sFlow® is an industry standard technology for monitoring traffic in computer networks. The sFlow standard is designed and maintained by the industry group (//www.sflow.org). Unlike other monitoring technologies, it is very efficient, and so can be used in modern high-speed networks. It also operates at layer two in the network, which means that switched as well as routed traffic can be monitored. Because the overhead of running sFlow on a network is low, it is recommended that sFlow is enabled on as many switch ports as possible in a network. This allows as complete a picture as possible of the traffic to be created. sFlowTrend-Pro helps you automatically configure sFlow on all interfaces, where possible.

sFlow is supported by most network switch manufacturers. An up-to-date list is maintained at //www.sflow.org/products/network.php. Even if some of the switches in a network do not support sFlow, because most traffic transits several points in the network, good information on traffic can still be obtained.

With the release of host sFlow, the benefits of sFlow can also be utilised for host management. Over time, it is expected that operating system vendors will integrate host sFlow into their products. In the meantime, a host agent is available from the host sFlow SourceForge site to allow sFlow to be added to any host.