Cisco ACI

Score8.5 out of 10

257 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Cisco ACI?

Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) is network virtualization technology.

Categories & Use Cases

Software-Defined Networking (SDN)

Most Frequent Users

Top 3 industries using Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI).

Based on HG Insights installation data

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#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

25.2%

816 installations of 3,237

“we are running Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) with full terraform integration so I strongly agree on this point”
— Network and security Engineer, Dzne

#2 most frequent

Finance and Insurance

12.5%

406 installations of 3,237

“Cisco ACI helped accelerate and automate application deployment by automating network provisioning with a centralized solution.”
— Network engineer, GROUPAMA SUPPORTS & SERVICE

#3 most frequent

Information

10.6%

342 installations of 3,237

“good automation use cases”
— IT Manager, integrated Dawiyat

Pros

API-driven automation for rapid and consistent provisioning
Granular micro-segmentation for enhanced security policies
Improved network visibility and simplified monitoring

Cons

High complexity and steep learning curve for new users
Difficult and time-consuming troubleshooting compared to traditional networks
Non-intuitive and redundant graphical user interface (GUI)

Justin Putman

Network Engineer in Information Technology at Enova (201-500 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco ACI as our primary data center infrastructure. It was deployed as a means to create a single unified deployment strategy across multiple data centers.

Pros

The ability to deploy configuration changes
Network visibility is also a great add
The ability to do code upgrades across the platform is simple and easy

Cons

It has a very big learning curve when it comes to new deployments
It can be difficult to move from a legacy network design into a true SDN ACI deployment
Its error and logging information can be very difficult to understand

Return on Investment

Its been great with the overall management of the infrastructure
The ability to get visibility into not only the network but also the endpoint devices has been great.
The only negative Impact I would say is the learning curve. It can be difficult to get your head wrapped around how ACI is designed and deployed. I recall when I did my initial deployment, the creating of a single connection was very complex.

Other Software Used

Cisco Intersight, Cisco ThousandEyes

Simon Thiffeault

Network Engineer in Information Technology at Group TMX (1001-5000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco ACI as the only fabric for the Toronto Stock Exchange. It provides, Extranet, Internet and servers connectivity. We manage eveything through APIC and use Ansible and Gitops to provision the fabric. We use Nexus Dashboard Insight to monitoring and telemetry. It is a good tool. Good Product.

Pros

Central Manage through Controller
Software Defined Networking
Datacenter Switching

Cons

Integration with Cisco ISE
Integration with Firewalls (Cisco or not)
CLI on leaf is missing JSON output

Return on Investment

Less Employees to manage around 200 switchtes
Integration and automation with Service Now.
Better conifig management (less admin work)

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Meraki MS

Other Software Used

Cisco Nexus Dashboard, Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers, Cisco Meraki MS

Bineesh Philip

Senior Network Engineer in Finance and Accounting at RBC (501-1000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) to for managing our server farms. It is is to manage and t/s shoot server farms using Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI). And major benefit is Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) is super automation friendly and we can automate all of the changes using either Ansible or Python. It hardly take few minutes to onboard new switches using automation.

Pros

Single pane of glass to manage n number of leaves and spines
Easy to trouble shoot
Easy to automate the tasks
Easy to integrate with NDO
Easy for Multi pode configuration
Easy for new switch configuration
Easy for

Cons

Manual GUI management is not easy

Return on Investment

It is a positive ROI

Alternatives Considered

Arista 7500R and 7500R3 Series

Other Software Used

Arista 7000 series, Arista 7500R and 7500R3 Series, Arista 7800R3 Series

Karan Kumar

senior network analyst in Engineering at rbc (10,001+ employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have deployed Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) across a multi-pod and multi-site architecture to support our production, development, and disaster recovery environments. Managing large, scarred leaf and spine topology manually is inefficient. Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) centralized management through APIC make easier to troubleshoot, upgrade and telemetry.

Pros

Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) instantly maps the exact physical and virtual path for data packets are taking
It can alert that a specific transceiver is on a leaf switch in a specific rack is experiencing high CRC errors allowing engineering team to replace it before application experience degradation issues
Whenever a developer pushes a new release, the script runs and acid provision the exact network Infrastructure required in seconds

Cons

Native deep packet tracing and hop by hop visualization should be built directly into core
The upgrade process needs to be further simplified with one click validation engines that stimulate the entire fabric upgrade beforehand catching minor bugs

Verified User

Professional (501-1000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure in very special environments. We are a big company with branches distributed all over the globe and we have locations with offices and locations with offices and manufacturing facilities. In this locations is where we implement Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure, when we need segmentation between Automation, normal employees and PLC and that kind of connections.

Pros

Segmentation
Contract implementation
Integration with Firewall

Cons

TCAM space can be filled very easily
The physical Domain - vlan pool association is delicate

Return on Investment

Segmentation
Integration with Firewall

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Software-Defined Access (SD-Access)

Other Software Used

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, CheckPoint, Cisco Catalyst Switches

VMware NSX

Palo Alto Panorama

IBM Cloud Internet Services

Cisco ACI

What is Cisco ACI?

Categories & Use Cases

Who Buys & Uses Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI)

Most Frequent Users

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Finance and Insurance

Information

Most Frequent Users

Small Businesses

Mid-sized Companies

Enterprises

Most Frequent Users

United States of America

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

India

Most Frequent Users

IT

Engineering

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Cisco ACI Reviews

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Other Software Used

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Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Cisco ACI Alternatives