Enric Cuixeres - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Information Technology at Leng-d'Or
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Helps with security and threat detection
Pros and Cons
  • "We use Cisco ACI for perimeter security and threat detection."
  • "The tool's initial deployment is complex and takes five hours to complete."

What is our primary use case?

We use Cisco ACI for perimeter security and threat detection. 

What needs improvement?

The tool's initial deployment is complex and takes five hours to complete. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with the solution for six to seven years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the product's stability a nine out of ten. 

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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the tool's scalability a seven out of ten. My company has around 150 users for the solution. 

How was the initial setup?

The deployment took less than one week to complete. 

What about the implementation team?

A partner helped us with Cisco ACI's implementation. 

What other advice do I have?

The tool is easy to handle once deployed. I rate it an eight out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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IT manager at IRPC PCL
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A stable solution that enables micro-segmentation to secure servers
Pros and Cons
  • "Micro-segmentation is the solution’s most valuable feature."
  • "We faced some issues while configuring the microsegment."

What is our primary use case?

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

What is most valuable?

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

What needs improvement?

We faced some issues while configuring the microsegment. 

The solution should provide a visibility tool for troubleshooting.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution's stability is okay.

How are customer service and support?

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.

How was the initial setup?

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

What other advice do I have?

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

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Cisco ACI
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Cisco ACI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
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MasoudSabouri - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Consultant at Telcoset
Consultant
Top 10
Fabric can be managed from a single point; serial numbers can all be registered with scripts
Pros and Cons
  • "Configures from a single point and commands don't need to be configured on the spine and leaf side."
  • "There were issues when upgrading venues and registering devices."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is project-based. We deploy and configure upgraded ACIs, registered spines and leaves, and deliver projects to our customers. I'm a network consultant and we are gold partners of Cisco. 

What is most valuable?

The solution is valuable because it configures from a single point, from APs, and also all routers. Commands don't need to be configured on the spine and leaf side. You can control and manage the fabric from a single point. If you have serial numbers for your devices, they can all be registered with scripts. As a network engineer, you can configure and manage the fabric very easily. From the CLI side, it's really easy to configure from the GUI.

What needs improvement?

I faced issues when upgrading venues and registering devices. For example, in some cases, you have to reinstall the AP from scratch. We tried that and were then unable to register devices. From the network engineering perspective, it's hard to configure from the GUI. We tried to adapt but it was difficult. You have to add AP numbers for validations.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

From an operational perspective, I think if you configure the fabric correctly, it's stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable; you can have multi-site scenarios. 

How are customer service and support?

I have a good relationship with the technical support team, they are helpful. 

How was the initial setup?

Because I have a system engineering background and I have MCSA and MCSE certification from Microsoft, the setup is very simple. The largest deployment I was involved in had 300 devices. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This is an expensive solution, but it's high quality. I have experience with Huawei devices and Nokia. Huawei had many issues with bugs and I had hardware issues with Nokia. Cisco is the highest quality. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Network Manager at California Department of Corrections
Real User
A scalable solution that provides consistency and redundancy in our data centers
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are the ease of setup for redundancy, as well as centralized control."
  • "The ability for us to figure out the traffic flows, to enable some of the more segmentation parts of it, is really tough with what is built into ACI."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution in our data centers. It is for connecting servers and increasing our bandwidth and resiliency.

How has it helped my organization?

Historically, we had four different computer rooms, and they were all configured differently.  When we went through the refresh and started using ACI, it was the first time that we had a consistent setup in all of our computer rooms.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are the ease of setup for redundancy, as well as centralized control.

What needs improvement?

The ability for us to figure out the traffic flows, to enable some of the more segmentation parts of it, is really tough with what is built into ACI. It would be nice if it were part of it.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of this solution is great. We love it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not hit the limit, so it's been very scalable for us. Redundancy has been great.

How are customer service and technical support?

We hired an employee who used to work for Cisco technical support, and this person has been much more useful than the Cisco tech, itself. Technical support has not always been what we had hoped for.

However, we've had a lot of on-site support with our advanced services, and they've been great.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We work on state budget cycles, and several years went by without any kind of refresh. What we had were disparate solutions that were failing, and didn't have the same kind of redundancy or configuration. As such, the users were having a terrible experience so we had to do something. We then looked at ACI and Cisco and positioned it such that it made a lot of sense for us.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of this solution is pretty straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented this solution in-house.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We considered Cisco, Juniper, and VMware. Cisco rose to the top because of the support. It wasn't just the sale; they were going to be around afterward. We have a relationship there, that we trust.

What other advice do I have?

Cisco is there for the long haul. It's been built by network people who understand the resiliency needs for network infrastructure. It's been reliable for us, as well as scalable. It can do our one-gig, ten-gig, forty-gig, hundred-gig, it can do it all, no matter if it's legacy or new.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Solution Consultant at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Consultant
Stable with good baseline functionalities but requires better flexibility
Pros and Cons
  • "The stability is quite good."
  • "Technical support needs to be more helpful. It's rare that you get a knowledgeable person."

What is our primary use case?

Primarily, what we like is the ability to do micro-segmentation. We have many different application endpoints, and one of the key use cases for us was to be able to classify the application endpoints into arbitrary buckets of different silos. We need to be able to ensure that different endpoints will go into, let's say, a production silo, versus a development silo, versus a test silo. That was one of the use cases.

The function above and beyond that is that you get things like automation as part of the SDN framework. Therefore, you get the data center overlay that is built automatically and provisioned automatically from the automation capability that's built-in.

What is most valuable?

The solution has all of the baseline functionalities for any sort of SDN capability. 

The stability is quite good.

The initial setup is straightforward.

What needs improvement?

One of the areas that need work is feature flexibility. If you want to do things like routing policies it's not cookie-cutter, however, you want to customize routing policies. It becomes a little bit more constrained due to the feature set, the routing policy feature set within ACI, doesn't allow for you to get very customized when it comes to, let's say, failover type scenarios. However, that's just an artifact of the product maturity. It's going to take some time before the product becomes mature and they have the ability to have more customized features enabled. At version 4.0, these features were not yet available. We ended up having to basically export the routing functionality, the more advanced routing functions, outside of ACI and just put it into the routing infrastructure around it.

The initial setup is not intuitive.

Technical support needs to be more helpful. It's rare that you get a knowledgeable person.

It would be nice for them to provide visibility at a cheaper price point. Visibility is something that everybody wants to achieve with their workload. One of the benefits of SDN is supposedly the ability to collect all that telemetry and correlate it to something that is actionable and meaningful. That's a key requirement, however, the bar is so high in terms of costs. In our environment, we opted out of it as it's so expensive, however, it would be nice, as, if you don't have visibility, then how do you properly segment your workload? The minute you start segmenting, you kind of cut off workload communication. If your goal is micro-segmentation and putting your workload into arbitrary silos, and if you don't have the visibility, then it will be very difficult to achieve. Therefore, if you don't have visibility and you want micro-segmentation and you don't want to pay, then ACI is not your solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for two years at this point.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. We don't have issues with it crashing or freezing.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

While supposedly it's scalable, the program is not. I don't have any data point that I can provide for scalability within ACI, as our environment is fairly small.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is hit or miss. Sometimes you can open a ticket and you will not have to escalate it three or four different times before you get somebody that is competent. I would say that's 85% of the time, however, the other 15% of the time you get lucky and you get somebody that knows what they're talking about.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have some experience with VMware. I'd describe it as more intuitive and easier to configure, however, it's a different solution as it's software-based as opposed to ACI which is hardware-based. 

How was the initial setup?

The solution's initial setup is straightforward. It is not difficult. One other area that I would say is a negative is the way that they have their setup. It's not intuitive. It's very complicated and if you want to provision an interface or something like that and get that interface, it requires a bunch of steps that are very counter-intuitive. It's not user-friendly.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing could be a bit cheaper.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

If I compare ACI to a VMware NSX-T type solution, I don't know if there's a differentiator there compared to NSX. I will say that NSX has much higher numbers of differentiation, as they have visibility into the workload at the hypervisor. Having used ACI, we were looking at solution sets that will give us specific capabilities beyond that. The value of NSX is it will give you the visibility component.

What other advice do I have?

The version that I was working on is a 40 version, however, the company is at a 50 version at this point.

If you are looking for a solution that will give you the ability to have really good visibility into your workload, how your workload performs and functions, ACI doesn't give you that level of granularity as compared to, for instance, a solution like VMware NSX. For them to provide visibility, you're going to have to spend a lot of money on Tetration, which is another solution that they try to force on you. If visibility is one of your key requirements, then you might want to rethink your data center SDN solution for ACI.

I'd rate the solution at a six out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Jeffry Miguel De Los Santos - PeerSpot reviewer
IT manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
It helps us configure and manage all the infrastructure in our data center.
Pros and Cons
  • "The best part of Cisco ACI is the server deployment and integration."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

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.

How has it helped my organization?

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

What is most valuable?

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

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using ACI for around two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco ACI is a stable product. 

How are customer service and support?

I rate Cisco support 10 out of 10. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

In the past, I used Huawei HCI Data Center.

How was the initial setup?

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. 

What about the implementation team?

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

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Network Engineer at Direction des Systemes d'Information, Etat de Vaud
Real User
The solution makes it easier to configure changes into our data center, but the user interface needs to be made more user-friendly
Pros and Cons
  • "The centralized configuration is its most valuable feature."
  • "The only drawback that we are seeing is the user interface is still a little complex and difficult to use. It needs a more user-friendly interface."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case is using the automation for deploying new applications in our data center.

How has it helped my organization?

It is now easier than before we had ACI to configure any new changes into our data center.

What is most valuable?

The centralized configuration is its most valuable feature.

What needs improvement?

The only drawback that we are seeing is the user interface is still a little complex and difficult to use. It needs a more user-friendly interface. I do not use it daily. Every time that I have to go back and configure something, it is very difficult and confusing to remember how to do it and where the menu are located.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good.

How is customer service and technical support?

I have never had to open a technical support ticket.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex, but that was not an issue for us. The complexity was around such a big change in architecture, as there were a lot of new topics to learn.

What about the implementation team?

We used Cisco for the initial deployment. Our experience with them was very good. We have had someone on site regularly, which has been really helpful.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Cisco is the only company that we seriously considered.

What other advice do I have?

Do not be afraid of the change that Cisco ACI requires. It takes some time to get used to it. However, in the end, it is worth it as the solution is simpler and more efficient.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Habi Darr - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Network & Security Architect at The Juice Plus+ Company
Reseller
Top 10
Solid, reliable, scalable product
Pros and Cons
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

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

What is most valuable?

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

What needs improvement?

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

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with Cisco ACI since 2017.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco ACI has matured and is a very stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Cisco ACI is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

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

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

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

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Cisco's pricing is very expensive.

What other advice do I have?

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

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller/Integrator
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco ACI Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco ACI Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.