Outsourced NOC Support Services – Benefits and Choosing the Right Partner

12 June, 2024

In today’s fast-paced IT landscape, Network Operations Center (NOC) support services are essential for ensuring stable, secure, and high-performing networks. As your MSP grows and you take on multiple clients, the complexity of managing NOC services increases — making strategic decisions that support both your business and your customers more important than ever. 

One key decision is whether to outsource NOC support. This can be an ideal solution, whether you’re scaling up, streamlining, or setting up NOC operations for the first time. While some MSPs still prefer in-house monitoring and management, outsourcing NOC support can offer substantial advantages. 

By partnering with a trusted, white-glove NOC service provider that offers 24/7 coverage, you can bridge operational gaps and enjoy a range of benefits. These include improved efficiency, reduced downtime, enhanced security, access to the latest technologies and tools, better performance monitoring through KPIs and metrics, and freeing up internal teams — all of which lead to greater productivity and better outcomes for your clients. 

Additionally, outsourcing allows you and your team to focus on growing and improving your business, while your NOC provider handles the day-to-day operations. Finally, it also eliminates the burden of scaling your in-house resources up or down as your needs change. 

 

The decision to outsource your NOC support is especially correct in case of the following: 

  • Increasing IT support workload 
  • Increasing pressure on the technical team 
  • Increase in downtime and stack of customer support tickets 
  • Increasing need for employees to work post office hours 

To help you make an informed decision, this blog highlights factors you need to consider when outsourcing NOC support and the benefits of  24×7 NOC services. 

 

What are outsourced NOC services?

You’re handing off network monitoring to another company. They watch your systems, catch issues before they blow up, fix things that break.

Could be just a piece of it—maybe they handle firewall updates or patch management.  

Or it could be the whole thing, full network management top to bottom. Outsourced NOC services differ from broader managed IT services in their focused approach to network operations. 

 

Top 3 NOC Monitoring Challenges

Alert Fatigue:

Your monitoring tool isn’t configured right, so it screams at you constantly. Same issue, but twenty different alerts. One router dies, and suddenly you’ve got notifications popping up from every device that connects through it. Which one actually matters? Good luck figuring that out when you’re drowning in tickets. 

Time and Resources:

Somebody’s got to watch the network overnight. Weekends. Holidays. All of it. What usually happens – you’ve got network engineers pulling double duty, trying to do their actual job while also babysitting monitoring screens. Short term it saves money. Long term? People burn out and leave. 

Expertise:

It’s not just about observing alerts pop up. You need people who can make sense of what they see. What’s the actual problem versus what’s just downstream noise? Takes experience to sort that out fast. Miss it and small problems turn into outages.

 

In-house NOC vs Outsourced NOC

No right answer here. Depends on your situation—size, budget, and what your team can actually handle. In-house means you’re in control; the team’s right there when you need them.

But you’re also paying for infrastructure, someone’s got to cover nights and weekends, and training never stops.

Managed NOC services through outsourcing? You give up some control, but costs are predictable, expertise is already there, and you’re not scrambling to fill shifts.

 

Outsourced NOC Considerations that Matter

Organization Size:

Small companies usually can’t swing a full NOC setup. Too expensive, not enough people. Outsourcing gets you professional-grade monitoring without building it all yourself. The processes and governance are already there. 

Staff Skills:

Entry-level NOC positions have high turnover. People learn the basics, then leave. You’re stuck in a constant hiring and training loop. Outsourcing handles this – 24/7 expert coverage, specialized tech knowledge, no shift scheduling issues, no sick day gaps.

Costs:

Outsourcing costs less over time with fixed monthly pricing. In-house costs constantly increase – replacement hiring and training, promotion gaps, rising salaries and benefits, downtime from missed alerts, slower resolution times with generalists versus specialists.

 

Outsourced NOC Support Services: Benefits of 24-Hour Outsourced Support

MSPs often consider it unnecessary or expensive to outsource their NOC support and maintenance completely. However, the benefits it offers overshadow the expense you need to bear. Of all the benefits, some of the most important ones are: 

Enhanced Operational Efficiency

Outsourcing your entire NOC support frees your employees from the burden of looking after even the slightest errors, allowing them to focus on more valuable tasks. 

Moreover, you will not need to worry about operational efficiency and scaling the resources depending on the customer support requirements. The outsourced organization will have all the experts and necessary skills to meet the various support demands of your clients across industries. 

Improved Service Quality

A team of expert technicians possessing the necessary skills, training, and knowledge will naturally result in better service quality. It is also one reason why most MSPs choose to outsource their operations. 

Moreover, outsourcedNOC support and maintenance ensure prompt availability and quick response time, leading to efficient support operations. 

Access Advanced Technologies

With the increase in business, the pressure on your in-house NOC team will increase, too. As a result, you might have to invest in infrastructure, recruitment, and technology. However, considering the workload and stress, the chances of them leveraging the technology or software at their best are reduced. 

The best solution is to outsource your NOC support. The team will entirely focus on maintaining your NOC, ensuring that customer requests are quickly and effectively solved. Moreover, they will have all the latest technologies, software, and skills that they will use to benefit your business and customers. 

Machine learning and automation are constantly improving, which can lead to increased efficiency, operational dividends, better reporting, and enhanced communication. Since this is a huge investment requiring money, time, and effort, it is not recommended that MSPs try to build such infrastructure in their internal surroundings. 

Saves Considerable Costs

Outsourcing NOC support to a trusted service provider will save you more than you can imagine. This is because customer support requirements fluctuate a lot, and to meet those requirements, you might have to employ more people. Many MSPs refrain from hiring due to the tentative nature of requirements and budget constraints, ultimately burdening the existing employees, which leads to stress and inefficiency. 

On the contrary, when you outsource NOC support Services, all the fixing tasks are taken over by experts who will ensure you meet the requirements efficiently. Moreover, depending on the requirement, they can scale the resources up and down.

Thus, eliminating the woes of hiring, onboarding, and training new people ultimately saves considerable time, effort, and, of course, money. 

Value Added Resources

Apart from carrying out routine support and maintenance tasks effectively, the  outsourced NOC support service  provider will bring much more. While the value addition can be subjective, we, as a leading white-label service provider, offer the following: 

  • Capacity management
  • Change management
  • Continual service improvement
  • Incident and problem management
  • Root cause analysis
  • RMM optimization
  • Vendor liaison

 

What to Expect During Outsourced NOC Monitoring Services Onboarding

Before Onboarding: Provider needs to learn your setup:

  • What systems matter most?
  • What does your network look like?
  • Whom to call when there’s a problem?

Have your login credentials ready. They need access to whatever they’re monitoring. Runbooks matter here – document what happens when things break.

During Onboarding Technician sets everything up and tests it:

  • Installs monitoring agents
  • Configures alert levels
  • Tests notifications reach the right people
  • Plans for future capacity needs  
  • Tweaks anything not working right

Expect some trial and error. The first pass rarely nails everything perfectly.

After Onboarding: Your environment changes—new servers, retired systems, different priorities. Good providers adjust with you:

  • SLAs updated based on real performance
  • New equipment added to monitoring
  • Old stuff removed
  • Regular check-ins keep everyone aligned

 

Conclusion

The final call regarding outsourcing NOC support is yours. However, please note that choosing 24/7 outsourced NOC support services will deliver better efficiency and quality at reasonable prices, benefiting both your business and your customers. 

At Infrassist Technologies, we provide 24/7 proactive support and monitoring, ensuring that all support queries are addressed. To learn more about our NOC services,  schedule a free NOC consultation.