Applications are networked services that run in the internal network or on the internet. Application definitions are a way to attach a business relevancy to all traffic that goes through your network. A separate application definition allows you to configure multiple rules using the same application.

Application definitions also let you group applications, so that you can configure and reuse a single rule for multiple applications with similar characteristics and requirements. Using an application group means that you don’t have to repeat the application definition for each rule, which can reduce the number of rules significantly.

You can regulate access to applications using policy rules, as described in Policy controls.

Because an application can act as a target or a destination in a rule, you need to add the application definition in both directions. A rule with a source IP address looks only at the source IP address, so you need to create a rule that uses the destination IP for the reverse direction.

For details on rules, see To create a traffic path rule.

For convenient traffic path rule and security policy creation, SCM predefines a number of application groups like Business or Web Services. When you use an application group in a traffic path rule, a single rule can handle many applications based on similar properties. For example, the Business Voice application group classifies all traffic that requires low latency and a high queue priority.

Application groups simplify the configuration and minimize the number of rules needed, providing better scalability.

The default application groups have changed in SCM 2.0 for compatibility with SteelHead CXs.

The new application groups are in effect after upgrading from SCM 1.x to 2.0. Any preexisting custom application groups remain the same after the upgrade.

Five preexisting application groups were merged into new groups. If you are using preexisting application groups in an inbound or outbound security policy or a traffic path rule that contain any of these groups, you might need to create new rules to use the new group name. The following table shows the application groups merged from 1.x to 2.x.

A web category catalog is available to include sites that aren’t covered by a specific application. You can add web categories to application groups.

This table describes some default application groups, web categories, and sample applications, but it does not provide an exhaustive list. See the Applications Group page for the most up-to-date app groups, web categories, and apps associated with a group.

SCM provides a constantly updated catalog of public applications that are available on the internet. For example, Facebook or Salesforce. Every catalog application is assigned to a default predefined application group.

The catalog provides an efficient and accurate way to identify applications for advanced classification of network traffic.

Creating a custom application means that you group together a set of criteria to match certain traffic. You define custom applications to set up access policies for internal services, or specific internet-based services. Internal applications are typically related to a registered server device or device group; however, you can also define applications based on zones, IP addresses, ports, or host/domain names.

After defining the application, you can use it in a rule that defines the policy for internal users and devices. In this example, you define a rule to allow the laptop administrator access to the RDP Active Directory server in the data center. For details, see Outbound and internal rules.