Cisco Monitoring and Management

Cisco Monitoring and Management

Networks are being transformed and IT departments must be empowered to effectively manage this transformation, which includes:

  • End-user demands for anywhere, anytime network access that is changing traditional workplace borders
  • Use of intelligent mobile devices like iPhones and iPads in the workplace for business operations, changing the profile of end-user devices
  • Use of real-time video, multimedia, and Cisco TelePresence® for collaboration and communication
  • Business imperatives to save costs and implement green best practices

These changes are challenging the IT department’s ability to effectively manage, secure, and scale the network infrastructure, services, and applications. To address these challenges, network managers need to move from a traditional bottom-up, infrastructure-level management approach that uses packet captures, sniffers, and time-consuming manual reviews of device data to a top-down, service-level approach that begins at the network application layer and progresses down through the services to the infrastructure.

Most IT departments are using a variety of disparate nonintegrated network management products and in-house scripts to manage the network. This infrastructure-level, bottom-up approach using disparate management products makes lifecycle management disjointed and limits network visibility. The result is management operations that are complex, manual, error prone, and inefficient.

Cisco Prime for IT is an innovative strategy and portfolio of management products that empower IT departments to more effectively manage their networks and the services they deliver. The Cisco Prime for IT strategy is to help customers get the full value of their Cisco® investments through the “Cisco advantage.” This advantage stems from a unique understanding of Cisco solution capabilities and includes:

  • Simplifying the deployment and management — and providing a greater level of manageability — of Cisco devices, differentiated technologies, and platforms
  • Use of rich performance data from embedded Cisco instrumentation, such as Application Visibility and Control (AVC), NetFlow, Network Based Application Recognition (NBAR2), and Medianet, to deliver networkwide, application-aware visibility
  • Integration of Cisco best practices (for example, configuration of AVC or enablement of Medianet on a device) into templates and workflows to improve network design and troubleshooting and significantly improve operational efficiencies
  • Integration with the Cisco Knowledge Base to ensure optimal service, support, and product updates and to make more informed decisions
  • Rapid support for new Cisco platforms and technologies