SPOTLIGHT ON: GÉANT OPERATIONS CENTRE (GOC ) CONNECT visited the GOC to learn more about its vital role AT THE HEART OF GÉANT The GOC is a core part of our organisation, always busy, but seldom in the limelight. Put simply, it handles the day-to-day management of every aspect of the GÉANT network. It’s the first point of contact for the connected NREN partners and their respective operation centres. When service problems are reported, it’s the GOC that responds, diagnosing network issues and overseeing repairs. The GOC also resolves glitches in GÉANT’s supported services whilst monitoring network health and coordinating planned maintenance. Located in a dedicated building close to the Cambridge office, the GOC is active 24 hours per day, 365 days per year!
THE WATCHFUL GUARDIANS The GOC set-up comprises two levels of support. The first line service desk deals with the majority of communications with the NRENs and a growing number of R&E related commercial customers. Currently outsourced in a UK service centre, it is a valuable resource employing dedicated engineers who are perfectly integrated with the Cambridge team.
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The second line team is made up of 7 Cambridge-based engineers, all fulltime employees of GÉANT. They triage and resolve complex issues ensuring that network services are always available and operational coverage is maximised. Looking after the GÉANT network is like managing the main motorways in a road system where a limited number of very high capacity roads carry the largest part of a country’s road transport, consequently any fault has enormous impact. Imagine that the total loss of dual connectivity for a NREN could culminate in the complete isolation of a national network, or try to guess the consequences of the isolation of a major POP such as Paris! Thanks to the high redundancy levels of the network, the first line service desk is usually able to deal with 95% of incidents reported during the night or to gather sufficient information to be able to effectively brief a second line engineer. On average, the second line desk will receive an escalation in the middle of the night just once a week, a record to be proud of!
TOOLS OF THE TRADE The GOC utilises a combination of commercial off-the-shelf and bespoke tools. 8 large monitors are a big feature of the office, they light it up with their colourful displays whilst providing a snapshot overview of the network and of the services provided. Support for services and applications has increasingly become significant in the last couple of years, and our engineers have been continuously learning new skills to cater for this requirement.
BUSY TIMES The GOC team typically deals with more than 500 tickets a month, though 90% of faults fall outside the realm of GÉANT. Communication with the connected NREN members is key: all incidents affecting their service and resolution time need to be relayed promptly, clearly and effectively. Indeed, our strict published Service Level Agreements underline that recovery and service maintenance are the GOC team’s primary role. The team is also the first point of contact for the GÉANT Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) whose importance has been growing steadily in the light of the increasing levels of sophistication of cyber security threats.
Pictures GOC engineers at work