Netflow – What It Is All About

By Author: James J Adams
Total Articles: 11
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NetFlow is a network protocol created by Cisco for the collection & screening of network traffic flow through switches and routers. NetFlow is widely used by IT pros to scrutinize network traffic flow & volume to make sure from where traffic is coming, where it’s going to, and also how much traffic is being produced. NetFlow-enabled routers forward traffic statistics as NetFlow documents which are then gathered by a NetFlow collector. The collector performs the real traffic analysis & presents it to the users. Collector can be a software or hardware appliance. NetFlow has turned out to be a de-facto industry standard and is backed up by platforms other than CISCO comprising, Juniper, HP, Dell and Netgear, Huawei, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent.

While screening the performance of networks and applications, the more insight you’ve into the real traffic, the better. If you collect all the traffic the data volume will be very high. NetFlow offers this insight and also reduces the volume significantly. Without the requirement of sniffers or probes, you can swiftly and constantly keep an eye on the composition ...
... of the traffic navigating your most complicated links. MIMIC NetFlow simulator creates an easy way to generate NetFlow traffic from thousands of devices in the shape and pattern you want. It enables you to promptly pick up bandwidth hogs, DDos attacks & inefficient traffic, and offers you a familiarity of how applications are making use of your network. No doubt, these insights are significant in deciding how to prioritize traffic and on the formation of policies to eradicate inefficient traffic.

MIMIC NetFlow Simulator generates a variety of flows and enables you to fully test your applications. Since you have a complete control over generated flowsets you can easily verify that your graphing application is correctly displaying the values, and your collector correctly collects precisely generated flowsets. The MIMIC NetFlow Simulator is the industry's first integrated simulation tool supporting NetFlow and SNMP. It allows developers to perform real world, integrated device simulations. Network management now will be much easier than ever before.

Gambit Communications is the leader in network management along with MIMIC NetFlow Simulator tools that enhance the productivity of management software developers.