Unlike controlled Systems Network Architecture (SNA) environments, IP-based environments lack the structure to ensure appropriate application behavior. Mission-critical applications contend for available bandwidth with non-critical or unwanted applications, and many applications are subjected to network latency and jitter characteristics that impede their ability to function appropriately. With between 50 percent and 60 percent of enterprise bandwidth now being consumed by peer-to-peer (P2P) and Flash-based video traffic, network performance is significantly compromised. In other environments, the problem can be even more pronounced. Up to 80 percent of network traffic in uncontrolled higher education environments can be P2P traffic, recreational video traffic, or traffic generated from gaming applications.In such environments, the IT department requires a solution that is able to prioritize application traffic and to control the behavior of the network traffic to make sure that the performance of each individual application reflects its importance to business operations. Cisco Application Performance Assurance (APA) Engine is designed to provide that capability, offering per application, per user control in a self-contained appliance form factor.