Cisco ACI vs Skype for Business (formerly Lync), now part of Microsoft Teams

• The REST API allows your to programmatically interact with the network and make massive changes very quickly when needed.
• The API allows you to tie together Server Provisioning tools, storage provisioning tools, into an orchestration platform such as Ansible to streamline new deployments and builds.
• New Deployments are extremely simple once you've worked out your programatic deployment process. We can deploy new clients/tenants in seconds rather than days or weeks like it used to take.
• Replacing failed switches/apics/etc is also extremely easy.
• Tightly couple the underlying Network Infrastructure to VMWare Deployments to allow VMs to move anywhere in the datacenter at the drop of a hat.

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• Quickly check a user's status and communicate with them.
• Video conferencing is breathtaking, and the voice quality is excellent.
• It's a very user-friendly site with straightforward responses.
• Cloud, hybrid and on-premise deployment options are available for document sharing via chat.
• The video conferencing quality is excellent, and it is possible to organize your groups in a professional manner.
• This tool is easy to use and integrates with Calendar to view team members' schedules.

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• Cost is always a challenge and ACI is no different.
• The linkage between ACI and Tetration has been rebranded since the initial marketeering of it and this has caused confusion and in some cases diminished the business case as a result.
• The fact that Cisco has developed multiple Orchestrators of their differing network stacks causes issues when trying to pull together a singular approach to orchestration across a Cisco e-2-e network in an Enterprise.

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• Skype's UI leaves a lot to be desired, especially considering newer platforms like Zoom, Teams, Slack, Meet, and so on. It's slow and lacks many features that are now de facto in the newer communication apps.
• Skype calendar also is often buggy - meeting times do not get updated on the calendar even if the correct time does come up on the Outlook calendar.
• It does not give you the option to mute chats - oftentimes, you want to keep some group chats on mute without leaving them entirely.
• Closing off a chat before it's saved will remove it from Skype history. You'd need to go search for it on Outlook mail.

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• We typically don't have to touch ACI. It does what we need it to do without having to "baby" it.
• It's constantly running so the amount of downtime we have (if any) is very minimal.
• It was pricey in the beginning but with is reliability it was well worth it.

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• Skype for Business has enabled a migration in part away from fixed line telephony and introduced the user to mobile working with a headset which cannot be overstated as being a game changer.
• Being able to schedule Skype for Business meetings through Outlook has meant meetings with colleagues without a meeting room has been a great enabler.

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