About Cisco Prime

Cisco Prime  Infrastructure addresses these challenges by providing a single integrated solution for comprehensive lifecycle management of the wired/wireless access, campus, and branch networks, and rich visibility into end-user connectivity and application performance assurance issues.

Cisco Prime Infrastructure accelerates the rollout of new services and provides secure access and management of mobile devices, making "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) a reality for corporate IT. Tightly coupling client awareness with application performance visibility and network control, Cisco Prime Infrastructure helps ensure uncompromised end-user quality of experience. Deep integration with the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) further extends this visibility across security and policy-related problems, presenting a complete view of client access issues with a clear path to solving them.

Converged Simplified Lifecycle Management

Combining the wireless functionality of Cisco Prime Network Control System (NCS) with the wired functionality of Cisco Prime LAN Management Solution (LMS), ¹ Cisco Prime Infrastructure simplifies and automates many of the day-to-day tasks associated with maintaining and managing the end-to-end network infrastructure from a single pane of glass. The new converged solution delivers all of the existing wireless capabilities for RF management, user access visibility, reporting, and troubleshooting along with wired lifecycle functions such as discovery, inventory, configuration and image management, automated deployment, compliance reporting, integrated best practices, and reporting.

A new operational model based on lifecycle processes (Figure 1) aligns the product functionality with the way network operators do their jobs:

• Design: Assess, plan, and create configurations required to roll out new network services and technologies. Create templates used for monitoring key network resources, devices, and attributes. Default templates and best practice designs are provided for quick out-of-the-box implementation automating the work required to use Cisco validated designs and best practices.

• Deploy: Schedule the rollout and implementation of network changes. Changes may include published templates created in the design phase, software image updates, and support for user-initiated ad hoc changes and compliance updates. This accelerates service rollout, minimizes chances for errors, and is highly scalable.

• Operate: Predefined dashboards provide up-to-date status monitoring on the overall health of the network. Simple one-click workflows and 360-degree device views enhance troubleshooting and reduce the time to resolve network issues. Unified alarm displays with detailed forensics provide actionable information and the ability to automatically open service requests with the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

• Report: Provides a wide variety of predefined reports for up-to-date information on the network including detailed inventory, configuration, compliance, audit, capacity, end-of-sale, security vulnerabilities, and many more.

• Administer: Provides an easy-to-use set of workflows that help to maintain the health of the application and keep devices, users, and the software up to date, allowing the IT staff to focus on other important activities.

Figure 1. Operational Lifecycle Workflow