SONA focuses on enabling more efficient delivery of computing, storage, security, mobility, voice and collaboration services through a virtualized layer that sits on top of network infrastructures, said Charles Giancarlo, Cisco's chief development officer.

Lev Gonick, CIO at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said he has worked with Cisco over the past several years as SONA has been developed and has deployed 7,000 of the vendor's IP phones, 1,350 of its Aironet wireless access points and a Catalyst 6509 Gigabit Ethernet switch.

SONA has allowed Case Western to move computing and network services that previously were dispersed among middleware or applications into its network layer, Gonick said. That, in turn, has enabled data engineers and administrators to be moved into new roles, such as supporting voice-over-IP services. More important, putting the services in the network layer provides "huge benefits" in planning for network architecture design, implementation and ongoing operations, Gonick added.

Case Western's IT engineers are testing the NAPA products, but Gonick said he has yet to receive an evaluation.

NAPA could help IT managers do a better job of planning their networks and application flows, said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group Research Inc. in Boston. "Customers need to manage across the whole life cycle," not just understand what parts of a network are failing, he said.