We have 4 use cases for netflow in Application Visibility and Control. In the picture below you can see the use cases:

In Traffic statistics we can see how much BW every application is consuming what are top clients. With application response time we can now identify whether it is slow by network or by server. We can measure response time from client to server and then back from server to client and compare. Because when application is slow – you know it, it is by definition a network problem 😉 For media performance we can see variables which can be very helpful for video and audio troubleshooting.

Basically now you can see in netflow specific applications like bittorrent or skype. How is that possible? Because DPI (deep packet inspection) engine called NBAR2 is integrated with the netflow. When you configure flow record in flexible netflow and match all the fields you can match also specific application. NBAR2 discovery protocol si then enabled automatically.