The dependence on the Enterprise network is exponentially increasing day by day for both internal and external communication. With this growing dependence, network bandwidth consumption is constantly on the rise on an exponential basis. With this increasing dependence on the network for everyday business communication, service levels are of for utmost importance.
Cisco IP SLA is a technology from Cisco that actively monitors traffic to measure the performance of the network by measuring critical parameters for traffic passing Cisco IOS software devices and other network application servers. By leveraging Cisco IP SLA, it is possible to make the network sensitive to critical metrics that affect network performance and that of the associated applications. With increasing popularity of voice and data on the network, Cisco IP SLA reports provide the most vital metrics that help in building the most business-friendly network.
The following are the benefits SLA monitoring offers:
This includes monitoring current service levels based on quantifiable metrics. There metrics are a measure of the current levels of service and that impacts the network performance thereby mandating the need to monitor them. It also helps in verifying the effectiveness of current SLAs.
Vital factors like jitter, latency, packet loss and Mean Opinion Score(MoS) are measured by IP SLA monitoring. It is essential to keep these metrics under allowable values so as to ensure optimum performance.
Measuring WAN (RoundTrip Time)RTT is essential for ensuring continuous availability of the network. The availability of network is very essential as it directly impacts business continuity. This is a result of Enterprises adopting the network for every single operation considering the process improvement it offers and the cost efficiency. But, this also means that, downtime is an expensive affair that could not just incur losses but also impair the business till it is restored. Hence, monitoring continuity of availability is very essential.
Constant monitoring of service levels results in alerting the network Administrator of possible hiccups that are liable to occur in the network.
NetFlow Analyzer supports Cisco IP SLA for voice and data. Networks for voice and data have increasingly becoming prominent. A majority of Enterprises bank heavily on their networks for voice and data communication. The network is a primary dependency for organizational productivity. Here are the ways NetFlow Analyzer generates reports on Cisco IP SLA: