Increased complexity due to the rising number of the devices, inconsistent policies across the network or inability to scale-out according to current business needs are the biggest challenges for traditional networks. Software defined networking addresses these challenges and brings the same agility that abstraction and virtualization have brought to server infrastructure.



“The Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module (APIC-EM) is a single, software defined point of automation and enterprise network management in both physical and virtual environments. Thanks to that, administrators no longer have to touch each network element and manually make sure that all policies are configured appropriately,” says Kenji Zaitsu, SE Director, System Engineering, SDN Technology Adaptation Group at Cisco Japan. Flowmon ADS brings to APIC-EM an advanced network behavioral analysis technology to detect unknown or specific threats and therefore improve security and simplify troubleshooting.



Flowmon ADS is a system for detection of data network anomalies and undesirable behavior based on Network Behavioral Analysis technology. It represents a modern approach to utilizing of traffic information from data flows (NetFlow, IPFIX etc.) generated by network devices such as routers, switches or specialized probes. “Cooperation between APIC-EM and Flowmon ADS opens completely new possibilities when dealing with advanced security issues and provisioning the quality-of-service. When traffic anomalies, threats, incidents or configuration issues are detected, APIC-EM can execute policy authority effectively and instantly with a high level of automation,” describes Jiri Tobola, VP of Alliances at Flowmon Networks.



The entire solution saves significant investment in scripting language or tools that can automate configuration changes. It also eliminates time needed to discover and troubleshoot incorrect manual entries for a given device. Operational-security incidents can be processed without the need of manual reconfiguration of network access points. Once Flowmon ADS intelligence detects e.g. infected host, it notifies APIC-EM and an automatic remediation based on installed policy is set of; reconfiguration of particular device, move infected host into “quarantine” with limited connectivity, treatment notification.



Flowmon also helps administrators to ensure the quality of services. It scans network traffic statistics and identifies trends. On that base, APIC-EM prioritize content and automatically allocates resources / bandwidth according to current demands of the organization.