Guest contributor: Rebecca Grassing is a product marketing manager at Auvik. With her expertise in network management and SaaS, she has been helping the Auvik team assist customers and MSPs for five years now. Rebecca has a background in marketing technology, publishing, and the arts, and has authored several key ebooks and resources, including Auvik's Annual IT Trends report.

Total Network Visibility and Lifecycle Control with Cisco + Auvik

During a recent webinar, I joined Cisco Solution Engineer Cristian Perissinotto to discuss the tangible benefits of automated network visibility and lifecycle control. We highlighted how the Cisco and Auvik partnership addresses critical challenges like network complexity, device proliferation, and contract management, reducing operational risk and enhancing planning accuracy across Cisco and multi-vendor environments.

This post summarizes key technical insights from that discussion. Even if you missed the webinar, the opportunity to gain these insights is available now. You can request a demo today through the Cisco Marketplace to explore this solution and get your technical questions answered live: Request a demo.

From Manual Inventory to Real-Time Topology

Traditional network documentation often suffers from inaccuracies due to manual processes, leading to unidentified devices, undocumented configurations, and forgotten connections. At Auvik, we address this by implementing automated discovery mechanisms, leveraging Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocols, to map every Internet Protocol (IP)-connected device within your environment, including both Cisco and non-Cisco infrastructure.

This process generates dynamic topology maps, comprehensive device inventories (including serial numbers, operating system versions, and interface details), and traffic flow insights derived from protocols like NetFlow or sFlow. These data points are updated in real time, eliminating documentation discrepancies and reducing blind spots during incident response and troubleshooting.

Technical Capabilities:

• Automated visualization of network connections and interdependencies.
• Identification of unmanaged, unauthorized, or misconfigured devices.
• Granular tracking of bandwidth utilization and application-specific traffic patterns.

Proactive Lifecycle Management: Mitigating End-of-Life Risks

Auvik integrates directly with Cisco Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to retrieve critical lifecycle data for your network infrastructure. This data includes End-of-Sale (EoS) and End-of-Maintenance (EoM) dates, support contract status, and firmware version information.

This integration provides precise visibility into devices nearing their End-of-Life (EoL) status, identifying hardware or software requiring firmware updates, and highlighting potential support contract gaps. This proactive intelligence facilitates strategic budgeting and resource allocation, helping you shift from reactive hardware replacement to a data-driven refresh cycle.

Technical Capabilities:

• Identification of unsupported or vulnerable devices based on manufacturer lifecycle data.
• Prioritization of hardware and software upgrades aligned with lifecycle stages and support contracts.
• Generation of detailed assessment reports for compliance audits and capital expenditure planning.

Automated Monitoring and Contextual Alerting

Auvik incorporates over 50 pre-configured alerts designed to detect common performance and availability issues, such as latency spikes, packet loss, excessive bandwidth utilization, and interface errors. Our platform also supports the definition of custom alerts based on specific operational thresholds. Monitoring is performed using industry-standard protocols such as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), and Command Line Interface (CLI) polling.

Each alert is contextually linked to the live network map and specific device details, enabling rapid root cause analysis. Historical performance data is retained, allowing for trend analysis and the identification of anomalous patterns before they impact end-users.

Technical Capabilities:

• Proactive alerting triggered by actual network state changes and performance deviations.
• Accelerated issue resolution through real-time contextual data.
• Reduction in Mean Time To Resolution (MTTR) and operational escalation volume.

Compliance-Ready Documentation and Configuration Control

Auvik facilitates continuous documentation of your network environment. This includes detailed device configurations, historical change logs, and firmware states, supported by automatic backups and version control.

In the event of an unauthorized or unexpected configuration change, our platform provides a clear audit trail, detailing what was modified, when the change occurred, and by which user or process. This capability strengthens audit posture for compliance frameworks (e.g., PCI DSS, ISO 27001) and significantly reduces the risk associated with undetected misconfigurations.

Technical Capabilities:

• Instantaneous export of inventory and configuration data for compliance reporting.
• Maintenance of a comprehensive, version-controlled change history for all managed devices.
• Streamlined support for regulatory compliance frameworks through automated documentation.

Optimized for Cisco Environments, Supported by Experts

Deploying Auvik through a Cisco partner offers distinct advantages. From my perspective, these partners possess deep expertise in Cisco infrastructure and can effectively integrate Auvik's insights with existing Cisco lifecycle services and support structures.

Cisco partners can provide:

• Alignment of refresh recommendations with specific Cisco support timelines and product roadmaps.
• Integration of Auvik alerts into existing IT Service Management (ITSM) platforms and ticketing systems.
• Accelerated deployment and tailored monitoring configurations optimized for your operational requirements.

Actionable Intelligence for Network Operations

Auvik delivers a precise and actionable overview of your network's current state and future requirements. We've designed the solution so that within a short deployment window, you can:

• Perform comprehensive discovery of all active devices in a live production environment.
• Identify End-of-Life (EoL) hardware, including devices past their EoS or EoM dates, and pinpoint firmware vulnerabilities.
• Generate a data-driven refresh roadmap based on real-time inventory and lifecycle data.

Request your demo from the Cisco Marketplace today to see these capabilities in action.

We believe this solution provides the essential visibility and control required for modern network operations.

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