Cisco’s ACI to move beyond data centers to customers managing hybrid networks
Cisco recently announced it is devising a way to bring its software-defined networking (SDN) solution, Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI), to public clouds like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure.
ACI made its debut in 2013. It was developed as a way to reduce data center complexity by integrating a physical and virtual infrastructure into a single network. Under the ACI model, the network infrastructure becomes a programmable pool of resources that can be provisioned for new applications. An Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) provides an operational framework for configuration, management and operational tasks.
Cisco said it wanted to extend its ACI beyond data centers to customers who need to manage a hybrid network consisting of a physical and virtual infrastructure. With the ACI, Cisco customers will be able to run applications on both private and public clouds. The company intends to add its ACI with Application Program Interfaces (APIs) on all three public clouds.
“Customers are moving to a multi-cloud environment and in doing so more and more are looking for consistency across those environments so they don’t have to learn new tools and new APIs,” said Tom Edsall, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s ACI group. The company wants to connect multiple controllers at multiple sites so system administrators can make policies for general and specific environments. A common network management system enables users to enforce fine-grained security policies and oversee applications on both infrastructures.
A benefit of hybrid networks is they can use new SDN technologies, which provide the flexibility to meet the requirements of various locations. On the other hand, a hybrid network is more complex than a traditional network, making it difficult to troubleshoot. In addition, hybrid networks require a special kind of routers and switches to connect wired and wireless computers.
Cisco also said in a recent blog post the company is considering ways in which cloud management programs may be able to support ACI APIs. The company also said it is collaborating with cloud providers, such as Google on Kubernetes, on open source projects to help support open source management tools.
Cisco isn’t the only company to run a SDN on a hybrid network. Several SDN vendors have solutions that support the progressive shift from traditional networks to SDN. Last year, for instance, VMware announced it would expand its NSX, a virtual networking and security software product, to IaaS public cloud computing platforms.
