Cisco ACI Reviews

We are switching the Nexus line to ACI for our customer: the server, firewall, etc.

We will improve our organization using the automation.

• Its resilience
• It easy to configure.

They need more documentation. Because when we hit an issue and searched on Google, we didn't find a lot of documents about the issue. Possibly because it's a new product.

We are deploying ACI, and at same time, we are testing migration from our old network. Our old next is Nexus, latest version, and we have a less load balancing and it's hard to migrate. We are hitting some issues, so maybe there is room for improvement.

It is to early to evaluate the stability.

The scalability is okay. We are deploying the leaf switches one-to-one.

The technical support is okay. We have been looking into some issues with our legacy network when migrating our ACI. While the tech support has responded well, we are still waiting for some more information.

We were having some issues with our network, so we took some advice from Cisco regarding that product, and looked for another product to replace it.

We deployed a lot of Fabrics to multiple sites, which was a bit complex.

We only worked directly with Cisco's IT, and they provide some consultants onsite to help us.

Cisco ACI is a good solution, but Cisco needs to test all the networks before doing a migration.

We deploy Cisco ACI within our customer's data centers, providing them with the capability to configure the software-defined network as per their defined requirements. This solution empowers customers to centrally monitor and control the network without the need for individual edge management. Moreover, it offers scalability, allowing for easy expansion in the future.

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. Customers appreciate the unified control and management provided by ACI, allowing them to oversee the entire data center centrally. This solution facilitates seamless communication between various services and ensures future scalability with minimal configurations and operational effort. The cost savings for customers are notable, particularly in instances where adding ports or making operational adjustments is a straightforward process, requiring minimal resources. ACI stands out as a state-of-the-art, high-performance, and highly scalable solution.

Its scalability and reliability capabilities should be enhanced.

We have been working with it for approximately eight years.

Occasionally, we encounter the need to reset certain programs due to bugs within one of the implemented data features. This requires performing upgrades approximately every six months to address and resolve these issues. I would rate its stability capability eight out of ten.

While I acknowledge that the solution is scalable, there are occasional bugs and the need for upgrades or adjustments approximately every five years. We operate on multiple levels, with small, medium, and high scalability organizations. Typically, we opt for the highest scalable level during our implementations. I would rate its scalability at seven out of ten.

I would rate its customer service and support nine out of ten.

Positive

Overall, I would rate it eight out of ten.

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.

Right now, we are using ACI Fabric to replace legacy equipment.

The customer is in a phase where they are building all the Fabric and moving everything. Therefore, it is early to discuss the use case. In the short-term, they plan to use ACI Fabric  to replace everything (their entire infrastructure) that they have at the moment. 

You can do a lot of things with it because it is a very flexible solution.

There is quite a learning curve at the beginning.

I haven't seen any major issues with stability.

The scalability is great. This is the greatest feature of the technology. It is a great improvement in scaling out. It can greatly increase the overall scalability of the Fabric with multi-port and multi side, making it a great product.

There is a dedicated support team inside the Cisco, except (instead of them) we are doing all the day-to-day, standard support activities for our customers.

The ACI setup is in its initial phases is difficult. The learning curve at the beginning is higher than a normal setup. However, there is a point in which you have all your objects setup,  policy, etc., then you can reuse them, which is faster compared with a more traditional software, e.g., Nexus 7000 or Catalyst. Once you overcome the learning curve, you can move on with the rest of it.

Cisco ACI is a good solution, so I would recommend it.

The primary use case for Cisco ACI is for managing our data center and network switches. We will use it for the whole data center environment eventually.

We are still growing it in our main data center. We haven't even expanded it to our recovery data center yet. As far as managing a static environment, so far, it's been great. When it comes to adding in new changes and new things, that's where we're going to have some challenges. Cisco ACI is difficult both technically to build it out and then operationally to manage.

It's improved the static configuration of our data center switching environment. But it's added some challenges to our ability to operationalize it and make it easier for people to manage. 

The good side of it is being able to control your network switching and routing in the data center from a single control point.

I don't have any new features that I need in Cisco ACI yet because we're still learning and making it work in our environment today. I don't have anything new. 

The one big challenge with it is Cisco going from a perpetual license model to a licensing model that is renewed every year. You pay a large fee to use stuff like this. That to me is one of our challenges.

Making training more available for all of our employees and not even at a cost would help. If you want this to be deployed to all the data centers everywhere it's got to be something that everyone can sit down and get training on. 

If you're going to try and operationalize it amongst existing staff members and even up-coming ones, it's not a simple thing to sit down and learn. 

I've been doing this for thirty-five years now. It's one of the most difficult things I've had to sit down and learn myself.

With the stability so far we've had very few issues with Cisco ACI. A couple of routing problems that were glitches within ACI. Other than that, the environment is stable and we like it.

Scalability is great in a Cisco ACI environment. But when you're migrating from an old data center into ACI, there are some challenges. 

In all the people that manage it, most are just trying to throw entire networks with multiple environments on them into ACI. It's good but it also has a lot of challenges for us.

Technical support is good but limited because Cisco ACI is so new. There's a lack of expertise on the support side. You need to get the right engineer on the call when you're having a problem.

The initial setup of the Cisco ACI is straightforward but also complex. Once you have designed how you're going to deploy it, i.e. your naming conventions and how you're going to configure things, it is standardized. 

That part of it is standard and easy to deploy. It's coming to that point where you've got the complexity of your naming conventions and all those things stood up properly that is hard.

It's only this engineer that we hired with a great mind who could make it work for us.

We relied on an engineer who we hired on a contract side but was well versed in a lot of things. He had not done an ACI in deployment. Between him and our dedicated Cisco support engineers, we were able to stand it up without too many issues.

The number one reason we chose it was that eventually, we will doing some sort of SD (Software Defined) access. When a user gets on the network and they connect, they'll have a persona. We'll know who they are. We'll know what to allow them into. A lot of that'll be controlled through ACI on the data center side.

We didn't have SD access. We're still going in that direction. It's going to be a while.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate this product in the five to six range. It is a good product. It will be solid as it matures. It's technically challenging for anyone.

One guy has stood up most of our environment. We are trying to use him to train all the rest of our staff. But it's a slow process. 

Understanding how to get in under the hood and make ACI work is not a simple task unless you're in and out of it regularly. Even the gentleman who installed it and works on it most of the time has to go back and play with it on his own before he makes changes. 

Just to remember how things are done is difficult because it's got a lot of uniqueness to it in the way things are deployed.

Anyone using Cisco ACI should know what their direction is. How much money do they have to spend? Then I could sit down with them and tell them whether ACI would the best solution or not for what they are doing. 

I don't think ACI is for everyone. It's for larger data centers that are going down this path of SD access. I am sure there are competitors out there now. We're just not looking into them because we already have ACI deployed. That where we're at now.

Our use case is to change our network architecture and install new free data centres for our company.

It has been able to  transverse all the processes between two companies merging into one: Air France and KLM.

I have found the SDN features to be the most valuable.

The product needs to be more visible on the Internet and have the ability to be integrated into more software developments. For example, with Amazon, you can click and deploy SDN with firmware, but not with SDI. It needs simpler process to be deployed everywhere. 

The Multi-site is not easy to use. While Cisco has plans to change this going forward, for now, it is complex.

It is very stable.

It is really scalable. It is the most scalable product that I have tried.

We have been one year on the project and it is very scalable. We have tested it in our data centres, and it's easy to add more automation processes.

I would rate the technical support as an eight out of ten, because it can be very difficult to find the right person to provide us answers. Our project needs a lot of knowledge with very complex solutions.

It has a very complex setup, because it is a complex solution. However, we have a great level of knowledge.

We used Cisco directly and an integrator. We had very good experiences with both of them.

We evaluated Cisco ACI vs VMware.

Now, I don't want to switch to another solution. I want to use this one, because it is the only solution that we tried for our use cases to unclog holes, resources, and work loads.

It is a very good solution to improve architecture. Read the literature.

I use Cisco for security and collaborating. I use this solution with WebEx, WebEx Teams, and WebEx Board.

It's a hybrid solution.

I like using WebEx Board.

I would like this solution to be integrated with Pure Storage.

I've been using this solution for 22 years.

It's stable.

It's scalable.

I've contacted technical support.

The cost is fine.

I would rate this solution 9 out of 10.

I would recommend this solution.

The primary use case for Cisco ACI is to migrate a legacy data center, including the new infrastructure.

The product has performed well. 

Automation is its most valuable feature.

The challenging thing about Cisco ACI was we had to put a lot of effort into providing the customer the full picture, new standards, and new technology that they had to use. This was more challenging than deploying the product.

There should be more focus on training and support.

I would like to see is more integration with services and service graphs.

The stability has been good.

The project is pretty small, but from what we have seen, it is scalable.

There have been challenges with the technical support. Though, the product is almost three to four-years-old, there are still things that only a few people can solve. So, Cisco should put more effort into training their people.

The business switched because the legacy way of operating these type of data centers is no longer optimal.

The initial setup was straightforward. It was easy to set up, because our plans for migration were very detailed. We didn't have any problems with it.

We are the partner and the integrator.

It was Cisco ACI vs VMware NSX.

Eventually, the client chose Cisco ACI because they had more experience with Cisco and they still had a lot of physical infrastructure to handle.

It is one of the better solutions in the market right now.