What is the difference between NOC and SOC?

While the NOC focuses on network performance and availability, a Security Operations Center (SOC) consists of tools and employees who monitor, identify and analyze a company's security status around the clock.

NOC engineers look for issues that can affect network speed and availability, while SOC engineers are tasked with eliminating cyber security threats and responding to attacks. The SOC also focuses on protecting customer data and intellectual property. NOCs typically handle network events that occur frequently and naturally, with SOCs almost always responding to external threats that target the corporate network.

Both the NOC and the SOC perform important functions for the company: identifying, investigating and solving problems. Both work hard to quickly resolve these issues before they impact business. In addition, they usually work similarly and use a hierarchical approach to resolving incidents. However, they focus on very different topics. As a result, the skills, knowledge and approaches of the employees in the two groups differ. A NOC technician needs to understand the pros and cons of network and application monitoring and management, while a SOC analyst focuses solely on security.

Nevertheless, SOCs and NOCs should work together to resolve major incidents and crises so that the two teams are not isolated. Surprisingly, almost a third of the companies say they have little or no contact between the NOC and the SOC, and another 20 percent say that, according to SANS research, the teams only work together in emergencies. However, experts are pushing for better NOC / SOC integration. The integration of the two, even if they remain largely separate in day-to-day business, begins with the definition of operational processes, the automation of certain actions and the introduction of tools with which network monitoring data can be collected and shared via NOC and SOC.

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