The network has become a critical business resource by enabling organizations to develop and introduce new services and applications, improve productivity and accessibility, and increase business opportunities and market competitiveness. As such, organizations require the visibility and ability to avoid costly network and application services disruptions. To meet business objectives, actionable information derived from analysis is used to drive automated or guided changes in the network. Cisco has network planning and analysis solutions to plan and implement strategies that strengthen business continuity through improved network and application resilience and optimization while reducing operating expenses.
Cisco Application Analysis Solution 1.0 (AAS) provides a visual and quantitative breakdown of the complex interactions among applications, servers, and networks to cost-effectively troubleshoot and reliably deploy networked applications. Cisco AAS rapidly illustrates whether performance problems are due to network versus application issues.
Cisco Configuration Assurance Solution 1.0 (CAS) automatically diagnoses device mis-configurations, policy violations, inefficiencies, and security gaps using a combined visualization of network topology, traffic, and configuration. Cisco CAS improves network availability and security, and documents compliance with best practices and important regulatory and IT Governance requirements.
Cisco Network Planning Solution 1.0 (NPS) is a "what-if" impact analysis tool enabling users to optimize capacity and performance, ensure resiliency, plan for new technology deployments, improve application and service continuity and validate planned configuration changes. Cisco NPS reduces the risks associated with network growth, migration, and consolidation.
Table 1. Features Table Cisco AAS 1.0, Cisco CAS 1.0, Cisco NPS 1.0
Feature
Description
Cisco Application Analysis Solution 1.0
Profile Application Transactions
Parses an application trace and analyzes it at the application message level and network packet level, with their interdependency presented graphically
Diagnosis of End-to-end Performance Problems
Identify root cause of delay by breaking down multi-tier applications into component flows and automatically determining dependencies among application messages
Assessment of Alternative Solutions
Provides the ability to "test" a proposed solution of an end-to-end application performance problem, measured in end-to-end response time
Plan Application Deployment
Assess the ability of the infrastructure to support new applications and project the impact of increasing usage of the application over time, as well as changes in the infrastructure topology and capacity
Cisco Configuration Assurance Solution 1.0
Reduce Network Outages
Detect configuration problems before they disrupt network operations by using an extensive rules library to analyze individual devices, groups of devices, topology, and routing information
Ensure Network Security
Verify that network security policies have been implemented effectively by implementing "tests" that simulate unauthorized traffic flows in a virtual model of the production network, identifying security gaps and pinpointing mis-configured nodes that block valid connectivity
Verify Network Resiliency
Inspect complex back-up configurations across the network, diagnose latent problems by simulating failures to test network resiliency and predict change impact on applications, resources, and security
Demonstrate Compliance
Document compliance with operational best practices and regulatory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), and supports key processes from popular IT Governance frameworks including ITIL/BS15000, and ISO 17799
Cisco Network Planning Solution 1.0
Advanced Network Planning and Analysis
Uses an integrated, operationally-valid behavioral model of the underlying network infrastructure and allows for accurate traffic flow simulations, identifying bottlenecks and affect on traffic flow due to outages, as well as predicting the impact of deploying new technologies, protocols, or applications
Automated Network Design and Optimization
An integrated design framework with configurable models and repeatable actions is used for capacity planning, resilient link dimensioning and topology design
Rules-Based Configuration Analysis
Proposed network changes can be validated prior to deployment with a powerful rules-based engine that systematically checks the entire network model, diagnosing device mis-configurations, errors, policy violations, and inefficiencies
AVAILABILITY
Cisco CAS 1.0 and Cisco NPS 1.0 will be available beginning June 13, 2005. Customers interested in purchasing these products can place orders through their normal sales channels beginning June 8, 2005. Cisco AAS 1.0 will be available beginning July 15, 2005; orders can be placed starting June 30, 2005.
ORDERING INFORMATION
Table 2. Ordering Information for Cisco AAS 1.0, Cisco CAS 1.0, Cisco NPS 1.0
