Anas is an Expert in Network and Security Infrastructure, With over seven years of industry experience, holding certifications Including CCIE- Enterprise, PCNSE, Cato SASE Expert, and Atera Certified Master. Anas provides his valuable insights and expertise to readers.
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Knowing how your applications behave on the network isn’t just helpful—it’s essential. Whether you're dealing with bandwidth constraints, shadow IT, or application sprawl, having clear visibility into what’s running where, and how often, is the first step to improving performance and control.
Cato Networks provides built-in tools to help IT teams monitor application activity across the entire network from a single pane of glass. This post walks through Cato's latest application visibility features within the CMA and offers guidance on interpreting the data for operational benefit.
Cato's latest interface separates visibility from enforcement, making it easier to focus on the data you need.
You can access app usage insights via:
Cato’s cloud-native engine uses deep packet inspection (DPI) and behavioral heuristics to automatically identify over 5,000 applications. Each app is tagged with:
Unknown or custom apps can also be flagged for further review, and admins can tag them as custom entries.
In the Application Analytics dashboard, focus on the following metrics:
A university's IT team noticed unexpected spikes in bandwidth from file-sharing apps. With Cato, they pinpointed usage to a handful of endpoints and adjusted policies accordingly to restrict them during peak hours.
You can sort apps by:
This helps uncover:
Once you’ve identified problematic or overused applications, you can take action:
Note: As of now, you cannot configure threshold-based alerts for individual application bandwidth/session usage directly from the Application Analytics dashboard.
Create baseline reports to monitor usage trends across time
Yes. It recognizes browser-accessed apps and web traffic.
Not directly—you’ll need to create a rule under Network Policies.
Yes. Cato maps traffic by identity and endpoint.
Cato leverages DPI and heuristics, giving high accuracy across thousands of known apps.
Yes. Use the REST API or scheduled report features for integration with third-party systems.
🕓 August 10, 2025
🕓 August 9, 2025
🕓 August 8, 2025
