Item: Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI)
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use ACI across 2 data centers in 2 different locations. It simplifies the provisioning and management of the infrastructure. The ACI solution increases scalability and automation with API features. This solution aligns particularly well with the Cisco switches already installed in our infrastructure. ACI enhances security with granular east-west traffic segmentation.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Automation
Multi site management.
Switches management.
Deployment

Cons

Troubleshooting.
GUI performance.
Hybrid cloud/on prem.

Return on Investment

Reduce operational costs.
Less incidents.
Faster deployments.

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense, Palo Alto Panorama and Fortinet FortiGate

We have selected ACI because it’s the most powerful solution for network deployment and management. Cisco ESA, FortiGate, and Panorama are each the best solution in their respective fields, and they all fit perfectly with the Cisco ACI solution. It permits automating network tasks for both virtual and physical environments. Cisco ACI is perfect with Fortinet, Palo Alto, and, of course, Cisco devices.

Scalability

Cisco ACI has a major impact on our business. The greatest impact is on deployment speed, which has been reduced by 60 percent. It’s also permitted to simplify the multi-site management. The ACI solution improved the facility's scalability. Overall, it permits reducing the time dedicated to network maintenance.

Automation

Cisco ACI helped accelerate and automate application deployment by automating network provisioning with a centralized solution. Manual configuration mistakes have been significantly decreased. The solution permits setting up new virtual machines, containers, and workloads much faster than before. Teams can now load applications without waiting for night changes. It also permit to do automate network tasks.

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

Ciena Manage, Control and Plan, Fortinet FortiGate, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN

Likelihood to Recommend

The ACI solution is perfectly fit for a large or multi-site data center environment. It permits simplifying deployment, management, automation, and security. ACI is especially valuable when strong scalability, automation, security, and segmentation are required. However, ACI is less suitable for a small environment due to its complexity and high cost.

Comments

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My ACI review.