Hey there! Time for a new post with the latest news on Cisco ACI and Nexus 9000. Funny, I thought that the speed of innovation would go down with time, but it is actually going up! In my opinion, that has a lot to do with the extended partner ecosystem and the programmability possibilities of ACI, that allow to build new solutions on top of it. Enough chatter though, let’s go for the meat:
- 7.0(3)I2(3) for N9K NXOS has been released, here you have the release notes: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus9000/sw/7-x/release/notes/70323_nxos_rn.html.
- Some EX-hardware already orderable in Cisco Commerce Workspace, like the Nexus 93108YC-EX ToR switch or the 9732C-EX line card for the N9500
- In cisco.com:
- White papers:
- SPAN possibilities inside ACI: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center-virtualization/application-centric-infrastructure/white-paper-c11-736974.html
- Programmability: http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/gain-network-programmability.pdf
- NXOS-to-ACI migration: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center-virtualization/application-centric-infrastructure/white-paper-c11-736866.html
- N7K/ASR integration with ACI: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center-virtualization/application-centric-infrastructure/white-paper-c11-736899.html
- Blogs:
- Cisco blog: 10M N3K ports sold: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/3-reasons-10-million-is-a-big-number
- About CliQr and ACI: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/profile-once-deploy-anywhere
- See this one on smart buffers: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/intelligentbuffer
- SDN lessons learnt: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/3-sdn-lessons-in-3-years-of-production-learn-from-cisco-aci-and-citrix-netscaler-best-practices. For the impatient:
- Plan big, start small
- Start clean
- One step at a time
- White papers:
- ACI:
- Customer ACI success stories:
- Design infos on how Cisco IT uses ACI: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/aci/apic/white_papers/Cisco_IT_ACI_Design.html
- Customer case study on Hutchinson Networks and ACI: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/case-studies-customer-success-stories/hutchinson-networks.html
- Customers speak on ACI: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/customers-speak-out-on-aci-speed-simplicity-security (see the corresponding youtube video in the “Videos” section too)
- NTT Docomo adopts ACI: http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1753087
- Blog: Compelling RoI of the solution based on ACI and AVI Networks: https://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/cisco-aci-and-avi-networks-deliver-compelling-roi-and-automation-to-leading-financial-management-software-firm
- Siam City Cement PCL success story with ACI: http://unleashingit.com/articles/A15A4.aspx
- Integra Telecom achieves a 368% RoI with ACI: http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center-virtualization/application-centric-infrastructure/idc-roi-integratelecom.pdf
- And this one with Tele2: https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/tele2-preps-5g-openstack-huawei-cisco-nfv-tools/2016/03/
- Openstack:
- Cisco ACI Opflex plugin for Fuel (Mirantis): http://plugins.mirantis.com/docs/a/c/aci_opflex/aci_opflex-7.0-7.0.7-1.pdf
- Information in Mirantis Web site on the Cisco integration: https://www.mirantis.com/partners/cisco/
- The new ACI OpenStack plugin 1.2(2.20160322) added support for Liberty on Red Hat, Mirantis and Canonical.
- ScienceLogic for ACI monitoring: https://www.sciencelogic.com/product/resources/cisco-aci-monitoring
- New ACI training session: Logical Model Overview (part 3), by Zach Seils: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-26857
- Customer ACI success stories:
- From the web:
- A refreshing view (in my opinion) on what a microsegmentation solution should offer: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2016/03/28/how-to-choose-a-microsegmentation-solution-to-protect-vms/
- Very interesting perspective on the role of the network for microservices architectures: https://medium.com/lightspeed-venture-partners/in-the-land-of-microservices-the-network-is-the-king-maker-37de7ec4119a
- Large scale DC design at LinkedIn, powered by the Nexus 3232C: https://engineering.linkedin.com/blog/2016/03/the-linkedin-data-center-100g-transformation
- New Gartner technology category: NPB or “Network Packet Broker”, the place where Cisco Nexus Data Broker plays. See their analysis here: https://www.gartner.com/doc/reprints?id=1-2WO9JPT&ct=160120&st=sb
- vArmour integrates with ACI: https://info.varmour.com/rs/650-OZW-112/images/vArmour-Cisco-SB-HQ.pdf
- See in this CL session by David Jansen on an implementation of multicast routing in ACI using external routers: https://www.ciscolive.com/online/connect/sessionDetail.ww?SESSION_ID=89910&backBtn=true (from slide 102 on, but don’t miss the rest)
- ACI integration with Infoblox over CliQr: https://community.infoblox.com/t5/Company-Blog/Infoblox-brings-core-network-services-to-Cisco-Application/ba-p/5685
- Week summary of Citrix at CLMEL, by our friend Dave Potter: https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2016/03/10/what-a-week-citrix-at-ciscolive-melbourne/
- Interview with Soni Jiandani about the CliQr acquisition: https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/cliqr-will-remain-independent-promises-cisco
- Videos:
- Why ACI? CLEUR Wow moments – customer statements (2:40): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eJNgm6hhhs
- ACI and the SDDC, session at a VMUG UserCon courtesy of Anna Shepelenko (42:59): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TI-mjuBKHQ
- ACI in 5, short video series by Lauren Malhoit on ACI benefits. Check this one out on intra-EPG segmentation (2:18): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7gVLKu3jjU
- And this one by Carly Stoughton on the ACI integration with CliQr (11:45): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1LfRfVtNvc
- On ACI, UCS, SAP and Vnomic (4:00): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMMffmiIyWs
- And a customer testimonial (Dimension Data) using the previous solution, SAP+Vnomic+ACI (1:11): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7d0bHJ5yP4
- Unleashing SAP with Cisco ACI (4:49): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0bG36KAtys
- FirePower NGIPSv integration with Cisco ACI (33:56): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu574_qahPg
- SDN and ACI (4:20): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZm3UPtBhL4
- On the importance of hardware innovation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxhVPFSPkes
- Soni Jiandani on joint solution with F5 (1:43): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBpLsDI6AnE
- Achieve new efficiency levels with CliQr and ACI (0:59): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8kKTJ8umPU
- 100G transceivers in the DC (2:03): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4tdLzDggf4
- Another great video by WWT, this time on a CliQr+ACI demo (11:19): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQxskkK_urQ
- Zenoss and ACI (8:58): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0Aim54GZiI
Thanks for reading down to here! Did I forget anything?
Cloudtrooper 