Cisco ACI

+ Easier Manageability and Visibility

+ Scalability

- Steep learning curve

Automation in private cloud environments.

Robust data traffic control.

Faster and quick change process since ACI is fast to implement.

Integration with existing tools.

Scale - it's flexible to be scaled to new sites if needed in future.

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.

Traffic within the network works more efficiently without generating failures.

In my view, the platform is not suitable for small clients or for small implementations since the cost of the platform is not cheap.

Expensive compared with another SDN solutions.

better cost per port

better cost per switch

lower power consumption

Works well with API calls

Internal DC routing is very secure

Needs better troubleshooting tools

The positive is that it allowed our customer to make inflight changes to a mainframe service through use of the SD Fabric, if they were on the legacy network this would have been far harder to achieve and taken a lot longer.

The negative impact on the ROI is it has taken a lot longer to deploy the equipment in to the estate than was originally forecast and as such the benefits case has been diminished.

ROI - Single point of control to manage all of data center network devices.

ROI - Seamless network upgrades means no more downtime from data centers

Cisco ACI has had a major positive impact on our core direction to embed security in everything we do.

There was a high initial investment in the hardware.

Due to the automated and standardized configuration, we are much faster in deploying changes. Even possible as self-service for the customer.

We have fewer problems caused by human errors due to the automated configuration approach.

ROI depends on the deployment.

Fewer resources are required due to automation and centralisation.

It is not suited to smaller deployments as the efficiencies that it provides are not fully realised.

Worth the money

Extremely positive ROI - It has enabled us to productise a modern & scalable private cloud.

Selling private cloud has extended the life of core MPLS business.

Has allowed the introduction of SDWAN with private cloud.

Added security to data center.

Faster deployment of new services.

Automation increases accuracy, decreases human intervention and results in a reduction in costs.

Integration gives a seamless environment with other infrastructure platforms.

Reduces overall operational costs, errors in operations and has the potential to reduce the overall manpower requirement.

Positive - Allowed us to better optimize the infrastructure growth.

Negative. Required cultural change on the human capital. Find an evangelist.

Faster implementation of new networks in the DC.

Fewer faults in the DC, both on networking and the server.

Cisco ACI provides unified DC fabric on premise and in clouds

There was a learning curve in the beginning to train operation for Cisco APIC

Faster time to production on new services

Easier deployments of new appstacks

We have had pretty good success with the product in PoVs and installs

The pro-serve on it is nice.

Some customers have been frustrated with the UI and it has not gone past PoC.

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)

Too early to say.

So far we havent been able to leverage al the positives of the ACI infrastructure like Open API and RBAC so it's difficult to comment.

A negative I would think of is the change in the design implementation for Datacenter Interconnectivity.