The standard for internet protocol flow information export (IPFIX) was published by the IETF in 2008.Additional Netflow “flavors” including JFlow, sFlow, and AWS VPC Flow logs have been developed over the years, with each employing a slightly different method of IP-based data collection and analysis.

Network flow data empowers these teams to monitor and troubleshoot QoS, access, and security issues more effectively. IT teams commonly use Netflow as a traffic analyzer to develop valuable point of origin, path, and destination metrics.This monitoring method does not require probes to be deployed within the infrastructure. An analyzer converts the protocol into useful charts and graphs that can provide visibility into network and device health.

Netflow-enabled devices send traffic and related statistics to a collector for pre-processing.

The collected data is analyzed to establish meaningful metrics and trends related to application flows, usage, and bandwidth allocation. Netflow is a protocol developed by Cisco for monitoring network IP traffic activity.

Netflow analyzers