The Adapter Platform imports and normalizes topology from IP Availability Manager and VoIP Availability Manager, and imports and normalizes events of interest from VMware Smart Assurance adapters such as the SNMP Trap Adapter and the VoIP Notification Trap Adapter. Normalize means to convert topology or event information into a common form understood by the Global Manager. The normalized event information is transferred as VMware Smart Assurance notifications to the Global Manager.

Through the Adapter Platform, the Global Manager receives informational traps issued by the devices in the managed environment. Informational traps provide information that might be of interest to users.