Overview
Product Information on Cisco ACI
What is Cisco ACI?
Cisco ACI Pricing
Overall experience with Cisco ACI
“Policy-Driven Cisco ACI Architecture Minimizes Network Outages and Configuration Errors”
“Good marketing but many issues while implement and operation”
About Company
Company Description
Cisco is a company that specializes in networking technologies, particularly Internet Protocol (IP)-based solutions. It was established in 1984 by a group of computer scientists from Stanford University. As of today, Cisco has a global workforce, continuing to innovate in various fields, notably in routing and switching. Adding to its core business, the company also delves into emerging technologies including home networking, IP telephony, optical networking, security features, storage area networking, and wireless technology. Moreover, Cisco extends its expertise to offer a sweeping range of services such as technical support and advanced services. The company sells its products and services on an enterprise level, to commercial businesses, service providers, and end-users.
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Key Insights
A Snapshot of What Matters - Based on Validated User Reviews
Reviewer Insights for: Cisco ACI
Deciding Factors: Cisco ACI Vs. Market Average
Performance of Cisco ACI Across Market Features
Cisco ACI Likes & Dislikes
1. Policy Model (EPG, ESG, and Contracts) - You simply declare the intent of what should be allowed, and the ACI fabric figures out the rest. 2. Micros-segmentation - workloads cannot communicate with each other unless explicitly allowed by contract, even within the same group. 3. Service Graphs - identify a chain of L4-L7 services as a policy.
Ability to troubleshooting packet flow thoughout fabric, expan subnets though multiple DCs without headache about L2 broadcast
Centralized management is always great to have and Cisco ACI provides an easy to use interface despite how complex the tool can be. In our enterprise environment, Cisco ACI has scaled well as we have been able to build out security posture in more areas of the network with both physical and virtual systems. Likewise, as we have scaled up it has increased our need to do things more programmatically. We've been able to leverage Terraform scripts with ACI for more standard deployments.
I don't really have anything I dislike
Very complex to configure a simple task. Experience about instability with L2 bugs (misconfiguration by Advance Services cause subnets flapping but TAC could not resolve it for 3 weeks)
Compared to other micro-segmentation products it seems Cisco ACI is more complex and more difficult to learn. This makes it challenging when trying to turn certain responsibilities over to other team members or having new members join the team. The other two items that could use some work are documentation to assist with troubleshooting, as well as better support. Initial deployment was also a major pain and we felt like we didn't get the support from Cisco that we needed at the time.
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Cisco ACI Reviews and Ratings
- VP, INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES1B-10B USDBankingReview Source
Policy-Driven Cisco ACI Architecture Minimizes Network Outages and Configuration Errors
This feedback reflects our experience with Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) after more than seven years of continuous use in our production data center environment. We consider Cisco ACI to be an exceptionally reliable and mature platform. It has fundamentally transformed our data center network operations from a traditional, manual framework into a modern, policy-driven system. The initial investment in training and migration has paid significant dividends in terms of stability, agility, and reduced operational overhead. The most significant impact of ACI has been a dramatic improvement in network availability. The architecture's inherent redundancy and fault isolation capabilities have proven robust. More importantly, the policy-driven model has drastically reduced network outages caused by human error and misconfiguration. By defining network intent through the network controller as a single source of truth, we have eliminated the inconsistencies that often arise from device-by-device manual changes. ACI's API has been a critical enabler for our automation strategy. We extensively use automation frameworks to manage the entire lifecycle of our network configuration. We have successfully integrated ACI with our broader technology domains. This includes seamless integration with security platforms to automate security policy enforcement and with business applications to dynamically provision network resources based on application needs. In summary, Cisco ACI has proven to be a foundational technology for our modern data center. Its reliability is unquestionable, and its ability to serve as a programmable, automated network fabric is unmatched in our experience. It has successfully reduced operational risk while simultaneously increasing business agility - NETWORK SECURITY ENGINEER10B+ USDInsurance (except health)Review Source
Cisco ACI Enables Application Segmentation But Can Have Its Initial Challenges Without Proper Design/Planning
Overall, we have had a positive journey with Cisco ACI for application segmentation. - Director Network Access50M-1B USDSoftwareReview Source
Outstanding Support and Adaptability Balanced By Price and Upgrade Demands
It's a solid product, we use it in 7 data centers in various setups. Support and Software Quality are outstanding and it comes with a huge user base and the flexibility you need these days to adapt to business needs. - IT SECURITY & RISK MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATE50M-1B USDInsurance (except health)Review Source
Cisco ACI Enhances Visibility Yet Demands Expertise for Troubleshooting Complexities
My experience with CISCO ACI has been positive overall. It provides a powerful, policy-driven approach to data center networking that makes operations simple and enhances scalability. The centralized management model makes it easier to enforce consistent policies across the environment while also improving visibility and control. - IT Services Associate10B+ USDIT ServicesReview Source
Lack of Native Webhook and Configuration Templates Noted as APIC Limitations
I can holistically configure hundreds of devices with APIC, detect anomalies, and above all, it's excellent that APIs for devices continue to be provided.