By Balaram Ananda, Managed Service Solution Architect, Happiest Minds Technologies
The future of IT operations will not be limited to keeping the system running; it demands going beyond that to make it smarter, faster, and more resilient. With IT environments constantly changing, IT operations need a sustainable solution that integrates next-gen technologies that leverage predictive analytics, smart automation, and self-healing.
Traditional IT operations will face challenges in accommodating the speed at which the devices are growing and the diversified technologies adopted by industries. Also, the complexity of IT operations shall further increase due to the evolving need for cloud adoption, cybersecurity threats, and real-time data processing. This is where Dark NOC (Network Operations Centre) emerges. It is built to serve the future needs of IT operations with AI-powered, self-sustaining, less human intervention that can proactively anticipate, identify, and resolve issues before they disrupt business operations.
While organisations transition toward a multi-cloud hybrid IT environment, self-provisioning and zero-touch IT operations will become the business norm. Dark NOC will not be just an innovation; instead, it will become the need for the organisation to achieve seamless, intelligent, and resilient IT operations.
History of Network Operations Centres (NOCs)
- Early NOCs (1980s-1990s): Traditional, manually operated centres focused on network performance monitoring, with IT engineers manually responding to alerts.
- Automated NOCs (2000s): Introduction of IT Service Management (ITSM) tools, proactive alerting, and automation of routine tasks.
- AI-Driven NOCs (2010s-Present): Machine learning and AI-powered analytics begin predicting failures, leading to predictive maintenance.
- Dark NOC (Future): Fully autonomous NOC using AI, robotic process automation (RPA), and event-driven response mechanisms for end-to-end IT infrastructure management.
The word “Dark NOC” is derived from the “Dark Factory” or “Dark Data Centre” concept, where it minimises human intervention by leveraging AI and automation.
Market Trends Driving Dark NOC Adoption
Even a tiny outage or downtime in our IT network is highly unacceptable today. So, CIOs and industry leaders see Dark NOC as an enabler for organisations that can help them improve operational resilience, ensure business continuity, and further address the challenges that the current IT teams are facing.
Here are some of the challenges that the Dark NOC is expected to resolve:
- AI-driven anomaly detection: Identifies issues before they impact business operations.
- Automated incident response: Self-healing systems resolve problems without human intervention.
- Predictive maintenance: ML-based forecasting prevents system failures and downtimes.
- Cybersecurity automation: AI-driven security information and event management (SIEM) ensures real-time threat detection and response.
- Resource optimisation: Dynamic workload balancing and intelligent cloud resource management reduce IT costs.
Benefits for Managed Service Providers (MSPs)
From a Managed Service Provider (MSP) perspective, Dark NOC will shift the way IT operates today by making it more efficient, scalable, and cost-effective. It will replace Traditional NOC’s manual-intensive task of continuous monitoring, diagnosing, and resolving issues across multiple customer environments.
The AI-driven incident response capability will enable MSPs to significantly reduce 30-50% of operational costs by reducing the number of support engineers required to monitor incidents around the clock. Most importantly, it will eliminate false positives and alert fatigue, allowing MSPs to focus on more critical tasks rather than chasing unnecessary alarms. Its self-healing capability can minimise IT operations downtime, ensuring faster resolution time and bringing down the MTTR from hours to minutes while maintaining high SLA compliance.
Another key factor that Dark NOC enables MSPs is scalability. Its analytics and automation capability allows it to manage thousands of endpoints effortlessly without proportionally increasing engineers’ headcount. This enables MSPs to extend their service portfolios, onboard new customers, and increase profit margins while retaining a lean operational model.
From a competitive point of view, adopting Dark NOC enables MSPs to differentiate themselves from competitors by offering proactive, AI-driven IT services that minimise downtime, enhance security and maximise performance. Dark NOC helps MSPs provide premium service at affordable price points to customers while making a decent margin internally.
Key tools used in dark NOC implementation
Implementing a Dark NOC (Network Operations Centre) requires integrating advanced tools across various domains to achieve autonomous, self-healing IT operations. Below are a few examples
- Agentic AI & Machine Learning for event correlation & anomaly detection and fixes (Identifies issues proactively, reduces false alerts and Self-healing)
For example, we can use IBM Watson AIOps and Splunk ITSI. Our prediction is that by the end of 2025, a couple of good AI tools from small players will be released in the market. Also, currently available tools for self-healing will mature as they start learning the patterns and fixes to be applied.
- IT Automation & orchestration (Automates incident response, ticketing, and remediation.) Example: ServiceNow ITOM, Resolve Systems, Ansible.
- Cloud infrastructure monitoring & management (Provides real-time cloud resource monitoring and predictive insights). Examples include AWS CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, and Google Cloud Operations Suite.
- Network monitoring & security automation (Enhances network visibility, detects threats, and automates responses). Examples: Cisco DNA Center, Palo Alto Cortex XSOAR, Darktrace.
- Database & storage performance monitoring (Ensures optimal performance, predicts failures, and enhances reliability) Example: Oracle Enterprise Manager, NetApp Active IQ, Dell EMC CloudIQ.
MSPs explore the tools/platforms available in the market and run POCs by creating different combinations/integrations before moving into production. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to address all the requirements, and it’s a journey that requires constant review of the latest tools, platforms, and technologies for continuous improvements.
Conclusion
The future of IT will be more complex than ever before. With the increase in connected devices, data volumes, and cybersecurity threats, traditional NOCs will no longer be efficient in managing IT operations. Dark NOCs leveraging AI, automation, and self-learning capabilities are the future for organisations aiming to bring proactive IT management to ensure the customer digital IT environment is reliable, accessible, and available 24/7 and is secured from all aspects.
