Cisco ACI

Score8.5 out of 10

256 Reviews and Ratings

Product Page

What is Cisco ACI?

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

Categories & Use Cases

Software Defined Networking (SDN)

#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

22.2%

452 installations of 2,037

“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 (1001-5000 employees)

#2 most frequent

Finance and Insurance

17.0%

347 installations of 2,037

“We are using ACI fabric for our DC LAN in our 2 data centers to connect all workloads, unlike earlier we used to have separate hardware for security requirements., ACI fabric has helped us to use single fabric but providing required security through tenants, by virtually segregating and removing the need of physical segregation security requirements.”
— Manager Networks and security, Dubai Islamic Bank (1001-5000 employees)

#3 most frequent

Information

12.1%

247 installations of 2,037

“good automation use cases”
— IT Manager, integrated Dawiyat (201-500 employees)

Justin Putman

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

Imad Hajji

Network Engineer in Information Technology at Hermes (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) as hosting zone and transit network with multipod. Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) has been originally deployed to handle microseg and networking with a unique component. Once deployed, microseg never has been implemented and Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) became our hosting and transit network at DC.

Pros

ease of automation
simplify multi-site l2 implementation
simplify monitoring and troubleshooting the fabric
integration with third application/devices

Cons

learning curve for new users
user interface not very intuitive
good practice for object naming and usage not clear
No precheck validation before applying conf

Return on Investment

efficiency for network change with automation
less human power needed to manage the fabric
downside is not every network people are comfortable with Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) management

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller

Other Software Used

Cisco Catalyst Center, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Remco Vroman

Network Architect in Engineering at Alliander (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is running as the datacenter network. We also run the extranet network on it.

Pros

API access
Fault overview
Easy to configure

Cons

They removed the scheduled upgrade option, bring it back !
Q in Q on layer 3 out

Return on Investment

ROI with ACI is difficult. It can be measured by less personnel for managing the network

Alternatives Considered

Splunk Attack Analyzer

Other Software Used

Splunk Enterprise, Netbox

Simon Thiffeault

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

VMware NSX

Palo Alto Panorama

IBM Cloud Internet Services

Cisco ACI

What is Cisco ACI?

Categories & Use Cases

Most Frequent Users

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Finance and Insurance

Information

Cisco ACI Reviews

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Cisco ACI Alternatives