Minneapolis, Minnesota based Network Instruments - a certified Cisco Technology Developer Partner whose network analysis tools take advantage of both NetFlow and sFlow technologies, asked 600 IT professionals about their network monitoring and troubleshooting practices.
How can 77% of IT professionals not be using NetFlow?
 23% of respondents used NetFlow to monitor network performance, while 60% did not use flow technologies. |
17% were unsure whether they had any type of flow collector.
As shown in the above bar chart, a strong correlation exists between network size and whether an organization relies on NetFlow to monitor performance.
Still, Network Instruments was surprised by the numbers and vetted them with a couple of analysts who weren’t as surprised.
The number of NetFlow adoptees is definitely growing as Network Instruments has seen a strong increase in the number of people looking to leverage NetFlow to increase their enterprise-wide visibility.
A few Network Instruments systems engineers who are in the field were asked for their take:
| There may be several reasons why an organization may not use NetFlow in spite of the clear benefits of the technology. |
The most obvious reason would be that the staff may not be aware of NetFlow and its benefits.
They may also not be aware that their monitoring devices support NetFlow.
They may have also had bad experiences using earlier embedded technologies.
Another reason for lack of use may be due to lack of device support for NetFlow.
Final 3 reasons:
First, the organization may not be a Cisco shop.
Second, the organization may not want to upgrade device software to support NetFlow.
Third, their equipment may be too old or they may have mainly Layer 2 devices.
White Paper:
Extending Network Visibility by Leveraging NetFlow and sFlow Technologies - This paper shows how a network analyzer that can leverage NetFlow and sFlow technologies can provide extended visibility into enterprise networks without added investment.
Network Instruments solutions perform network and application monitoring from within the same product, where you can obtain high-level enterprise-wide reports and drill down on specific packets.
View how the Network Instruments Observer platform integrates NetFlow and sFlow technology.
In the Network World 2007 Best of the Tests network diagnostics product category, the Network Instruments GigaStor won.
Think of the GigaStor as a TiVo-like device for the network capable of capture every packet, transaction, and connection traversing the network for later replay and analysis.
It actually complements NetFlow statistics very well – if you see something at a high level using NetFlow stats, you can go back in time to view the actual packets, run expert analysis, and diagnose the problem.
While NetFlow is a great high-level monitoring technology, it can’t be used as the sole monitoring technology.
It’s not going to provide application performance information such as response times, due to the lack of Layer 5-7 information.
It should be complemented by packet captures for true troubleshooting.
The above GigaStor unit provides massive data collection and unique time-based analysis that eliminates the need to recreate problems—rapidly decreasing resolution time.
Available for WAN, LAN, Fibre Channel, gigabit and 10 Gb networks.
GigaStor can hold up to 48 TB of data or offload to a SAN for almost unlimited storage potential.
Why do YOU think 77% of IT professionals are not using NetFlow?
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wow...
I can't believe this is true. I'm not sure how I would get by without NetFlow some days.
Wireshark of NetFlow
I think many companies are using free NetFlow / sFlow analyzers. Ntop from: http://www.ntop.org or Scrutinizer from: http://www.plixer.com/products/free-netflow.php
These are the Wiresharks of NetFlow.
Clarification
While it may be the case that some shops are using freeware analyzers, our survey questions were not analyzer specific—we asked simply whether the organization was using flow technologies at all in the monitoring of their networks. As such, the use of free vs. commercial solutions should not have colored our results.
We, too, were surprised by the seeming lack of uptake around these technologies, given their inherent benefits in the way of value and visibility. However, we discovered another study by analyst firm Aberdeen that reported nearly identical results (approximately 70% not currently using flow data).
Here is a quote from a recent article on those findings:
“In recent studies we’ve asked questions about current use versus planned use of solutions that leverage network flow data. One study in particular showed that 31 percent of all respondents currently use such solutions, with an additional 36 percent indicating plans to use it within the next two years. Companies are definitely looking to improve their network security, and also the efficiency of their operations…”
only lack of knowledge
while netflow supproted on almost any Routers and many switches and the presence of too many FREE/High performance netflow analyzer , the only resoan that people not using Netflow is lack of knowledge.for example NFDUMP/NFSEN an open-source analyzer can collect netflow export traffic even on Gigabit ethernet backbone (we have 2 Catalyst 6509 and 20 Routers and sensor nevel lost the flows).if people know that IDS can only detect known velnerabiltiy and the great importance of traffic base-line , they never will wait to enable netflow (even Sflow on none cisco network grear) while enabling netflow only need 4 CLI commands or using SDM which enable netfow only by Secutiy Aduit feature wizard.too many free WIN32 collectors exits like PRTG and Scrutinizer.But i think the lack of support on Cisco fixed config switches (while other vendors support Sflow in L2 devices) is the possible of this oversight.people need netflow not on their WAN , they need it on their Campus LAN also.