Cisco ACI Reviews

I am a technology consultant and my company is implementing this product for data center networking.

The most valuable feature is the throughput that it offers.

Training for this product is available from institutions but it is not available online where you can get users trained easily. It would be better if the training for our users was easier to get.

Cisco ACI should have better integration with a hypervisor such as VMware, Hyper-V, or KVM. This would give us a one-window solution for our networking, compute, and storage.

I have been working with Cisco ACI for about two years.

Our customers are very much satisfied with the stability. We do not have any issues with it.

It is scalable, although it depends on the design and the customer.

This is not a product for small-scale users. If we have customers with large data center requirements, we offer them Cisco ACI. For example, it is not for small enterprises without a lot of services running in their data center.

Scaling is easy because we can add, as required. While it depends on the design, scalability is not normally an issue.

We have received technical support when required and we are pretty satisfied with the support we get.

The initial setup is okay. It is not very complex, although I would not say it is very user-friendly because it is different from what we have been using. The best way to put it is that for me, it is new and it is straightforward.

A complete deployment, including the migration from their existing system, will take approximately two months.

Initially, we had Professional Services assist with hour deployment.

This is an expensive solution.

Overall, this is a good product but if it had better integration then I would rate it a full ten out of ten.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. 

Instead of using traditional network structures we use ACI for network function mutualization. The mutualization of network devices and also for the control of automatization to manage the internet public.

The operation and maintenance costs have been reduced. It is also simple to deploy any deployment. Any configuration can be easily done. 

It is stable.

We've had to use their technical support and have found them to be helpful.

The first setup was difficult because it is a very different discipline than other traditional network deployments. The terminology is very different, so the first time can be difficult.

We implemented it ourselves. 

We have seen ROI. It has saved operation costs and also, the deployment phases are now very quick.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

If your objective is to deploy infrastructure quickly and in a fast manner this is the best solution.

We have it as a data center fabric, so it is layered to Fabric installation.

Having a lot of racks and switches with a single point of configuration which can be done with automation on one platform using one API. This makes everything work faster.

The centralized management is its most valuable feature.

With the first setup, it was complex because of the terminology. We were clicking around because we did understand the API console. The hardest part was to make something scalable and easy to use in the future without having any prior knowledge. It was hard, which is why we used consultants with the setup to provide us advice.

We did have problem with APIC, but we didn't even notice it. We changed it with no impact.

We are waiting to see what happens with the cloud. We want to see if it will scale better. Also, we want to see how they will be moving to the cloud. At this time, we don't know.

It is quite stable. We have not had any problems. I believe it is because of the way it is built. 

So far, the scalability has been good. It has been better than other products.

The technical support has been okay for what we are doing. We haven't done anything very tricky. However, what we are doing has been out of the ordinary scope of networking. 

We have everything we need in terms of support. The technical support has been helpful.

We previously had two different solutions. We switched because wanted a more modern, scalable solution with a bigger infrastructure, so we went with Cisco ACI.

The first setup was complex, but the second one was easy.

The setup was done by a few consultants and us. The consultants were helpful because when we started, we had no idea about Cisco ACI. The experts helped by saying, "Do this and that."

A big company can automate it themselves or spend a lot of money and buy it.

We also consider Juniper, but we decided on Cisco because Juniper's system scalability and stability are not good.

It's fully-integrated into vCenter, so we can see everything, like vMotion, and can manage fully with vCenter, as well as manage the whole network.

• It's essential for a software defined network.
• Automated systems
• Helps to defend policies that we've created
• Good for automation

It's very new, so there's lots of bugs, and it's only good for testing with PoC customers. We're the first Canadian customers for this product.

Infrastructure and logic should have a better connection. There's too much linkage and it's easy for people to get lost.

No issues with deployment.

Again, it has lots of bugs as we're the first Canadian company for which it's been used.

The scalability is very good, as the controller automatically detects new additions and scales itself. It's agile because it's a cloud-based network.

We've used it a lot, and someone is always available because our employer is the first customer in Canada.

It's complex, and you must go through training.

Look to similar products depending on your budget. Remember, this is in the early stages, so it's still evolving. Be sure to get training for implementation and deployment.

This is software-defined networking. So, all the configuration done on a customer network is done with this application.

I am using the version before the latest version.

It is very easy to do the configuration after you know how to work with the product. It is global, so you change one interface, and changes are reflected on every switch.

Its graphical user interface (GUI) is not as user-friendly as it could be.

It is quite expensive.

I have been using this solution for about a month.

It is stable and reliable.

It is quite scalable. It is one of the most scalable products we have come across.

We have five people who are using it in our company in Portugal.

We haven't had any need.

We were using a different solution, but it was not for software-defined networking. It was for a different type of networking.

It is very complex. All the configuration that needs to be done on the Cisco ACI is very complex. We have to create base policies for all the network devices and then implement it. Afterward, it is rather easy, but the implementation part is a long and complex process.

After it is deployed, it is rather easy because all the configuration is done automatically. You only need to do regular visits to see that it is working and do some regular tests. It is not that difficult.

We took Cisco's help.

It is quite expensive. It is not at all on the cheap or medium side.

I am quite new to this product, and I am still learning it. My recommendation would depend upon the size of the organization. It is one of the flagship products of Cisco, but it is not a product that you can implement for any customer. It is more suitable for medium to large enterprises.

I would rate Cisco ACI an eight out of 10.

We use Cisco ACI in the data center

You can integrate Cisco ACI well with VMware. 

I've been using Cisco ACI for about two years. 

So far, Cisco ACI's stability has been good because they use the Nexus hardware but with different software. 

The scalability depends on the hardware performance. Most of vendors use the traditional chip such as Broadcom , so I suppose the performance and scalability of ACI switches are the same as other competitors. 

Cisco support is way better than the competition in my experience. I can rate them five out of five.

Like most SDN solutions, Cisco ACI is easy to deploy. 

I rate Cisco ACI eight out of 10. Cisco ACI is a highly complex solution. The initial deployment is just a few clicks, but understanding how an ACI works and interacts with routing, switching, and virtualization takes a lot of knowledge. The interface isn't necessarily hard to use, but the technology concepts is complicated. If you want to understand deep dive how it works and how it integrate together , you should study hard. Other SDN solutions like Juniper IP Fabric are more straightforward. ACI is more complex in terms of the concept.

Our primary use case for Cisco ACI is to connect data center devices. 

It helps us to drive consistent ACI policies and operational best practices to our cloud instances.

The most valuable feature of Cisco ACI is that it is easy to manage. We can automate and it can be scripted. Virtual ACI is very good.

They should make it easier for the network people to do automated solutions. 

It is stable. We don't have any complaints.

The scalability of Cisco ACI is good so far.

I would give their technical support an eight out of ten.

We used Nexus 7000, 5000, and 2000 previously. The future is going to be on the data center.

The initial setup of the Cisco ACI platform is a little complex. The migration was a little tough in the beginning but once we got it, it wasn't so hard. 

We used a consultant for the deployment. Our experience with the consultant was good.

We always use Cisco. They are our main vendor. We didn't have any competition to compare. 

On a scale from 1-10, I would rate this product an eight. It's not 100% accurate yet.

We use it for virtual automation and virtual networking in our data center. It is for virtualized networks instead of physical elements.

It has centralized our projects.

It is easy to use because you have all the information coming from the same technology.

The ACI user interface is complex and Cisco should improve it.

We had to take time to learn the product, as it is quite complicated to understand.

The product is stable. We use it all day.

We have technical support with Cisco, and it is great. They are easy to reach. We are big client. They generally solve our issues.

We were previously using Cisco NX-OS products, which are physical, but we needed to install virtual. 

We have large data centers which need to be integrated with vRealize.

At beginning, it was not easy to set up, because it is a complex project. However, the initial setup was easy overall.