Cisco ACI Reviews

The main customers are Tata Consultancy and Data Communication Limited. For them, ACI's fabric capabilities, automation features, and specifically, the L4-L7 features and micro-segmentation are most valuable.

In legacy networks, managing changes requires individual tickets for each device. ACI's single pane of glass management through APIC is a big advantage.

So, single-tenant management is a plus.

Customer support for ACI needs improvement. Many customers prefer HPE because their internal support is different and easier to integrate with existing networks. This lack of awareness of ACI's capabilities makes customers stick to traditional networking.

My customers' internal teams lack ACI expertise, so Cisco should provide training or offer end-to-end use case support.

I have been using this solution for the last seven years. 

I would rate the stability an eight out of ten. 

It's quite scalable. I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten. We have features like fabric provision and tenant isolation, which makes it competitive with other OEMs.

We have enterprises primarily as our customers. 

Support can be inconsistent. Some customers have had issues.

I would rate my experience with the initial setup a nine out of ten, with ten being easy to set up. 

The initial setup is quite straightforward. Our clients have a private and hybrid cloud.  

Deployment timeframe can vary.  We get a chance to deploy the ACI on a quarterly basis.

The licensing is expensive. Customers find the price expensive.  

Remember, even a single network change with ACI instantly reflects across all devices.

Overall, Cisco ACI is excellent. I'd definitely give it a ten out of ten.

We use the solution’s microsegment for the security of the servers in the same VLAN.

Micro-segmentation is the solution’s most valuable feature.

We faced some issues while configuring the microsegment. 

The solution should provide a visibility tool for troubleshooting.

I have been using the solution for five years.

The solution's stability is okay.

When we contacted support for troubleshooting, the issue was escalated to the next level in four hours. However, the last time we had a problem, the support took a long time to investigate.

The initial setup is complex because it is a software-defined network.

I suggest that Cisco delete and add a new EPG. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

My clients use Cisco ACI for multi-site connectivity. They can use it to deploy multiple data centers and can manage the entire network from Cisco ACI Multi-Site.

I like features like policy control and micro-segmentation.

Quality Assurance could be better, and there are a lot of bugs in each release. We discover these bugs when we upgrade the ACI environment, sometimes resulting in downtime. 

In the next release, I would like to be able to manage hybrid cloud networking. So currently, if you have an ACI environment running on-premise or Epic in the cloud, we can handle it with the NexSys dashboard. But if Cisco can integrate SD WAN-related features, through which we can do multi-cloud networking, that will be an awesome feature. It should be more flexible.

I have been using Cisco ACI for more than five years.

Cisco ACI could be more stable. Bugs create performance issues.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give stability a six.

Cisco ACI is a scalable solution.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give scalability a ten.

My experience with technical support depends on the region. For example, technical support is excellent if it's an engineer from the EMEA, like Belgium. But we struggle to connect with good engineers in the APAC region.

Positive

It takes about a week to deploy this solution.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give the initial setup an eight.

We deploy this solution for our customers.

There are no additional costs. We only have to pay for a support contract apart from the license.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give pricing a seven.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Cisco ACI an eight.

We use the solution in our data center.

Virtualization and integration with VMware is the most valuable feature.

The firewall has room for improvement because there is no central inspection yet on Cisco ACI.

I would like more integration with additional security solutions. 

The upgrade cycle has room for improvement.

I have been using the solution for four years.

I give the stability an eight out of ten.

I give the scalability an eight out of ten.

We have around 10,000 people in our organization.

The technical support is very good.

Positive

I give the initial setup a five out of ten. The setup is complex moving a data center. The deployment took us six months.

Three people were required for deployment and they are responsible for the low and high-level design as well as the migration.

The implementation was completed with Cisco Professional services.

I give the solution a six out of ten.

The maintenance is performed by Cisco themselves as part of our service plan.

For organizations that are already working with Cisco solutions, it is easy to upgrade to Cisco ACI, but if other vendors are being used I suggest thinking carefully before switching to Cisco because it can become difficult.

Our primary use case is replacing Nexus 7000 with Cisco NX-OS. We would like to replace this actuator with the newer Cisco ACI platform. We currently use Cisco Nexus 9000.

Cisco ACI improved the stability of our IT system and our data center.

We currently use the smooth upgrade process available in Cisco ACI, and it's really useful. I also like the augmentation of the bandwidth available in the platform with 10 and 40 GB interfaces.

Cisco ACI helps us better secure our infrastructure from end to end because we can use a contract to secure flow between endpoints in the data center.

Because we can use automation processes with this platform, we have been able to free up our IT department's time.

We can deploy applications quickly with automation, and we have been able to save time overall as an organization as well.

Our problems with Cisco ACI are mainly related to the contracts and how to manage them easily in the platform. Cisco also needs to improve the log files and the complexity of the graphical interface.

Cisco ACI is stable, and we haven't had any problems with the stability of the system.

We haven't had any problems with scaling the platform because it's easy to add a leaf or spine.

We have had good experiences with Cisco's technical support. They respond quickly and with accurate responses.

It takes some time to understand the new terms and concepts, but the deployment itself is completely smooth. We didn't have any problems deploying the solution.

We first deployed the solution on our qualification data center so that we could test the solution before we deployed it in the production data center.

We implemented it with the help of an integrator.

The pricing and licensing are both high, particularly if you want a high level of functionality. It would be great if the price and licensing costs could be decreased.

Cisco ACI works well, and it has been a good investment for us. There are a few areas for improvement, so I would give Cisco ACI an overall rating of eight out of ten.

We use this solution to achieve a properly defined data center, so we basically use it for SDN. 

The basic functionality that is the most useful is creating a virtual network on a physical device. We use it for Software-Defined Networking where we have a centralized controller, and the rest of the switches are just for packing traffic. When you have a centralized controller, it's easy to manage.

The virtualization part of it is still all hardware-based. You have to buy the switches, and they have to be Cisco switches. You cannot roll the Software-Defined Network and network virtualization over onto any other product. For example, if I have a mix of Juniper and Cisco in my network, they are of the same physical fabric layer, but when I want to virtualize, it's quite difficult. You cannot do it. There are solutions like NSX that can sit pretty on any physical layer, but Cisco SDN will only work with its own devices, so that's a downside. They need to be able to achieve virtualization end-to-end with Cisco ACI.

I have been using this product for over four years.

I rate the solution a nine and a half out of ten for stability. 

You can scale the solution, but you cannot scale to other products. I rate the solution an eight out of ten for scalability. 

For backup you might want two people, but one person can handle all of the maintenance. Everything is managed centrally. This is a backend product, so not everyone knows they are using Cisco ACI. The organization I currently work for has over 10,000 employees, and practically everyone is involved in usage of the solution. 

If you have the right license and premium support, the tech support is a nine out of ten.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the initial setup as a nine. It was very easy. There are some external factors you need to connect, like cables. However, with the push of a button, in less than 15 minutes, you can roll out the basic Cisco configuration.

It's a graphic installation. You will see buttons: "Next," "Next," "Next." It's very easy to get up and running, just like setting up a phone. "Do you want to install this?" "Yes." "Do you want to enable this?" "Yes." "Do you want to configure this?" Unlike before where you had to configure Cisco switches one at a time, now you manage and configure it centrally, and you have a template to work with.

Sometimes we handle the deployment ourselves, but for the current deployment we are rolling out, we have a system integrator. We have Cisco itself involved. 

The good thing about Cisco is that you can trade in your old products to replace them with ACI. On a scale of one to ten, where one is inexpensive and ten is expensive, I would rate them a two. 

We considered VMware NSX, but some believe that VMware is vulnerable, so we stuck with Cisco. 

I would 100% recommend Cisco ACI to other users. I would rate this solution as a ten out of ten. 

Cisco ACI is primarily used for automation of the data center networking environment.

Cisco ACI's best features include its network-centric approach and micro-segmentation.

Cisco ACI would be improved by providing a cloud offering; otherwise, it risks becoming a niche product.

I've been working with Cisco ACI since 2017.

Cisco ACI has matured and is a very stable product.

Cisco ACI is scalable.

Cisco's technical support is very responsive and quick to resolve issues.

Positive

The setup can be complex if you take an application-centric approach, but a network-centric approach is relatively straightforward.

Cisco's pricing is very expensive.

I'd give Cisco ACI a rating of eight out of ten.

We use ACI to configure and manage all the infrastructure in our data center. We're trying to automate the process and centralize the management of all our devices. We deploy the network-centric mode in our Cisco ACI.

ACI divides the management process in the network. It's a software-defined solution.

The best part of Cisco ACI is the server deployment and integration.

We have been using ACI for around two years. 

Cisco ACI is a stable product. 

I rate Cisco support 10 out of 10. 

Positive

In the past, I used Huawei HCI Data Center.

Deploying Cisco ACI was a little complex because we needed to add a lot to the fabric. You need to configure some servers, connect everything, make templates, and deploy switches. It takes five people to deploy and maintain. 

We used an in-house team to deploy ACI with support from Cisco.

We pay for a yearly license. I think we buy it for three or five years. 

I am an assistant vice president. My role involves product management, presales, and delivery of Cisco ACI. We have deployed the solution on-premises and in the cloud. We have different verticals, UIs, and data centers. We consolidate the data center on the basis of region. The data centers are in different regions such as Apex, Europe, and the U.S. Recently, we have MSO connected to Cisco Cloud.

Cisco ACI is an automation requirement where they want to consolidate data centers. We wanted a hybrid Oracle solution where services can be monitored and managed from the cloud and equally can be deployed on-premises. From an application perspective, fifty percent can be moved to the cloud and fifty percent of the on-premises applications cannot be moved due to application restraints.

We use all the features provided by Cisco ACI including orchestration to layer seven, service training, load enhancements, and firewalls.

There are many bug fixes required with Cisco ACI. Whenever there is an issue, we raise it to their tech support and wait for a response. In the meantime, we come up with a version upgrade or patch upgrade so that it can be fixed. One concern we found after 15 days of troubleshooting was a multicasting issue. For many of the applications, we were using multicasting.

It is challenging for people who don't understand the programming language, making it difficult to migrate. With technology, there are two verticals. One is hardware driven and the other is software driven. Most people in our domain understand networking, but they don't understand programming. When we migrate, some programming is required.

I recommend that rather than creating individual stacks we are given some UI-based solutions. This type of functionality would allow us to create a tenant then click on bridge two, and then create it on a VR. Currently, we are using some scripts with help from Postman for migrations from a traditional data center to the cloud.

Over the past six months, I am more interested in the cloud and IoT. From a security perspective, I would recommend Cisco comes up with solutions for ACI and a portal perspective. 

The Apex GUI needs improvement, so end users can follow the proper steps without having to go through the guide, giving more flexibility to the GUI. This will ensure that the user can easily build the configuration.

I have been using Cisco ACI for six years.

Early on, Cisco ACI was not stable. As it matures, it improves. Integration is the biggest challenge with this hybrid solution. From a security perspective, it wasn't stable.

The maintenance of Cisco ACI depends on the project. We use different delivery teams or supporting teams on a project-by-project basis. We handle the delivery and implementation and in the back end, there is a third team that maintains operations.

This solution is scalable. We are system integrators providing solutions to our customers. Approximately fifty percent of our customers are using ACI. 

With experience and after training, the initial setup is not easy. An individual who is going to implement this solution needs some support at the start. 

Deployment depends on how many workloads there are. We migrated more than 300 VMs with the help of tech support. It took three days to complete.

I would rate the ease of setup a three and a half out of five.

We had training and support from Cisco and live enrollment. It was helpful. We followed the initial implementation strategy. It depends on the application structure, what type of application, and how the applications are combined on-premises. The types of services and the type of payment, AD DNS, are also considerations together with security services and how the communication is going to happen between the app and the native services like AD DNS. 

This requires us to work with the application team and complete our homework. We used Excel on a per-application basis. Using Postman, we upload it in the format. Usually, it's a subnet IP schema.

Anyone looking to implement Cisco ACI should look into the cloud features. Ensure you work with the skills you understand, and try to understand some programming to make the job easier. 

I would rate this solution between a seven and an eight out of 10.

Cisco ACI is the next-generation SDN-based solution that Cisco uses for almost every style of data center or server farm. It's similar to what we used when we wanted to build a facility containing our computing storage and everything we already have in our data center. However, this one is different because it uses innovative technology that combines VXLAN, MP-BGP, and SDN.

It has an amazing graphical user interface, and it integrates well with other brands like VMware. You can even integrate ACI with NSX in the latest versions. ACI integrates with NSX in version 5 and above. You can also use it with Kubernetes, OpenShift, and Cloud Foundry. It also has agents for cloud platforms like AWS and Azure.

ACI's most valuable feature is its SDN capabilities. Everything is on your software design controller. Everything is blocked by default until you allow it. 

The integration has room for improvement. There should be a drag-and-drop interface for configuring the integration where you connect some arrows to boxes, and the system takes care of the configuration. 

Right now, they have something similar, but it's limited. You have to take care of some things yourself. That is one area that the solution can work on. It's easy now, but it's much easier in other solutions.

Cisco ACI is highly stable. I've deployed it at six or seven data centers, and we've never had any issues with stability. It's a hundred percent reliable, but you have to consider some things. You can't deploy any version of your box and expect it to be stable because Cisco has some rules. For example, Cisco has a recommended version. It means that other versions may contain bugs.

Starting in 2000, if you open a switch, you will see a small motherboard, and the switch will work forever. There was no configuration. You just ran a few commands, and everything was done. Today, when you open a switch, you see a whole computer. For example, you can deploy the Cisco Catalyst 9000 with Python script. So there have been a lot of improvements and a lot of things.

Also, when they update ACI, you will face some bugs because this isn't a limited motherboard. Now, the motherboard is like a computer. You can expect some bugs, but you won't have that many issues compared to other solutions if you use the recommended version.

The initial setup is effortless. You can deploy ACI even if you have limited routing knowledge because everything is done automatically. The underlay network is IS-IS, while the overlay network is BGP. You don't need to know anything about IS-IS or BGP. 

You need at least two people to deploy ACI. More than two engineers might be required. Your VM engineer should join you if you're working with a virtualized environment,  and your storage network engineer should take part if the project involves storage. In total, it should be maybe two to three people.

I rate Cisco ACI nine out of 10.