Network Operations Center

What is a Network Operations Center?

A network operations center (NOC) is a place from which IT
infrastructure and operations management is performed. The
Broward NOC is located on the second floor of the TSSC
building where detailed status of the network can be monitored
and managed. The network operations center is the focal point
for such activities as network monitoring, network incident
resolution, software distribution and updating, router and
switch configuration, wireless controller management,
applications monitoring, performance monitoring and
coordination with affiliated networks.

What is the impact of the Network Operations Center on achieving District goals
including the impact on customer service?
The Network Operations Center provides the District the capability to ensure that the infrastructure is
delivering IT resources at required service levels. In-depth trend analysis provides information that
enables the District to scale resources capable of proactively meeting on-going requirements for
supporting curriculum and business. Using this trend data, the District can project and anticipate what
loads will be imposed on future systems. Using synthetic transactions running against applications, the
NOC can determine the state of those applications and predict availability for end-users.

The Network Operations Center provides the capability for the District to perform both proactive and fast
reactive customer support. Service to the end-user is optimized by eliminating and reducing the time to
diagnose and repair interruptions to network resource delivery.

 Example of fast reactive support – the Network Operations Center scans all network devices in all
schools and notifies any site if they have an outage or incident that could impact services.

 Example of proactive support – the Network Operations Center monitors utilization for a specific
service and intervenes prior to overutilization impacting that service.

The Network Operations Center can work with end-users in real time and, as a result of the visibility
operators have over system resources, will in many instances provide a solution over the phone.

How does the Network Operations Center save the District money and other
resources?
The most direct impact is the reduction in human resources needed to directly support and service the
270 plus sites in the Broward School District. Prior to the creation of centralized management and
monitoring, technicians had to be dispatched for almost all incidents. The most obvious savings in cost is
the ability to monitor, manage and maintain network devices throughout BCPS from a single location
without rolling a truck. The NOC can now diagnose a problem and repair it remotely most of the time.
When a service call is required the problem is identified in advance through remote analysis and the
correct part, if needed, is carried by the technician. Traditionally, a network device repair would take two
or more physical trips to the site.

How does the Network Operations Center align with industry best practices?
The NOC leverages Incident and Problem Management along with other ITIL disciplines that focus on
delivery of IT services to end-users at the level of performance required for their success. The NOC has the
capability of monitoring services according to Service Level Management best practice guidelines. This
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means that the Broward NOC follows principles of Service Level Management, the ITIL service delivery
standard, in monitoring and managing service delivery. ITIL’s Availability Management, which includes
trend analysis, provides the ability to be proactive in response to customer demands.

Two technologies used in the NOC to achieve the industry standards are advanced trend analysis and
application availability analysis. These proactive analyses provide information that enables scaling of
resources to meet the needs of teachers, students and administration.

Gartner defines the responsibilities of IT operations management, key goals of the Network Operations
Center in ETS, as follows:

The responsibilities of IT operations management are mission-critical to businesses in four main areas:
 Keeping the IT systems used in business processes up and running, and performing to meet
business requirements
 Managing operational risk
 Delivering IT services in a continuously optimized, cost-effective manner
 Delivering agile and innovative IT services at a competitive cost that contribute to business
success (Core Topics and Key Issues for IT Operations Management, 2008)

How does the Network Operations Center support the business in the future?
As Anytime, Anywhere Learning evolves, the Network Operations Center will maintain the capability of
ensuring that services support learning innovations. The NOC will be able to provide information on the
status of how effectively current and future learning technologies are reaching the end-users.

As the convergence of systems such as security, video surveillance and telephone occurs, the NOC will be
able to ensure that the high availability required by these services over the IP infrastructure is met.

The vast array of tools that make monitoring and measuring student progress in real time a reality will be
fully supported and made functional through the services of the Network Operations Center. Systems will
change and evolve but the delivery of these systems must continue to be monitored and maintained.

Monitoring and managing the virtualized environment along with other evolving technologies and forms
of service delivery will provide the District with unique challenges. Maintaining visibility will be critical
and essential to ensuring high levels of customer service. The Network Operations Center going forward
will be able to maintain global visibility.

Current Status and Critical Challenges

The NOC is currently monitoring and remotely managing the District network architecture including
7,000 switches in 270 buildings. It is also monitoring and managing the wireless access points in each
building along with monitoring and managing each of the users that associate with those wireless access
points in real time.

Additionally, the Network Operations Center currently monitors and provides data to District
administrators on utilization and availability trends, which includes information on the use of specific
applications.

The Network Operations Center also monitors business critical applications that support curriculum and
business services as well as services delivered from remote locations.

The challenge is to move to full service level management and away from focusing only on IT assets or
devices. The continued implementation and increased use of intelligent and self healing systems including
implementation of CMDBs will help provide full service level management.

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Another challenge is to increase service delivery while decreasing service maintenance and delivery costs.

The NOC is also capable of keeping up with a fluid environment anticipating:

 Voice over IP
 Virtualization of servers, computers and applications
 Cloud Computing
 Tracking mobile computer users and the infrastructure that supports them (WiFi)