The Cisco SONA is an architectural framework that illustrates how to build integrated systems and guides the evolution of enterprises toward more intelligent networks. Using the SONA framework, enterprises can improve flexibility and increase efficiency by optimizing applications, business processes, and resources to enable IT to have a greater effect on business.

The SONA framework leverages the extensive product-line services, proven architectures, and experience of Cisco and its partners to help enterprises achieve their business goals.

In the SONA framework, the network is the common element that connects and enables all components of the IT infrastructure.

The SONA framework, shown in Figure 1.1, shows how integrated systems can allow a dynamic, flexible architecture and provide for operational efficiency through standardization and virtualization.

Figure 1.1: Cisco SONA ( Service Oriented Network Architecture) Framework

The SONA framework defines the following three layers:

Networked Infrastructure layer: Where all the IT resources are interconnected across a converged network foundation. The IT resources include servers, storage, and clients. The Networked Infrastructure layer represents how these resources exist in different places in the network, including the campus, branch, data center, enterprise edge, WAN, metropolitan-area network (MAN), and with the teleworker. The objective of this layer is to provide connectivity, anywhere and anytime. The Networked Infrastructure layer includes the network devices and links to connect servers, storage, and clients in different places in the network.

Interactive Services layer: Includes both application networking services and infrastructure services. This layer enables efficient allocation of resources to applications and business processes delivered through the networked infrastructure. This layer includes the following services:

• Voice and collaboration services
• Mobility services
• Wireless services
• Security and identity services
• Storage services
• Compute services
• Application networking services (content networking services)
• Network infrastructure virtualization
• Adaptive network management services
• Quality of service (QoS)
• High availability
• IP multicast

Application layer: This layer includes business applications and collaboration applications. The objective of this layer is to meet business requirements and achieve efficiencies by leveraging the interactive services layer. This layer includes the following collaborative applications:

• Instant messaging
• Cisco Unified Contact Center
• Cisco Unity (unified messaging)
• Cisco IP Communicator and Cisco Unified IP Phones
• Cisco Unified MeetingPlace
• Video delivery using Cisco Digital Media System
• IP telephony.

The benefits of SONA include the following:

• Functionality: Supports the organizational requirements.
• Scalability: Supports growth and expansion of organizational tasks by separating functions and products into layers; this separation makes it easier to grow the network.
• Availability: Provides the necessary services, reliably, anywhere, anytime.
• Performance: Provides the desired responsiveness, throughput, and utilization on a perapplication basis through the network infrastructure and services.
• Manageability: Provides control, performance monitoring, and fault detection.
• Efficiency: Provides the required network services and infrastructure with reasonable operational costs and appropriate capital investment on a migration path to a more intelligent network, through step-by-step network services growth.
• Security: Provides for an effective balance between usability and security while protecting information assets and infrastructure from inside and outside threats.