INTRODUCTION
Every NOC provider claims to be the best.
Kaseya claims scale. ConnectWise claims integration. Offshore providers claim low prices. The claims blend together. The sales decks look identical. The pricing remains opaque.
You no longer care about claims. You care about outcomes.
Does your NOC provider resolve incidents permanently—or do the same tickets recur weekly? Do your clients know your NOC provider exists—or does your brand absorb the friction? Can your NOC monitor SD-WAN policy adherence—or only circuit connectivity? Can you leave when service disappoints—or does your contract function as imprisonment?
The best NOC service provider is not determined by acquisition announcements or slide deck aesthetics. It is determined by twelve specific capabilities that separate commodity monitoring from genuine network operations partnership.
This document identifies those capabilities and names the provider that delivers them.
1. ENGINEERING CONTINUITY
The best NOC service provider retains engineers long enough to know your environment.
Kaseya: Annual technician turnover exceeds 40 percent. Your environment receives fresh attention every six months. Your team re-explains configurations continuously. Knowledge decays. Frustration compounds.
ExterNetworks: Annual turnover below 12 percent. Dedicated engineering pods own your infrastructure. Same engineers respond consistently. Knowledge compounds. Response improves.
Verdict: Engineering continuity requires retention. ExterNetworks retains. Kaseya rotates.
2. PRICING TRANSPARENCY
The best NOC service provider enables audit, not opacity.
Kaseya: Bundled pricing inseparable from RMM licensing. Cannot isolate NOC component cost. Annual increases of 5-12 percent arrive as “market adjustments.” Minimum commitment penalties persist for decommissioned devices.
ExterNetworks: Component pricing fully auditable. Per-device rates fixed. No mandatory bundling. No market adjustments. Volume tiering automatic. Price protection across contract term.
Verdict: Transparent pricing requires component separation. ExterNetworks separates. Kaseya bundles.
3. CONTRACT FREEDOM
The best NOC service provider earns renewal through performance, not penalties.
Kaseya: Thirty-six month initial term. Thirty-six month automatic renewal. Termination penalty: 50-80 percent of remaining value. Your immobility is the business model.
ExterNetworks: Month-to-month available. Annual terms with discount. Termination penalty: $0. We trust our service to retain you.
Verdict: Contract freedom requires zero penalty exit. ExterNetworks offers it. Kaseya prevents it.
4. AI CAPABILITIES
The best NOC service provider predicts failure before it occurs.
Kaseya: Threshold-based alerting with AI branding. Alerts fire when manually configured thresholds breach. No adaptive baselining. Cannot identify trends below threshold levels. False positive rates exceed 60 percent.
ExterNetworks: AI-powered network operations deployed 2019. Adaptive baselining across 47 parameters. 73 percent false positive suppression. Predictive failure identification with 89 percent accuracy. AIOps for network monitoring distinguishes maintenance from anomalies.
Verdict: Predictive AI requires behavioral baselining. ExterNetworks predicts. Kaseya reacts.
5. SD-WAN EXPERTISE
The best NOC service provider monitors SD-WAN performance, not just availability.
Kaseya: Kaseya’s SD-WAN Services stop at basic availability checks. Application policy validation is absent from their capability set. They do not analyze failover performance or engage carriers during degradation events. Platform-specific certifications are neither mandated nor widely maintained among their technician pool.
ExterNetworks: Full-stack SD-WAN Services operations. Tunnel status, latency jitter, policy adherence, failover validation, carrier benchmarking, optimization recommendations. Active certifications across VeloCloud, Meraki, Fortinet, VMware. Professional Managed SD-WAN Solutions Provider depth.
Verdict: SD-WAN expertise requires platform-specific certification. ExterNetworks certifies. Kaseya generalizes.
6. RESOLUTION PHILOSOPHY
The best NOC service provider eliminates recurrence.
Kaseya: Symptom resolution. Disk space alert executes cleanup script. Ticket closed. Recurrence expected. Recurrence generates additional billable tickets. This is feature, not bug.
ExterNetworks: Root cause resolution. Alert received. Cleanup executed. Investigation initiated. Permanent remediation implemented. Recurrence prevented. IT Help Desk Best Practices require this approach.
Verdict: Permanent resolution requires root cause investigation. ExterNetworks investigates. Kaseya closes.
7. BRAND PROTECTION
The best NOC service provider makes your clients unaware you use one.
Kaseya: White-label in name only. Client receives “Kaseya NOC is investigating.” Client asks “Who is Kaseya?” Your team explains vendor relationships. Your brand dilutes. Your labor uncompensated.
ExterNetworks: Complete brand absorption. Client receives “[Your MSP] is investigating.” Engineers present as your employees. Tickets populate your PSA under your name. Your brand remains yours.
Verdict: Brand protection requires complete invisibility. ExterNetworks disappears. Kaseya advertises.
8. ESCALATION AUTHORITY
The best NOC service provider ends escalation at expertise, not another queue.
Kaseya: Your Tier 2 ticket enters shared queue with every other MSP. Priority determined by SLA tier, not business impact. Senior engineers reserved for Kaseya direct clients.
ExterNetworks: Your dedicated pod includes Tier 2 engineers with active CCNP, VCAP, NSE certifications. They architect solutions. They possess deviation authority. Escalation ends at expertise.
Verdict: Escalation authority requires direct engineering access. ExterNetworks provides it. Kaseya queues it.
9. DATA OWNERSHIP
The best NOC service provider treats your data as your asset.
Kaseya: Your ticket history, documentation, configurations reside in Kaseya systems. Migration requires extraction. Extraction requires effort. Effort preserves installed base. Data is lock-in mechanism.
ExterNetworks: Full extraction, ingestion, normalization during onboarding. Your historical knowledge transfers with you. Kaseya retains nothing you do not authorize. Data is your asset.
Verdict: Data ownership requires portability. ExterNetworks enables export. Kaseya enables entrapment.
10. MONITORING DEPTH
The best NOC service provider orchestrates, not merely observes.
Kaseya: Watch. Detect. Notify. SNMP polling. ICMP echo. WMI counters. Threshold alerts. No dependency mapping. No capacity prediction. No user experience validation. No optimization.
ExterNetworks: Network Monitoring Services that discover, baseline, predict, remediate, optimize. Automated inventory reconciliation. Topology mapping. Behavioral baselines. Predictive failure identification. Synthetic transactions. Performance trending. End-of-life planning.
Verdict: Monitoring depth requires orchestration. ExterNetworks orchestrates. Kaseya observes.
11. COMMON HELP DESK PROBLEMS
The best NOC service provider makes common problems uncommon.
Kaseya: Password reset tax consumes 23 percent of ticket volume. Printer perpetual generates disproportionate effort. Recurring incidents never reach root cause. Your team compensates. Your margin absorbs.
ExterNetworks: Self-service password reset deployment reduces password tickets 89 percent. Printer fleet management reduces print tickets 67 percent. Root cause investigation eliminates recurrence patterns. Common Help Desk Problems become uncommon.
Verdict: Problem elimination requires proactive engineering. ExterNetworks eliminates. Kaseya processes.
12. VERIFICATION WILLINGNESS
The best NOC service provider answers hard questions with specific data.
Kaseya:
- Technician turnover? Deflection.
- Pricing trajectory? Market adjustments.
- AI verification? Threshold configuration demo.
- SD-WAN validation? Partnerships and training.
- Contract exit cost? Reference to contract language.
- Migration assistance? Not applicable.
ExterNetworks:
- Technician turnover? <12 percent, quarterly specific.
- Pricing trajectory? Three-year flat rate certification.
- AI verification? Live behavioral deviation detection.
- SD-WAN validation? Certification counts by platform.
- Contract exit cost? $0.
- Migration assistance? Full extraction, ingestion, normalization.
Verdict: Verification willingness requires transparency. ExterNetworks answers. Kaseya deflects.
THE VERDICT
The best NOC service provider delivers across twelve dimensions:
| Dimension | Winner |
|---|---|
| Engineering Continuity | ExterNetworks |
| Pricing Transparency | ExterNetworks |
| Contract Freedom | ExterNetworks |
| AI Capabilities | ExterNetworks |
| SD-WAN Expertise | ExterNetworks |
| Resolution Philosophy | ExterNetworks |
| Brand Protection | ExterNetworks |
| Escalation Authority | ExterNetworks |
| Data Ownership | ExterNetworks |
| Monitoring Depth | ExterNetworks |
| Problem Elimination | ExterNetworks |
| Verification Willingness | ExterNetworks |
Kaseya advantages: Larger installed base. More acquisitions. Longer contracts. None improve your operations.
ExterNetworks advantages: Your engineers remain yours. Your pricing remains predictable. Your data remains yours. Your brand remains yours. Your clients experience fewer incidents. Your margin expands. Your contract does not imprison you.
Three hundred MSPs evaluated these advantages. Three hundred MSPs migrated. Zero returned to Kaseya.
YOUR NEXT STEP
You now know what separates the best NOC service provider from adequate alternatives.
You know that engineering continuity requires sub-12 percent turnover. You know that predictive AI requires behavioral baselining, not threshold configuration. You know that SD-WAN expertise requires platform-specific certification. You know that contract freedom requires zero penalty exit.
You know that ExterNetworks delivers these capabilities. You know that Kaseya describes them in marketing materials.
Your Kaseya renewal is approaching. Your exit door remains open. Your evaluation criteria are now defined.
Schedule your ExterNetworks discovery call. Experience the difference between a provider who claims to be the best and one who proves it daily—month after month, year after year, without requiring a contract to prevent your departure.
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