Managed 24/7 cuts ribbon on first-of-its-kind NOC

Cisco Gold partner finishes work on its £1.5m network operations centre

Cisco Gold partner Managed 24/7 has completed work on a network operations centre (NOC) it claims is the first-of-its-kind.

The £1.5m investment in the Milton Keynes centre allows Managed 24/7 to use data analytics on up to one billion devices to predict the failure of applications and critical systems.

John Pepper, Managed 24/7 founder, told CRN that the new centre, which became operational last month, is designed to cope with the changes that the Internet of Things (IoT) is bringing.

"We did it because we believe the market towards IoT and IoE is moving at such a rapid pace that you need a completely different view of the world to a traditional MSP," he said. "This is how an MSP will look in two or three years' time. You cannot get the amount of information to the relevant engineer quickly enough with traditional tools and techniques."

Pepper said he has not seen a centre like this before and it will be a key differentiator for the firm.

"We believe it's the world's first," he said. "I've been on quite a journey to look at many NOCs and never come across anything like this before. We haven't done this to say how great we are, we have done it because our customers are demanding it of us and we believe many of our competitors are going to be asked the same questions but not necessarily have the same answers."

Pepper added that the centre has opened up "some very interesting conversations" with new and existing customers.

As well as recently finishing work on the NOC, Managed 24/7 also appointed former SCC man Mark Boyer as technical director last September.

Pepper said he hopes to gain more traction in the public sector this year because he believes that its technology and accreditation is now relevant to that vertical.