Item: Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI)
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Cisco ACI replaces the legacy Datacenter LAN. Business point of view it enables to provision network services faster and secure, and simplifies the management of network.

Pros and Cons

Built in automation to build the fabric
Object model enables easy to automate day-N operations.
Integration with Virtualization environments enables complete automation of network services.
Whitelist base approach and security constructs provide flexible features to build secure network services for applications.

All the endpoint attachment is based on encap vlan. More flexibility to reuse the vlans within the fabric and clear definition of vlan usage.
Granular metrics, analytics and assurance to ensure health of the fabric.
Improve traffic path analysis and troubleshooting.
Limitation in integration with UCS FI

Return on Investment

Simplify the management of entire datacenter network.
Provision the network services faster and secure.
Network services are automated all the way to virtualization environment.

Alternatives Considered

Arista 7800R3 Series and Arista 7000 series

Build it automation to build the fabric makes it easy to deploy the fabric and not required to develop own automation.

Enhancement to typical EVPN/VXLAN fabric provide more features and easy to use.

No in depth technology expertise required to build ACI fabric.

Scalability

Physical network of entire datacenter is considered as one network and it's flexible to scale and grow. This simplified to start with small fabric and grow according to business requirements.

Automation

Object model of Cisco ACI enables to automate IaC tools such as Terraform and Ansible. This streamline the entire process and life cycle management.

Key Insights

Do you think Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI)'s feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) again?

Yes

Other Software Used

PRTG Network Monitor, Grafana, Kibana

Likelihood to Recommend

Cisco ACI is best option for typical Datacenter Network Solutions. Built in automation, integration with virtualization environments, application centric and security features makes it well suited for Datacenter Network.

It's not a appropriate solution for custom fabrics and campus environments.

Automated and Integrated Datacenter network fabric.

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI)