SAN JOSE, Calif. -- August 13, 1999 -- Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, announced today NetFlow Collector v3.0 and NetFlow Data Analyzer v3.0, two key components of the Cisco IOS. NetFlow Architecture. The NetFlow Architecture identifies Internet Protocol (IP) packet flows across switches and routers in real time and exports the data to a variety of applications for analysis and manipulation. The enhanced FlowCollector v3.0 and Network Data Analyzer v3.0 enable service providers to bill for usage as they begin to offer more sophisticated capabilities and different levels of quality of service within the network.
"Many service providers and enterprise network managers recognize that their competitiveness is linked directly to maximizing usage of the network infrastructure," said Dave Rossetti, vice president and general manager for Cisco's IP Internet Services Unit. "Therefore, access to data to perform trend analysis, capacity planning and traffic prioritization is critical. Service providers are seeing also the value of using the same NetFlow data for usage-based billing and IP mediation for advanced IP services."
The data exported by NetFlow software-enabled devices facilitates such value-added applications as network management and planning; enterprise accounting and departmental, usage-based billing; service level agreement (SLA) verification; and data warehousing and mining for marketing purposes. Such applications may be developed internally or purchased from third-party developers as part of the Internet Ecosystem Cisco is actively building. Since its introduction in 1996, NetFlow software continues to accelerate several Cisco IOS functions such as Access Control Lists (ACL), RSVP Signaling and Policy Routing.
Cisco IOS NetFlow software data can be collected and utilized by a variety of powerful network management applications. Cisco's enhanced NetFlow FlowCollector v3.0 continues to provide fast, scalable and economical data collection, data volume reduction and storage management of network flows received from Netflow software-enabled devices. Now, data can be saved in compressed and binary formats, thus using disk space 90 percent more efficiently than with previous versions of FlowCollector. FlowCollector v3.0 supports a new router-based aggregation feature available in Cisco IOS software releases 12.0(3)S, 12.0(3)T and later. Large volumes of NetFlow export data can be aggregated before leaving the router, thus improving NetFlow software's bandwidth utilization and ability to accommodate even higher speed links.
"By leveraging Cisco's NetFlow data collection technology, HP's Smart Internet Usage (SIU) technology provides a consolidated, Internet metering platform for service providers and enterprise network managers to bill and track usage while targeting specific new revenue-enhancing services, dramatic cost-reduction initiatives, target marketing plans, and important capacity planning and fraud management techniques," said Sanjay Uppal, general manager for HP's Internet Service Infrastructure Operation. "Cisco's enhanced NetFlow applications increase the speed and robustness of the data collection, thus improving business process performance, customer care and billing."
Another network traffic analysis tool for retrieving and utilizing Cisco IOS NetFlow software data is the Network Data Analyzer v3.0, which replaces the NetFlow FlowAnalyzer. The Network Data Analyzer is designed to work with the NetFlow FlowCollector. This utility graphs, sorts, and builds tables from the data sets on the NetFlow FlowCollector v3.0. The Network Data Analyzer can now configure and control Traffic Matrix Statistics (TMS) and NetFlow software features on Cisco routers as well as the Netflow FlowCollector and TMS Utility servers through a graphical user interface.
As a strategic service within IOS software, Netflow software is available across the Cisco routers and switch family from the C1720 to the C12000. Cisco IOS NetFlow FlowCollector v3.0 and NetFlow Data Analyzer v3.0 are available now. Additional information on the Cisco IOS NetFlow software can be found at http://www.cisco.com/go/netflow.
