where possible or escalate to the infrastructure teams responsible using the appropriate playbooks.
At Wizard IT, we use a product called PRTG – from a German company called Paessler. Other solutions like hound dog or manage engine are also available. The system would connect to each device/service and monitor its uptime and health. A NOC should also be monitored 24/7 by a team of NOC Analysts.
When it comes to reporting, NOC reports would be generated monthly or on a specified frequency to report on the uptime and health of the systems. Systems with issues would then be flagged and recommendations are made to the infrastructure or IT support teams to remediate services.
What is a SOC?
A Security Operations Center or SOC unifies and coordinates all cyber security technology and operations, enhancing an organization’s threat detection, response, and prevention capabilities. It consists of a team of IT security experts that monitors an organization’s entire IT devices and services round-the-clock in order to be able to identify cyber security events in real-time and respond to them as quickly and effectively as possible.
How does a SOC work?
A Security Operations Center or SOC manages and maintains the cyber security tools used by the organisation. It assesses threat information to identify ways to improve the organisation’s security. This would then lead to better security policies and preventive measures, quicker threat detection and more effective responses to security problems. A SOC can also strengthen an organisation’s adherence to local, national, and international privacy requirements.
A Security Information & Event Management or SIEM, is a tool used by SOC analysts to monitor and perform essential tasks. Millions of logs and alerts are saved into a SIEM and use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to determine which alerts need to be investigated. An alert may then be escalated to a ticket, then the ticket would then be investigated by a SOC Analyst. Most tickets are created and then closed as false positives, i.e., need no further investigation. SOC Analysts follow the playbooks to determine the cause of the action and the necessary response.
What does a SOC do?
- Preparation, planning, and prevention
- Monitoring, detection, and response
- Recovery, refinement, and compliance
What is the difference between a NOC and a SOC?
While the Security Operations Center (SOC) focuses on protecting all the systems including applications, infrastructure, and networks within the company, the Network Operation Center (NOC)’s primary goal is to assure system availability and performance through network infrastructure monitoring.
The effectiveness of an organization’s IT infrastructure is the NOC’s primary concern. To spot problems and adjust the organization’s network environment, NOC analysts will monitor endpoints and network infrastructure. The NOC will be the first to learn of threats or assaults on an organisation from their monitoring and alerting. A NOC should be considered as a proactive solution to improve business continuity and reduce downtime and frustration for users.
On the other hand, a SOC’s only priority is security. Its primary focus is on potential cyber security events rather than performance problems. The improvement of visibility and the prevention, detection, and reaction to cyberattacks will be the main goals of SOC-driven network improvements and redesigns.
Here are the key differences:
- A SOC monitors for security-related events whereas a NOC monitors for issues with critical business systems and critical infrastructure equipment
- A SOC monitors millions of events daily whereas a NOC monitors fewer alerts each day
- A SOC requires many analysts to monitor the volume of alerts, and a NOC requires fewer analysts
- A SOC would be serviced by an MSSP (MSSP – Managed Security Services Provider) but a NOC would be serviced by an MSP (Managed Services Provider)
Here are their similarities:
- Both SOC and NOC require 24/7 monitoring
- SOC and NOC can be managed internally or via an MSSP or MSP
In conclusion, we’ve discussed NOC vs SOC in detail, but instead of thinking about which one is better, we’d recommend you implement both. In contrast, events are typically managed by NOC while SOC controls risks brought on by people. Both kinds of events might have the opportunity to affect your business at some point and having both SOC and NOC can help keep threats and assaults to a minimum.
How can Wizard help?
As a Microsoft Gold partner, Wizard IT can provide a Managed NOC service 24/7 from our international NOC’s. Our specialist expertise lies in infrastructure and network support for Private Equity and Corporate Finance organisations
Wizard Cyber can provide a Managed Detection and Response Service from our international SOC’s
EDR, MDR, NDR and XDR Managed services are monitored by the Wizard Cyber SOC.
Get in touch with us now and see how our team of IT experts can help.
