Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) vs. Juniper Contrail Networking

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco ACI
ScoreĀ 8.2Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
N/A
Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) is network virtualization technology.N/A
Contrail Networking
ScoreĀ 7.1Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
N/A
Juniper Networks supports SDN with Contrail Networking, a solution that provides dynamic end-to-end networking policy and control for any cloud, any workload, NFV, and any deployment, from a single user interface. It translates abstract workflows into specific policies, simplifying the orchestration of virtual overlay connectivity across all environments.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI)Juniper Contrail Networking
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco ACIContrail Networking
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Detailsā€”ā€”
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI)Juniper Contrail Networking
Considered Both Products
Cisco ACI

No answer on this topic

Contrail Networking
Chose Juniper Contrail Networking
Contrail is best [suitable] for Service Provider having [multiple outlay protocol] support. Both Contrail and NSX fulfill all requirements for DC Networking, NFV Cloud, and Private Cloud Networking requirements. Cisco ACI is more relevant towards Enterprises.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI)Juniper Contrail Networking
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Cisco Catalyst Center
Cisco Catalyst Center
ScoreĀ 8.5Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Cisco ACI
Cisco ACI
ScoreĀ 8.2Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Enterprises
Cisco Catalyst Center
Cisco Catalyst Center
ScoreĀ 8.5Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Cisco ACI
Cisco ACI
ScoreĀ 8.2Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI)Juniper Contrail Networking
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(83 ratings)
8.5
(2 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.4
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.7
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.7
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.6
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI)Juniper Contrail Networking
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
We are currently in POC with the Remote Leaf connectivity that for smaller sites, no need to invest for Spine and APIC controller, we can just add a pair of Leaf Switches. I think this approach is well suited for an environment that wanted to have Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure with less consideration in the project budget. Also, they have a Back-to-Back Multipod set-up that IPN is an option to be used, you can use the SPINE switch to connect the secondary DC.
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Juniper Networks
Best for: - Data Center Networking - NFVI Cloud Networking - Virtual Private Cloud for CSP
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Pros
Cisco
  • So with the old one, we've had a secure zone, core zone, so we have special hardware specific for those zones, so security zones in our data center. This allows us to basically have the spine leaf and we could put any ports in any zone. So it allows a lot more, I'd say efficient use of equipment, being able to plug in things to whatever, and then program it to how you want it to work on.
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Juniper Networks
  • Contrail Networking automates network resource.
  • Providing reliability and agility while extending visibility into your multi-cloud network.
  • Advanced analytics capabilities.
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Cons
Cisco
  • Actually we had some issues in past as well in which this multi ACI, whenever we run it into multi-part architecture mode or design. So we have a lot of multicast issues in between. In which endpoints between the data centers in the single EPG or bds, were unable to connect with each other due to that multicasting loops and other stuff. So this is the problem we faced multiple times in the past.
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Juniper Networks
  • Contrail should have inbuild management of underlay network as well
  • lack of open resources to learn
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
Cisco ACI is doing exactly what was intended for it to do, that is support our next generation data centre, improve security, and increase resiliency. Migrating to another platform would be a waste of time, resource and energy, which could be better spent migrating more legacy applications into the Cisco ACI fabric.
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco
Cisco ACI has changed the traditional data center model into a new era of automation and agility. The product was considerably easy to deploy met all the expectations. In terms of usability, ACI provides a unified interface for managing the whole infrastructure in one place which is the main benefit for users (admins)
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Cisco
no outages
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Performance
Cisco
I do not give it 10 because the platform evolves more and more every day in the data traffic of the datacenter. But the implementations that they carry out for different clients of the platform are very happy with the result of the same over time. Another point that you notice about the platform, despite its good performance, is the low use of energy used by this 24x7 on, it is a good fact to take into account for our environment.
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco
Cisco provides users and partners with a multitude of data for you to consume. I think that the stuff in the public domain goes a long way to assisting you find any answers you may need, plus insights and information from areas such as DevNet provide you with access to more than just the traditional release notes and the like
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
Cisco
The Cisco ACI training provided by Cisco was in depth, covered all of our requirements, and allowed us to implement and maintain the platform without issues.
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Cisco
Being involved in the implmentation gives you more overview on how things are supposed to be working and communicating, you can easily performce troubleshooting and understanding the troubleshooting scenario
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco
I have used competitors fabric products, however they were unmanaged (no APIC) and manually configured. In this deployment model, all tasks are manual and there is no central controller to monitor and maintain the system. It's also prone to configuration errors as each leaf switch is individually managed. APIC solution is much better.
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Juniper Networks
The platforms are very similar in networking concepts, at the interface level I found it easier to use Juniper Contrail than Cisco ACI. And at the cost level, I think it is cheaper.
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Scalability
Cisco
Cisco ACI scales well and is suited in scenarios such as multi-cloud or large data centre implementations. It is not suited to smaller deployments as the efficiencies that it provides are not fully realised. It is well suited in large environments that contain both virtual and bare-metal machines allowing a great deal of flexibility. It is also perfect to support multi-tenancy platforms.
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Cisco
  • We've definitely spent quite a bit of time relearning how to do things in ACI, but I think the investment has been well worth while considering that we can now deploy tenants and leaves from the ground up in a matter of seconds.
  • We can if we choose to upgrade an entire datacenters worth of switches in a single night. (We've chosen to break it up for availability requirements, but if you didn't require 99.999% uptime like us you may be able to do it)
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Juniper Networks
  • Core of our NFV Cloud providing Multitenant Services
  • Give Agility to our Cloud
  • Wrokload any IP, anywhere
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ScreenShots