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You see, time off is a little like a flat tire on the freeway — an annoying inconvenience, and sometimes outright expensive. I’ve been working on networks since 1993, when I was neck deep in multiplexer management supporting voice and data over PSTN lines. Trust me, I’ve seen what it looks like when networks come to a standstill. And whether you’re dealing with wrestling the Slammer worm back in the early 2000s or helping banks modernize their zero-trust architectures today — here is one thing for sure: downtime isn’t just an inconvenience, it can be business-breaking. And this is where the PJ Networks Network Operations Center (NOC) comes in — to be that pit crew that makes sure your IT hums along 24/7.
Here is some of the stuff that hardly anyone ever see’s – our NOC is essentially the pulse and the life-blood of your network’s body. Think of a room that’s being flooded with a dozen dashboards, alarms that never stop pinging and a team (usually running on coffee 3, and so do I) doing everything to stay on top of the problems. And we’re not just babysitting equipment. No, we’re virtually sifting through network traffic, device status, bandwidth utilization, security alerts and so much else, looking for that unusual blip that might be cause for concern.
The NOC team watches everything — routers, firewalls, servers — all the hardware that makes up the spine of your company. One incident, a packet storm on a client’s router last month, was discovered before it could impact performance. We redirected traffic, applied a quick patch, and your employees never missed a beat. That’s the point.
But — and this is an important but — the NOC also works closely with our cybersecurity folks (which, uh, hey that’s me) whenever we see suspect activities rise. Like when a customer encountered some weird log-in patterns that could have caused a breach—the NOC’s eagle eye averted catastrophe.
Here’s the deal — nine times out of ten businesses only think about network problems when something fails. But planning for a disaster is like driving round blindfolded in the hope that you won’t crash. The tools that we use in NOC are the cloud-based FortiMonitor of Fortinet through which we are able to gain deep visibility into assets and applications. This means:
Because we’re Fortinet Partners, our tech stack isn’t something we grabbed off the shelf; it’s designed for deep integration and fast detection.
It also involves that if you don’t use your doors and windows while 18 degrees, you’re guaranteed to lose them. We plan patches, firmware updates, and vulnerability scans — all outside of business hours to minimize impact. More than just checks in boxes, however, we analyse historical data and predict possible points of failure.
One time I found a client’s primary firewall showing signs of degradation in historical throughput. Well before the hardware failed, we had replaced it — saving them thousands in emergency fixes and downtime. These are the wins you never hear about, but that the NOC thrives on.
Because when shit does hit the fan — and, oh boy, does it sometimes! — how fast and how well your NOC team rocks and rolls (versus just rolling) actually makes a difference. Early in my career I learned the hard way that slow responses deliver damage exponentially.
We have a committed incident management system in our NOC:
Recent example: an attempted ransomware attack on a client server. The FortiGate firewalls blocked unauthorized traffic, and we collaborated with their IT staff to help isolate the infected nodes in under 15 minutes. No information lost, no downtime except to reboot. That’s the sort of rapid-fire application experience demands.
(No geeking out here, I promise — but the Fortinet ecosystem is part of the power of our NOC.) Here’s why:
And though some companies scream about AI-powered this and that, I’m here to encourage healthy skepticism. The majority of AI hype is marketing fluff. What really matters is solid, tested tech and humans with experience to interpret the data. We offer a bit of both at PJ Networks: the latest in Fortinet and a team of experienced professionals who have attacked, defended and protected against some of the older network threats too – and occasionally done the damage ourselves so you don’t have to.
The NOC isn’t only about crisis management. It is about continuous improvement. Think of it as tuning a high-powered engine, not repairing a broken carburetor. We observe flows and suggest changes to configurations that save bandwidth, lower latency or improve security.
We also have detailed reports — not dry spreadsheets — you can actually use for IT and executive teams:
With some of the zero trust upgrades that I worked on for three banks recently, the NOC’s reporting meant that the access controls and the effectiveness of the segmentation could be continuously validated. Because the truth is, you can’t control what you don’t measure.
It’s running PJ Networks these days, and when I think back on the evenings spent configuring T1 lines and seeing my little network flourish, I still get that hit of nostalgia. But the threats in cyberspace have changed — and we have, too. The NOC illustrates that evolution in action, because at the end of the day, great IT security and uptime isn’t just about having cool tech, but about putting in the shoe leather, no matter what every minute of the day.
So the next time the systems just work for you — spare a thought for the NOC team behind them, fuelled by coffee, facts, Fortinet and an undying will to ensure your business runs smooth.
PS: Forget about password policies — but trust me if your NOC team are involved, the lowest hanging fruit will be listed and they’ll be working on it. Until next time — keep a lookout, keep secure.
