With the introduction of NetFlow and similar flow-based technologies,
solutions based on flow-based data have become the most popular methods
of network monitoring. While effective, flow-based network monitoring has
a significant limitation—it lacks the depth of data to perform true root-cause
analysis. This paper reinforces the concept of root cause analysis and how a
packet data based approach to network monitoring allows you to know when
a problem exists and why that problem exists, and illustrates a solution that
provides the uncompromising performance and capabilities needed
to perform root-cause analysis.