CISCO ACI Review
Updated November 21, 2024

CISCO ACI Review

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI)

Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure is for Data Center Solutions. These are all 9000 Cisco Series Nexus Devices and one of the highlights of having this solution in place is you are able to manage your network devices via controller. You will have the priviledged to have visibility to your Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure fabric with just a controller. One of the thing that I like about it is when initiating a Firmware upgrade, with the traditional network set-up. You have to manage each devices and perform firmware upgrades, but having Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure you can have a maintenance group to perform it and don't do the individual copying of the iso image to each of the devices.

Pros

  • Manage your Infrastructure using a cluster of controller
  • Be able to push a multiple configuration from the controller using integration to automation via Ansible/Terraform
  • Multipod and Multisite capability

Cons

  • VMM integration was a challenge due to static port binding and Overlapping VLAN
  • Was not able to detect a possible issue with the hardware related to line module in Spine switch. It was not detected in the Hardware and software conformance
  • Sometimes, we are not able to see a real time fault notification in the fabric
  • We have a couple of Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure fabric and still more projects to migrate some existing traditional DC to ACI fabric.
  • We have less network issues with Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure solution in place
  • Segmentation for me is one of the topic also, they have ESG (Endpoint Security Group) introduced in the recent roadmap as an additional part of segmentation with EPG (Endpoing Group)
  • Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series Switches
We have selected Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure compared to Catalyst Switches mainly because of the vPC and Port channel capability. With port channel, it loadbalance the bandwidth. While with Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure vPC, they don't have spanning Tree with is loop prevention.
You saved time and manpower, especially performing yearly firmware upgrades. One person can do all the work upgrading the fabric with lesser time needed to perform such changes. You can also implement a prevalidation prioir the firmware upgrade to make sure that all the checklist are performed properly prioir the upgrade, this will make sure that no impact to operation when performning the firmware upgrade.
With the integration of Automation, it speeds up the implementation of the configuration changes. During migration, it really helps with the preparation and validation of the configuration.

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

We are currently in POC with the Remote Leaf connectivity that for smaller sites, no need to invest for Spine and APIC controller, we can just add a pair of Leaf Switches. I think this approach is well suited for an environment that wanted to have Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure with less consideration in the project budget. Also, they have a Back-to-Back Multipod set-up that IPN is an option to be used, you can use the SPINE switch to connect the secondary DC.

Using Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI)

10 - Mostly, business functions are from IT infrastructure and CISCO ACI is mostly configured in our Regional Offices. As of writing we have more projects coming to convert the other traditional Network to CISCO ACI. 2 more upcoming projects in the year 2025 for migration of these Data Centers that we have.
4 - Some of the skills requirements is the basic understanding for Networking and mmost probably the back ground from CISCO ACI Perspective as terminologies and how things work are a little different when we are talking about the traditional network set-up that we have. We are also encouraging to have a CCNP DCCOR certifications.
  • CISCO ACI VMM Intergration
  • CISCO ACI with Nexus Dashboard Insights
  • CISCO ACI integration with Microsegmentation
  • Ease of Configuration and implementation of CISCO ACI Controller
  • Applying Firmware upgrades without the fear of having downtime
  • Manageablility for the ACI Devices
  • Integration of Automation
  • Scripting with daily task like interface configuration for directly connected devices
  • Private cloud
Provided with the intensive fault isolation for the CISCO ACI, we are glad that we have this Data Center Solution in place and we will continue to renew as long as the future needed requirements are meet and more helpful features will be enabled in the future with the integration of security.

Evaluating Cisco ACI and Competitors

  • Scalability
  • Integration with Other Systems
  • Ease of Use
These factors are the main contributors why we have consider the the CISCO ACI, we are also looking on the posibility of having the cloud solutions that they are offering. Ease of management and configuration is also a factor for CISCO ACI, you can easily understand how things are properly configure with just a glance. though it has a different feel if you will upgrade to version 6.0
If I have to do it again, I will still choose to have the same decision that I have before. I never regret that decision that was made years ago as the current performance and the how things work today is still in an optimal stage and will continue to do so.

Cisco ACI Implementation

Being involved in the implmentation gives you more overview on how things are supposed to be working and communicating, you can easily performce troubleshooting and understanding the troubleshooting scenario.
  • Implemented in-house
Yes - Phase 1 - preparation of BOQ, LLD Design and needed connectivity
Phase 2 - Configuration and implementation of connectivity, Fabric Disovery, Multi pod set-up, Controller and switch upgrade to the recommended version
Phase 3 - Migration of Connected device to ACI evironment that would take a series of migration schedule and implementation
Change management was a minor issue with the implementation - Be open with your implementation steps and lay down the risk of your implementation
  • Physical connectivity
  • Defective SFP / cabling

Cisco ACI Support

When we open a support for CISCO ACI, I can say that we are catered well and immediately. we have a nice experience with support so far and it has been years since then and it has never change. We are happy with the support provided even the severity of the request is not critical, we are given the usual support.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
No premium support was purchase due to high cost
During the replacement of APIC-M2 to APIC-M4, we are stuck in the discovery of the new APIC, after checking all parameters we can't determine the issue, we can't reboot the APIC as it is still in the discovering mode, we opted to open a TAC case and we thought we should wait for the CISCO Engineer to join at least 30 mins, but we were assisted in less that 10 mins after the creation of TAC Case. Time was so crucial at that moment because we have an implementation time schedule that we need to adhere and we areso happy that we are assisted in a very urgent way.

Using Cisco ACI

Ease of management is one of the strength of CISCO ACI, managing multiple devces using a single controller is really a must have which we really love having it for ACI. you don't have to jump in each of the SSH session to manage each individual devices to apply configuration.
ProsCons
Like to use
Easy to use
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Feel confident using
Requires technical support
  • implementing Firmware upgrades
  • applying configuration in an interface level
  • managing APIC controllers
  • applying global and interface policies
  • endpoint traffic monitoring

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