INOC, An ITsavvy Company

Learn how INOC's Ops 3.0 Platform works in just two minutes. INOC's VP of Technology, James Martin, quickly takes us through the Ops 3.0 to present its functions and next-level capabilities in NOC operations and service delivery. ——— Here's a quick breakdown of Ops 3.0: 1️⃣ Alarm Sources/NMS Our platform ingests alarm and event information directly from your NMS infrastructure (such as LogicMonitor, New Relic, Nagios, or Dynatrace), enabling us to receive alarms from a simple network monitoring tool or a whole suite of monitoring tools (everything from application management to traditional network management to optical or physical layer management systems). Hosted solutions are available if you don’t currently use an NMS or aren’t satisfied with your instance. Integrating these NMS tools with AIOps ensures seamless alarm and event management—a key service differentiator that motivates ITOps teams to work with us for NOC service. 2️⃣ AIOps Engine Our alarm and event management system is powered by AIOps — machine learning that automates low-risk tasks and extracts insights from large amounts of data. Our tools correlate, inspect, and enrich alarms with metadata from our CMDB to facilitate informed action. (You can integrate your existing system with our toolset to streamline alarm correlation, enrichment, and ticket creation!) After a ticket is generated, our platform automatically identifies and attaches CIs from our CMDB, giving NOC engineers clear direction for investigation. The platform also provides relevant knowledge articles and runbooks to quickly diagnose and develop an action plan. 3️⃣ Integrated CMDB Our CMDB enriches alarm data with vital configuration and business impact details, allowing precise assessment and action. The INOC CMDB includes all essential information for AIOps, ensuring seamless integration with our clients' configurations. This gives our NOC engineers the actionable information they need to make informed decisions, fast. We leverage our years of experience to enhance our clients' existing CMDB structures and capabilities, further improving efficiency and effectiveness. 4️⃣  Automated Workflows Our platform's ITSM component enhances automation capabilities by attaching CIs and records from the CMDB to incident tickets created by AIOps. This process automates initial impact assessment and provides NOC engineers with a likely set of issues and impacted service areas — even before they touch the ticket. 5️⃣ Auto or Manual Resolution The platform automatically resolves certain short-duration incidents, optimizing NOC efficiency by focusing on critical issues and reducing manual intervention. Incidents that can't be auto-resolved are escalated to the appropriate tier of NOC engineers for expert resolution, leveraging enriched data and detailed documentation for effective problem-solving. ——— Learn more: https://lnkd.in/g9-te96q Schedule a free NOC consult: https://lnkd.in/gC95VXKn

Having seen inside several NOC operations as part of our consulting service, one thing is clear: many are held back by outdated processes and tools. Our new guide breaks down the top five of the top five problems we find repeatedly inside the NOCs we step into — and outlines our solutioning to each of them. Here's a top-line summary of each: 1. Event Management ——— We see NOCs drowning in alerts across fragmented systems. Teams struggle to manually correlate events, often missing critical issues in the flood of notifications. What's needed is a modern, consolidated approach — implementing a single pane of glass for all alerts, backed by AI-powered correlation to group related issues automatically. When you combine this with clear priority rules, automated triage, and standardized handling procedures, you transform the chaos of alerting into organized efficiency. 2. Incident Management ——— We often find ad-hoc approaches to incident management, even in NOCs that receive a high volume of incidents — teams relying on scattered emails and chat messages to handle major incidents. This creates confusion and delays that directly impact service restoration. Our solution is derived directly from our own approach to incident management: implement a formal ITIL-based incident process with clear priorities aligned to business impact, automated escalations, and centralized tracking. Add structured post-incident reviews, and you'll see dramatic improvements in response times and resolution effectiveness. 3. Scheduled Maintenance ——— One of the most preventable sources of problems we encounter is poor maintenance management. NOCs tracking maintenance windows in spreadsheets, lacking proper change control, and operating without formal review processes are recipes for disruption. Teams can dramatically reduce maintenance-related incidents by implementing a centralized change management system, establishing a proper Change Advisory Board process, and requiring automated testing and documented back-out plans. 4. CMDB ——— Almost every NOC we assess operates with incomplete configuration databases — some capturing less than 60% of their actual infrastructure. This cripples their ability to determine the impact of incidents and quickly get to the root causes. The path forward requires automated discovery tools, clear mapping of CI relationships, and integration with other ITSM processes. When backed by proper governance and regular audits, the CMDB becomes the single source of truth it's meant to be. 5. Runbooks ——— We often find procedures scattered across sources. Teams need centralized, standardized documentation that's directly integrated with ticketing systems. By implementing regular reviews and leveraging automation to maintain currency, runbooks become the valuable operational playbooks they're intended to be, rather than outdated documents teams learn to ignore. 🔗 Read the guide for more: https://lnkd.in/gk3UxQp4 #itops

Want to see what's possible with high-quality NOC support and a partner that brings deep operational domain expertise? Our ongoing story with Adtran is a perfect case study. When our partnership began years ago, Adtran was looking to strengthen and grow its global services portfolio — a collection of support services that complemented its network equipment business. Its NOC support was one part of the service portfolio that needed a relaunch. Demand for monitoring and management support was growing. We worked together to roll our four huge improvements: 1. Restructuring and relaunching Adtran’s NOC service offering We redesigned the service, providing input and hands-on support before and during the relaunch of its global service portfolio. Rather than wading into difficult conversations around capability and value, Adtran’s sales team was now empowered and enthusiastic to bring these services back to market with a clear and proven go-to-market strategy and pricing structure. 2. Standing up a dedicated QA program We helped establish regular reporting, tracking, and handling of quality issues by dedicated service managers — improving overall support and steadily improving the speed of quality initiatives. 3. Enhancing the training program Our teams developed a collaborative training program to ensure that the NOC was confident to support new Adtran products or components in its customers' environments. 4. Strengthening and standardizing onboarding procedures After highlighting a few gaps in the existing onboarding process, we gathered specialists to craft a standard onboarding process that delved much deeper into requirements gathering and close-knit configuration — complete with checklists and worksheets. We also redefined SLAs and shared them to ensure there was alignment. ——— The efforts to restructure and relaunch Adtran’s NOC services, strengthen alignment between Adtran and INOC, improve quality, and rethink Adtran’s onboarding process have yielded significant improvements in critical areas: » 100% of onboardings completed in the planned time frame » 26% reduction in time-to-ticket » 50% reduction in NOC time-to-resolution (defined as time managed by or responsible for by the NOC) » Less than 1% of incidents with quality issues » 49% decrease in quality issues resulting from “human error” 🔗 Read our full case study: https://lnkd.in/gmpd27tp ——— #networkoperations #itops #noc #networkmanagement

Teams looking at external NOC support often worry about the process of onboarding. Rightly so—it’s a big undertaking that depends on asking the right questions and gathering a full set of requirements from the start. Here at INOC, we’ve invested a lot of time and energy into developing and refining an onboarding process that ensures a successful transition to outsourced NOC service without creating headaches and needlessly time-consuming work. Our own Jenna Lara recently laid it out in a new guide that details everything we do from initiation to closure, typically spanning 6-8 weeks. ——— Here's a quick breakdown of the first three: 1/ 𝐈𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ——— We assign a dedicated project manager as the primary point of contact. The process kicks off with internal and external meetings to align on expectations and review the SOW. The external kickoff meeting sets the weekly cadence for status updates and introduces key documents (Onboarding Worksheet, Runbook Questionnaire, and CMDB). Client stakeholders familiar with the network infrastructure and security are invited to participate, providing initial network details like diagrams and asset lists. 2/ 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 ——— We create a detailed project plan outlining tasks, responsibilities, and deadlines, following our sprint methodology. A Business Requirements Review ensures full alignment on scope, addressing any misunderstandings or gaps that may have emerged since the SOW. Before moving forward, we share the project plan and make any necessary revisions to ensure sureexpectations and timelines are fully aligned. 3/ 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ——— This is the most intensive phase, where we set up monitoring systems and configure all the necessary tools. The client team works on three key documents: - An Onboarding Worksheet (covers incident portal, notifications, and greetings) - The CMDB (captures detailed infrastructure information) - The Runbook Questionnaire (outlines responses to different alarms) We guide the client team in configuring systems for direct alarm monitoring or integrating with existing tools. Alarm thresholds are refined to ensure only critical alarms are monitored. Weekly status calls are held to monitor progress, adjust plans as needed, and address any issues. ——— 🔗 Read the full onboarding guide for more detail on all of these steps and Pre Go-Live, Go Live, and Close + a list of best practices for a smooth service transition: https://lnkd.in/gN2r2etk #networkoperations #networkmanagement #itsm #noc #itops

For decades, network management has looked largely the same: manual processes, direct configurations, and command-line inputs. It’s functional, but let’s face it, it has its flaws: 1/ It's not especially scalable for large or rapidly changing networks. 2/ It's prone to human error during configuration and maintenance. 3/ It requires time-consuming setup and modification processes. 4/ It can be difficult to maintain consistency across complex network infrastructures. As networks scale up and, in some ways, become more intricate (especially in environments like large-scale events or sprawling enterprises), these problems amplify. We need a more efficient, automated, and reliable approach to network management. ——— To address these challenges, we developed and prototyped what we're calling the Integrated Network Provisioning and Operations Platform or INPOP. It's a shift in network management philosophy — turning what's been manual and reactive into something more automated and proactive. Think of it as an IT R&D project. In short, INPOP streamlines network management through automation and integration. Bringing in modern principles like IaC and incorporating a CMDB, it's a fresh way of looking at networking — informed by how we've refined our own NOC operation. Here’s what it brings to the table: ▪ Automated Provisioning: Automatically configuring network devices based on CMDB specs, which cuts down on manual intervention and errors. ▪ Real-time Monitoring and Validation: Continuously checking the network against the CMDB specs for way faster issue detection and resolution. ▪ User-friendly Web Interface: An intuitive portal with graphical network representations and role-based access control. ▪ Scalability and Efficiency: Handling dynamic, complex network environments, adapting quickly to changing requirements. We debuted this at the Radiological Society of North America's annual event — a complex setup requiring a robust network. INPOP significantly cut setup time, reduced errors, and boosted reliability. As a potential blueprint for a new way of doing networking, it may be a way forward for the more dynamic, complex, or temporary environments that need high reliability and quick adaptability. ——— 🔗 Read our in-depth explainer for a complete rundown on what we built and how it works: https://lnkd.in/gBvbXnfQ #provisioning #itoperations #networkoperations

Structure is essential to the success of a NOC and the broader Network/ITOps function. Without a framework for managing the people, processes, and platforms responsible for support, costly inefficiencies are inevitable and serious risks pose constant threats to performance and availability. A while back, we performed an internal customer study of an enterprise with an IT infrastructure consisting of servers, network devices, and environmental equipment. The total number of devices monitored for this particular enterprise was 312 with 10,411 interfaces and 647 IP addresses. A total of 13,464 services were monitored along with 951 thresholds. Examples of services included network reachability, web, email, database, and various customized services for in-house applications. Thresholds were set for CPU, memory, disk, bandwidth and numerous other variables. The duration of activities, such as monitoring events and managing incidents, was tracked at the Tier 1 and Tier 2/3 levels. ——— ▪ The greatest proportion of time, 39%, was spent on 24x7 event monitoring, followed by incident management at 25% and handling calls and emails at 18%. ▪ The statistics by tier illustrate that 65% of the total time spent on support was related to Tier 1 support activity, with a majority of time spent on 24x7 event monitoring and handling calls and e-mails. ▪ Tier 2/3 activity required 35% of the total support time, with most of the time being spent on incident management and periodic review. Analyses like this provide the basis for meaningful change to the IT support structure to improve customer service and infrastructure uptime cost-effectively. One of the simplest ways to to optimize IT support resources is by measuring and classifying support activities into Tier 1, 2 and 3 activities. By utilizing a skilled internal or outsourced 24x7 Tier 1 NOC service that consistently monitors, records and manages events and incidents, IT Support Managers can ensure that well over half of their support issues are resolved at the front line. ——— Our structured NOC radically transforms where and how support activities are managed—both by tier and category. In a matter of months, the value of an effective operational framework becomes abundantly clear as support activities steadily migrate to their appropriate tiers, lightening the load on advanced engineers while working and resolving issues faster and more effectively. Our NOC support framework typically reduces high-tier support activities by 60% or more, often as much as 90%. Talk to us when you're ready to dedicate your full time and attention to growing and strengthening your service. We’ll deliver world-class NOC support conveyed through a common language for fast, effective communication with you, your customers, and all impacted third parties.

Anyone working in a NOC is likely to hear statements like these: “𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘺?” “𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘶𝘱.” “𝘔𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘸𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵!” The feeling of unrelenting busyness is pervasive in many, if not most, NOCs today. And it’s not surprising given the fast-paced nature of these operations and the constant multitasking required. In many NOCs, however, not only are important metrics not being measured, but the ones that 𝘢𝘳𝘦 being measured aren’t being evaluated daily, weekly, and monthly. The absence of actionable NOC metrics — and the performance/operational visibility they provide — is one of the most common problems we see preventing support teams from breaking out of a constant state of busyness and all the problems that come with it. Metrics are instrumental in pinpointing where inefficiencies lie and what you can do to address them. Making the necessary investments to track the right metrics as often as you need to is more than worth the costs of the consequences of remaining in a state of partial blindness — and letting issues grow into more significant (and more expensive) problems. For a quick self-evaluation on this point, ask yourself the following questions: • What is our first-touch resolution rate? • How often are we updating our tickets? • What is the average time spent on each ticket edit? If you have blind spots in any of these areas, we can almost guarantee an operational vulnerability may be holding you back from better efficiency and performance. Our new white paper reveals the metrics we've found to be critical in measuring both service and operational performance, with advice on how to properly measure them: 📈 SLA Compliance 📈 Alarms Received 📈 Alarms Displayed 📈 Network Availability 📈 Mean Time to Close 📈 Mean Time to Detect 📈 QA Tickets Approved 📈 QA Tickets Submitted 📈 Mean Time to Restore 📈 Average Time to Ticket 📈 Inbound Calls Received 📈 Inbound Calls Abandoned 📈 Time to Impact Assessment 📈 Mean Time Between Failures  📈 NOC Incident Resolution Rate 📈 Time to Action (Priority-Based) 📈 Average Staff Tenure in Position 📈 Inbound Calls Max Answer Time 📈 Labor Content for Each Ticket Edit 📈 Inbound Calls Average Answer Time 📈 Individual’s Average Ticket Edit Time 📈 Staff Utilization Rate on Active Incidents 📈 Ticket Edits Processed or Performed Per Hour ——— Need a better reporting program? Our NOC experts work closely with teams to identify and analyze operational gaps, highlight opportunities, and develop a standardized operational framework to push IT service performance and availability into high gear. Talk to us when you're ready to get total network observability, performance visibility, and immediate operational enhancements. #networkoperations #itsm #itops #kpis #metrics

As demand for reliable and efficient connectivity grows, fiber providers are rapidly expanding their networks to meet it. One of the most significant challenges we've recently come to address, particularly during greenfield deployments or expansions, is the issue of "partial monitoring." As companies build out fiber networks, they often need to turn up monitoring for multiple sites and many more devices, even if the entire network isn't fully operational yet. This situation can make support complicated. By integrating more devices into our monitoring system, we often outpace deployment. As a result, some devices may only be in a semi-active state, triggering potential alarms. While these devices might not be fully operational due to ongoing expansions, they may still support active services that require monitoring. Historically, the approach to this challenge was binary: either monitor the entire network once it's fully functional or don't monitor it at all until it's complete. Now, through our Ops 3.0 Platform we address the nuances of partial monitoring from a NOC perspective to ensure that operational segments receive proper monitoring and support, even while parts of the network are under construction. ▪ First, we often finalize build-outs ahead of a client's official launch. This ensures that any device is meticulously documented once networked, powered, and configured to any degree. We actively record all its services, interfaces, links, circuits, and more, irrespective of their current operational state. Such detailed recording enables us to pinpoint the status of each Configuration Item (CI), whether it's fully functional, awaiting activation, or undergoing repairs. Gathering this information early, we can quickly update operational statuses as needed. This guarantees prompt responses to alerts, with all necessary CIs already logged, enhancing NOC support efficiency. ▪ Second, while older iterations of our Ops platform required any partial monitoring or filtering to be executed at the trap handler level — a tedious task limited to a few experts — Ops 3.0 offers a more flexible solution. The data from our monitoring platform is relayed to AIOps, granting us expanded customization possibilities. This increased flexibility ensures we aren't restricted or dependent on a single expert for modifications. ▪Third, we can label components as "in service" or "out of service." This allows us to mute alerts for components intentionally offline, negating the creation and retention of superfluous tickets. Our own Austin Kelly explains. ——— Need a highly capable NOC partner? We improve performance and solve problems before they affect end-users. Our engineers offer deep expertise in a wide range of optical network technologies: Ethernet (GigE), SONET, OCx ATM (100, 200,400, 800 Gig), any protocol—SONET, Ethernet, FibreChannel—over DWDM, GPON, and other technologies such as MPLS, PBB and OTN. #fiber #optical #networkoperations

Despite being a central, daily task for service desk teams, incident management processes are often fraught with inefficiencies, which compound to significantly drag on performance. The initial steps of incident management — identification and prioritization — are often where we see a few problems emerge, especially as incident volume increases: • Failing to distinguish between actionable and non-actionable incidents, wasting time on low-priority alerts. • Treating all incidents with equal urgency, leading to unnecessary stress and burnout. • Struggling to determine incident severity due to equipment-related false alarms. Effective prioritization is crucial when human attention is limited. The priority should be on truly impactful incidents (e.g., backhaul outages affecting multiple customers) rather than minor events (like personal equipment being powered off). We almost always recommend the same process improvements at this initial stage of the incident lifecycle: 1/ 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥. Identify which are actionable and which aren’t. “Actionable” in this context means helping you understand and resolve the issue expressed by the incident. 2/ Use what you learn to help you 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐬, which will help engineers more quickly determine whether an alarm-signaled event is truly a business-impacting incident (and how severe it is). 3/ Then, use your severity determinations to 𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐬 that can help engineers understand what takes precedence in moments when incidents compete for attention. ——— At INOC, we help teams separate noise from meaningful incidents, determine which alarms are actionable, and use a robust database of port utilization to identify and prioritize each alarm. To us, incident prioritization largely boils down to two elements: impact and urgency. Here's the front end of our incident management process, at a glance: 1/ Identification: We employ proactive alarming through automated tools and AIOps + customer reports via phone, email, and chat tools — all integrated with various monitoring systems and client NMSs. 2/ Logging: We automate ticket creation via AIOps and use a CMDB to attach meta information to alarms and tickets. 3/ Categorization: Specialized frontline teams triage and categorize while AIOps correlates alarms with CMDB data. 4/ Prioritization: We assign levels 1-4 based on severity and impact and use AIOps to combine system impact and CI urgency. The process is largely automated through the Ops 3.0 Platform, which integrates AIOps, ticketing systems, and CMDB to streamline incident management from detection to resolution. ——— Talk to us when you're ready to free your team from break/fix and get back to revenue-generating projects. #incidentmanagement

We just updated our popular guide to AI and automation in the NOC to reflect the recent innovations we've brought into our Ops 3.0 platform. Here are just a few of the standout AIOps-powered capabilities our clients inherit when they turn up support with us: 1. 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐦 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Our platform uses machine learning to streamline the alarm-to-ticket process — rapidly analyzing incoming alarms, ensuring every significant event generates a ticket without duplication. The platform's efficiency improves over time through continuous fine-tuning by alarm experts, leading to better issue identification across diverse client environments. 2. 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 We use AIOps to enrich alarm data, correlate related issues, and automatically generate detailed incident tickets. The system intelligently assigns relevant Configuration Items, distinguishes between affected services and root causes, and attaches pertinent knowledge articles. This automation is available immediately upon service initiation and evolves to handle increasingly complex tasks as it "learns" from each client's unique operational patterns — a key service differentiator. 3. 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨-𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭-𝐃𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 Our platform automatically resolves transient incidents to optimize NOC efficiency even further — a huge service innovation. Tickets generated from alarms that clear within minutes are automatically closed, reducing noise and allowing NOC engineers to focus on more critical, ongoing problems. This streamlines operations and provides clients with rapid updates on brief disruptions without unnecessary escalation. 4. 𝐓𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 Our platform's ITSM/ticket management system goes beyond basic creation to provide context-rich incident reports. By automatically linking relevant Configuration Items from the CMDB and attaching appropriate knowledge articles and runbooks, the system equips NOC engineers with comprehensive information before they even begin to investigate. 5. 𝐈𝐓𝐒𝐌 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Ops 3.0 seamlessly integrates with ITSM tooling to enhance automation throughout the incident lifecycle. This integration allows for automatic attachment of Configuration Items and CMDB records to incident tickets for impact assessment at machine speed. Our engineers get preliminary analyses of likely issues and affected service areas. 6. 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 The Ops 3.0 platform collects information from multiple sources, including the AIOps engine, CMDB, NMS, and ITSM tools. This data is processed and normalized. The resulting insights are presented through a user-friendly client portal, offering actionable intelligence and comprehensive performance metrics to both INOC's team and clients. 🔗 Go deeper in our updated guide: https://lnkd.in/gmmf4k5V #aiops