Customer Success - Guided resource

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN: Getting started guide

This guide walks you through the core steps required to get your network up and running, from initial onboarding to operational best practices.

  • Networking
  • Catalyst SD-WAN
  • Guide

Application-aware routing and telemetry operations

Enable real-time telemetry streaming and connect SD-WAN Data Connector in Cisco IQ for proactive diagnostics

Configure cFlowd / IPFIX traffic flow export, verify Catalyst SD-WAN Manager analytics dashboards, and connect the SD-WAN Data Connector into Cisco IQ for AI-driven proactive health insights, anomaly detection, and automated security advisories.

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Summarized on September 30, 2026

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics is an integral component of the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution that simplifies network operations by providing granular network insights, predictivity, and automation [1]. It offers a unified dashboard that combines assurance and management capabilities, giving teams a near real-time view of network and application health, configurations, and security status. By synthesizing extensive telemetry data and blending application performance insights with network conditions, the platform establishes historical benchmarks and enables quick root-cause identification.

Key analytics capabilities include:

  1. Unified Assurance and Management – A single dashboard delivers actionable intelligence, full-context alerts, and detailed security insights for both NetOps and SecOps teams.
  2. Application Performance Visibility – Delivers real-time and historical Quality of Experience (QoE) scoring across SaaS, cloud, and on-premises enterprise applications. Correlates hop-by-hop latency, packet loss, and jitter against baseline performance metrics to pinpoint whether degradations originate within the local LAN, WAN underlay, or cloud provider network.
  3. Predictive Path Recommendations (PPR) – Powered by ThousandEyes WAN Insights, PPR uses advanced algorithms to proactively recommend or automatically implement alternate network paths before users are impacted.
  4. Bandwidth Forecasting – Aggregates ingress/egress circuit data as daily data points and uses deep learning techniques to generate multi-week capacity forecasts for circuit planning.
  5. Advanced Security Analytics with Talos Integration – Leverages real-time Talos threat intelligence to identify potential malicious network attacks from the same SD-WAN Analytics dashboard and relay details to SecOps for remediation.
  6. ThousandEyes Integration – Provides end-to-end visibility into application delivery beyond traditional enterprise network boundaries, with turnkey vantage points deployable through Catalyst SD-WAN Manager.

To enable SD-WAN Analytics, it is onboarded alongside a new Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN fabric via the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Portal, or it can be enabled from the admin settings in Catalyst SD-WAN Manager if not previously onboarded. Predictive Path Recommendations, included in Cisco DNA Advantage, can be activated directly from Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics, while ThousandEyes integration is available on eligible Cisco Catalyst 8200, 8300, and 8500 Series Edge Platforms and select ISR and ASR router families.

Sources

  1. Solutions - Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics At a Glance
  2. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Analytics Configuration Guide
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