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Cisco ACI vs Cisco Enterprise Network Functions Virtualization comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 10, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.8
Customer service for Cisco ACI is mixed, with good responsiveness overall but inconsistent support and regional variations.
No sentiment score available
Cisco Enterprise Network Functions Virtualization's customer support is highly rated, though occasionally experiences prolonged cases and resolution delays.
 

Room For Improvement

Sentiment score
3.9
Cisco ACI needs better training, intuitive setup, improved GUI, enhanced security, flexible policies, and better tech support and integration.
Sentiment score
6.5
Cisco Enterprise Network Functions Virtualization requires better scalability, performance, modular upgrades, cost-efficiency, stability, orchestration, mobile optimization, and vendor compatibility.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Cisco ACI is highly rated for scalability, ease of expansion, flexibility, centralized management, and adaptability for medium to large enterprises.
Sentiment score
8.8
Cisco Enterprise Network Functions Virtualization excels in scalability for various customer sizes, with users rating it 8-10 out of 10.
 

Setup Cost

Sentiment score
4.0
Cisco ACI is costly but valued for quality in data centers, with mixed pricing opinions and concerns about licensing costs.
No sentiment score available
Cisco Enterprise NFV is considered expensive, but affordable for larger enterprises, with support charges separate and local partners providing cost value.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.9
Cisco ACI is considered highly stable and reliable, especially from version 4.2, with minor, manageable bugs and high user ratings.
Sentiment score
8.5
Cisco Enterprise Network Functions Virtualization is highly stable, reliable, and consistently outperforms competitors, with stability ratings ranging from 7 to 10.
 

Valuable Features

Sentiment score
8.4
Cisco ACI enables centralized management, streamlined configuration, and seamless VMware integration, excelling in scalability, automation, and low latency.
Sentiment score
8.7
Cisco Enterprise NFV offers stability, security, routing, WAN connectivity, and user-friendly management with efficient enterprise-level infrastructure integration.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco ACI
Ranking in Network Virtualization
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Networking (SDN) (2nd), Cloud and Data Center Security (4th)
Cisco Enterprise Network Fu...
Ranking in Network Virtualization
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Network Virtualization category, the mindshare of Cisco ACI is 46.2%, down from 47.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Enterprise Network Functions Virtualization is 1.3%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Virtualization
 

Featured Reviews

Raj Metkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides scalability, ease of migration for future DC moves, multi-tenancy and programmability
Cisco's MSO (Multi-Site Orchestrator) or NDO has room for improvement. Cisco monitors ACI through a product called NDI. I find it very frustrating that Cisco has multiple monitoring platforms. It has DNAC for monitoring Cisco NX-OS, campus switches, and any other routers and switches you would have in the environment. That same thing does not work for Cisco ACI monitoring. MEraki cloudbasd platform for Meraki which will get extended to Campus monitoring, to be honest Cisco never got Monitoring 100% right from days of CiscoWorks to Prime to current platforms. To monitor and manage Cisco ACI, you need to have another platform called NDI and Cisco Dashboard Insights. What frustrates me about Cisco is that it never has a central, single pane of glass platform for all its solutions. It has one thing for Cisco ACI and another thing for campus switches. I would really appreciate it if Cisco came up with something centralized to monitor everything. I haven't thought about anything since the Cisco NDO is quite advanced, and you can deploy your cloud networking through it. I don't know how many people use it. I might explore it as my cloud orchestration tool in the future. We do a lot of cloud automation using our scripts like TerraForm, but I would like to see people using NDO more. We could have more case studies on how many people use NDO for their cloud orchestration. That might be a much easier journey for people when they move from an on-premises data center into a cloud and move from one cloud to another cloud. That is where I personally see an orchestrator being effectively used for multiple deployments.
Majdi Sabbah - PeerSpot reviewer
Versatile, offering flexibility and scalability
I rely on Cisco Enterprise NFV for various sectors like government, campuses, and hospitality. It is a crucial foundational layer that is mandatory before delivering other services The most valuable feature is its user-friendly management dashboard. It is easy to use and covers everything in one…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
24%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
There are some very major differences between both the Products and to name a few. -Cisco ACI have physical network gear (9K Switches) where the Code runs in ACI Policy Mode & the UCS server wh...
What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
Once you know your way around the Cisco ecosystem, using Cisco ACI is not so difficult. It is a global product, so when you change one interface, changes are automatically reflected on every switch...
What do you like most about Cisco ACI?
The flexibility of adding new components with minimal impact on existing services running in the data center is a key benefit of this ACI-based solution.
What do you like most about Cisco Enterprise Network Functions Virtualization?
The most valuable feature is its user-friendly management dashboard.
What needs improvement with Cisco Enterprise Network Functions Virtualization?
There is room for improvement in enhancing compatibility with other solutions and vendors. Better integration capabilities could provide more value, especially in scenarios where a mix of solutions...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Also Known As

No data available
Cisco NFV
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bowling Green State University, du, Qatar University
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco ACI vs. Cisco Enterprise Network Functions Virtualization and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.