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Techniques · New

Flow data for capacity and fault analysis

sFlow, NetFlow and IPFIX show who talks to whom, and how much.

Flow data from routers, switches and firewalls shows traffic relationships rather than just utilisation: which systems, protocols and destinations generate the traffic. This helps with capacity planning, with preparing segmentation and with faults such as sudden load spikes.

What matters is a suitable sampling rate, a collector with sufficient retention and clear rules on who may view the data. Because flow data reveals communication relationships, data protection and the works council should be involved early and retention periods defined.

A good fit if …
  • you are planning capacity or looking for bottlenecks
  • segmentation is being prepared
  • network faults are hard to pin down
Not a good fit if …
  • the devices do not provide flow data
  • data protection, works council involvement and retention periods have not been settled

In practice

Use case

Managing network and firewall migration across many sites

Standardise firewalls and segmentation across many sites, in plannable phases with a rollback plan for each phase.

Read use case

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