Cisco ACI Initial Setup

Vasil Mitrov - PeerSpot reviewer
Telecom Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

The initial setup for Cisco ACI is very straightforward so I can give it a ten for the setup.

The deployment strategy for Cisco ACI depends on existing architecture. If you do it from scratch, it's much more manageable. Everything is easier to install versus migrating from your existing network, then it will be a little bit complicated.

Migrating is more complicated than deploying Cisco ACI from scratch because you have to do some tracking and move server by server or subnet by subnet from your existing network to your new environment. If the existing network has security rules, it's much more complicated to migrate to your new architecture, which would take time.

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Eyal Amar - PeerSpot reviewer
Presales Manager for Networking/DC team at Malam-Team

I rate Cisco ACI an eight out of ten for the ease of its initial setup.

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RK
Senior DGM at Bharat Electronics Limited

The initial setup was complex and took some time (almost six months), particularly to stabilize, as there were some issues during installation. I would rate the ease of the setup process as three out of five.

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Buyer's Guide
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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Ehsan Emad - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of IT at Synnapex

The initial setup is effortless. You can deploy ACI even if you have limited routing knowledge because everything is done automatically. The underlay network is IS-IS, while the overlay network is BGP. You don't need to know anything about IS-IS or BGP. 

You need at least two people to deploy ACI. More than two engineers might be required. Your VM engineer should join you if you're working with a virtualized environment,  and your storage network engineer should take part if the project involves storage. In total, it should be maybe two to three people.

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SG
Post Sales Manager at Vcom Teachnologies

I would rate my experience with the initial setup a nine out of ten, with ten being easy to set up. 

The initial setup is quite straightforward. Our clients have a private and hybrid cloud.  

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Farhan_Mohamed - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Solutions Architect at NTT Ltd.

The initial setup isn't too complex, depending on the user's background. If a person is comfortable with Cisco products, it won't be too hard. You do have to use the command line, which makes it a tedious task. That said, you have more advantages with configuration capabilities. 

I'd rate the process eight or nine out of ten in terms of ease of setup. For the most part, it takes five to six steps.

It doesn't take too long to set up the entire product. It's easier than the other areas of the Cisco portfolio. Cisco is also making deployments easier to handle in general. It might take a few days since it is software-defined. 

On a high level, if the customer has a lot of devices, it might take two to three hours, and then you need to integrate everything. It shouldn't take more than 30 minutes after that to deploy and get the devices integrated. It's just working on it and reviewing tasks, which takes some time. It's an ongoing process.

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AS
Technical Marketing Engineer - Hybrid Cloud Infrastructures at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

It takes about a week to deploy this solution.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give the initial setup an eight.

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VN
Data Center Consulting Engineer at Techrun Stock Exchange

Generally, I find the initial setup and configuration of Cisco ACI to be one of the simplest processes in the context of this technology, except in rare cases involving unique configurations. I would rate it eight out of ten.

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Ehsan Emad - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of IT at Synnapex

In most cases, you just plug in the cables and it even has the cable cave, a guard system, attached spine to spine. In my opinion, the initial part that involves creating the overlay is very easy compared to an MP-BGP or VPN solution. So in that case, it definitely takes hours, especially if the site that you are working with ACI is multi-tenant. If it's multi-tenant and you are not using ACI or an MPG EVP solution, then it's hard for you to take care of the road fillers. And a BGP road target must be very accurate, but here you don't deal with anything. This is also very great about ACI, which takes less networking. There's no port. Everything is tied to the object. So that's very easy. I believe that it is exactly the same environment and same thing that we face with the Cisco Blade system. You can create a foreign device and attach it to any server on the Blade and everything works fine. 

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JM
Network Architect at a government with 10,001+ employees

It takes some time to understand the new terms and concepts, but the deployment itself is completely smooth. We didn't have any problems deploying the solution.

We first deployed the solution on our qualification data center so that we could test the solution before we deployed it in the production data center.

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AL
Manager at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the initial setup as a nine. It was very easy. There are some external factors you need to connect, like cables. However, with the push of a button, in less than 15 minutes, you can roll out the basic Cisco configuration.

It's a graphic installation. You will see buttons: "Next," "Next," "Next." It's very easy to get up and running, just like setting up a phone. "Do you want to install this?" "Yes." "Do you want to enable this?" "Yes." "Do you want to configure this?" Unlike before where you had to configure Cisco switches one at a time, now you manage and configure it centrally, and you have a template to work with.

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RS
Manager Network & Communication Engineer at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees

When it comes to the installation, it is important to keep in mind that we are a corporate enterprise, which means that the complexity and customization are there. Many locations must be connected with each other. There is a need to apply many routing protocols, including EIGRB, static, and BGP. We have many protected areas in the backbone. 

In the middle are data center firewalls, which lie between the user and core switches. We also manage the wireless access. There is also Cisco Identity Service Engine, which manages access to the internet using authentication and posturing, based on the configured policies.

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DT
Sr Manager at Cognizant

The initial setup is straightforward. It is not complex at all. It is plug-and-play. Then you add more switches into the network and you don't need to configure anything. 

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LS
Major Change Supervisor at Vodafone

The setup was complex because we have a complex internet architecture. It wasn't because of the product. It was complex because of internal issues on our side. 

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VP
Network Architect at Neev limited

Anyone setting up Cisco ACI for the first time will see that it requires a lot of resources. Still, even if the initial setup is complicated, you can refer to the Cisco website regarding the steps you need to perform to complete the setup. Cisco explained the process well, and you can even take a workshop on it.

From a configuration point of view, I found Cisco ACI complex because it isn't easy to create the policy. Unless you have a good networking background, you won't be able to set up Cisco ACI easily.

For example, if your organization doesn't have experienced engineers, Cisco provides a two-day workshop for your engineers. Cisco also offers many free tools in the market to help you set up your account.

On a scale of one to five, I'm rating the initial setup for Cisco ACI as four.

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Enric Cuixeres - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Information Technology at Leng-d'Or

The deployment took less than one week to complete. 

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NS
IT manager at IRPC PCL

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

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MasoudSabouri - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Consultant at Telcoset

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. 

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JS
Network Manager at California Department of Corrections

The initial setup of this solution is pretty straightforward.

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KL
Solution Consultant at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

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.

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Jeffry Miguel De Los Santos - PeerSpot reviewer
IT manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

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. 

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GR
Network Engineer at Direction des Systemes d'Information, Etat de Vaud

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.

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Habi Darr - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Network & Security Architect at The Juice Plus+ Company

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

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MR
Network Engineer at Societe Generale

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

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FJ
Chief Security Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

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.

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RD
Network Consulting Engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

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.

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MH
Lead Network Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

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.

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Stephane Deroch - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Architect at Air France

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

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GR
Information Security Architect at Progress Software Corporation

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.

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IA
Network Consultant at Onstack Inc

The initial setup is really straightforward. Very easy.

In terms of implementation strategy, Cisco has a concept called the Zero Touch installation, where you just connect the fabric and it actually starts discovering its own fabric. The implementation strategy is to install ACI in a silo'ed environment first, set all the policies there, and then connect your existing network parallel to ACI so that the network has a redundant connection to ACI. Then you gradually move your network connections from the legacy to ACI. This is how Cisco recommends an implementation be done.

It usually doesn't take more than a week for all that, max. We usually do it with two people, and we do it very smoothly. Usually, when you bring the fabric up, you have to make a lot of policies, including software profiles and the like. That is time-consuming work, but once it's done you can just recall them again and again in the customer's environment. That's the only thing that we need two people for. After that, when you're done, a single engineer can get migrate the network to ACI.

Maintenance of ACI is really easy, to decommission a leaf switch or a spine switch. When you decommission a switch from your existing ACI fabric, it's straightforward. In general one engineer is required for maintenance with a second engineer as a backup. Maintenance is really easy with ACI. Even if you're upgrading your fabric to new software, it's straightforward because they have built-in connections within the fabric. There is zero downtime. We have done it many times with zero downtime in a production environment.

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SA
Director Design, Architecture & Security at Syntax Systems GmbH & Co KG

The initial setup is straightforward, as it has a network-centric approach.

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PK
Assistant Vice President at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees

With experience and after training, the initial setup is not easy. An individual who is going to implement this solution needs some support at the start. 

Deployment depends on how many workloads there are. We migrated more than 300 VMs with the help of tech support. It took three days to complete.

I would rate the ease of setup a three and a half out of five.

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LC
Consultant Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

The initial deployment is not difficult, but the migration from old networks to Cisco API is not easy. However, migrations are usually not easy.

If I were to rate the deployment on a scale from one to five with one being the most difficult and five being the easiest, I'd give it a two.

It's not difficult to maintain, but it's difficult to learn how to maintain it. Once you learn it, however, it's easy to maintain.

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PI
Technical Lead at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

The initial setup is very straightforward. If you have some basic knowledge you will be able to deploy ACI. Some of the guys feel that it is a little complicated but if they understood tenancy more and the object structure, they would be easily able to deploy ACI.

We can deploy everything in less than two days. The difficulty is that we are working in data centers so we need to look for downtime for the customers. If they are using automation we can deploy everything in a single day. If we are doing manual, it can take three or four days.

But in real scenarios, customers cannot always give us downtime. They tell us to wait for some time and they do migration one by one.

On my team, I am the only one who does deployment. We don't need anybody's help for migration. But we expect a few team members to be involved on the customer's side, people from the server team and the network team, because we need support from them.

Maintenance is very easy. If there are two spines and you are doing an upgrade, you can shut down one spine and do the maintenance. Once that is done you bring up the one you shut down and do the second spine, and similarly for all leaves and all APICs. There is no impact to the server base and zero downtime.

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FN
Network and Security Manager at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The initial setup was straightforward. 

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AD
IT Networker Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

The initial set up was complex. We had to deploy 120 leads. Migrating from Legacy Cisco network to ACI was complex. 

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DB
Network Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

The initial setup is not straightforward at all. Cisco just released a document that tells you how to set it up, but before that, it was overwhelming. 

To set up, Cisco ACI takes months. There are so many features and you're too scared. They did release a pdf that shows you a step through, i.e. how to set up your ACI fabric. Before that, there's just bare-bones information for something so expensive. It was kind of funny. They just released it.

My complaint about this is: We purchased the ACI gear, but to do monitoring, to do stats, to do telemetry statistics, etc. we have to purchase another product from Cisco. 

I would ask from Cisco when we purchase the hardware if some of these features could be built in the purchase. Now I'm dissatisfied that I have to purchase this to do basic monitoring. It should all be built in.

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BJ
Senior Network Engineer

The setup was quite straightforward. Building the Fabric with the automatic discovery process doesn't require you to do a lot compared to the old legacy networks.

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MB
Network Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

At the beginning, the initial setup was complex because it was another way of networking. After the first installation, the second and third installation with ACI Fabric was a bit easier to configure.

To install the complete ACI Fabric with all 10 to 12 switches, it takes one to two days, then it's finished. Once you configure the application, it runs. 

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SS
Senior Network Engineer at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. Because it's a plug-and-play type of solution; you can take it out of the box, you can start just connecting wires, and then have it go from the infrastructure. Once the system is there then it becomes complicated. ACI is not simple by any stretch of the imagination, but the initial go-at-it is pretty straightforward, which is nice.

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SA
IT Solution Architect at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The last setup I did was a freelance project in Dubai for Emaar. I also did one of the biggest projects here in Qatar for our company. I did one extension project at Qatar University. I have also done some document evaluation and design evaluation for a project that didn't start because of some budget constraints. It's still not completed. They are still evaluating, but I did the design evaluation from the vendor side.

In general, the setup is a little bit complex, but it will remove future complexity. In the beginning, for newcomers, for new engineers, it's a little complex. Even for me, when I was learning it, was a little bit harder for me because it doesn't have conventional switching. It's running multiple types of OS's inside the fabric, so that can cause a little bit of confusion. But, after some time, you will feel like it's more logical.

The deployment time depends on how many leaves there are and how many fabric spine switches there are and on how many applications there are. If it's migration, it takes more time. If it's a greenfield project, it will not take that much time.

I did one deployment that was a complete greenfield project. There was nothing there. There was no migration. They are building a new data center and it was a small setup. It had six switches and two small, baby spine switches. That took less than one month.

Regarding implementation strategy there are two types of approaches. There is network-centric and there's object-oriented-centric. If it's network-centric, each VLAN has its own bridge domain. But if you have a complete application-centric approach, you have one BD for everything and you can configure multiple gateways there. You will specify contracts.

The number of staff required for a deployment depends on the fabric, the leaves and spines. Deployment generally takes two or three guys. For the configuration, I'm the only one. I can do it, no problem. But for physical stacking and connectivity, it takes a number of people. For configuration, one person is more than enough.

We have plans to increase usage. We are extending our fabric all the time because we started with 14 leaves and we now have around 24 leaves. We're also planning to implement it in our DR5. All over the Middle East, there is huge demand for ACI because Cisco is pushing this platform for core data centers.

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DG
Technology Support Specialist at Fujitsu

The setup was relatively complex. It was really not straightforward at all.

The strategy was to just browse through Cisco's web site to get the setup guide. We used the initial configuration guide and we browsed through a lot of videos from people who had done it before us.

The deployment took a few days more a month. The biggest complication was establishing the routing system, how to do routing.

There were three of us from our company involved in the deployment, but the project also involved Cisco Hyperflex and Cisco FlexPod.

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MD
Network Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

The setup was very straightforward. It was easy to deploy. The first configuration had issues, then adding the lift switches was easy.

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OB
Platform Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The initial setup was complex since these are brand new data centers. The topology for the network was different in the way it was set up.

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BH
Senior Network Engineer at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees

The initial setup was fairly complex and it looks terrifying when you first log in. That's one thing about ACI. It takes a bit to wrap your mind around how it works. It's not overly complicated once you understand the concepts, but someone who has never worked with anything like ACI, will initially find it difficult to grasp the complexity of it.

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BB
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

The setup is simple in the beginning but complex when you get to the tiny details that need to be taken care of. I would say the initial public deployment is easy, but the migration part is more complex. 

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CB
Network Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

The initial setup was trivially simple and easy. It builds itself because it is automation. You don't have to do too much.

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it_user1000944 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network and Security Engineer at Lutech Group

The initial feel of it is a little complex. Not everyone can deploy it, but if you know what you are doing, it's very simple from a technician perspective.

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GC
Data Center Implementation Engineer at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

Initial setup can be straightforward or complex depending on who you're implementing the solution for and what they want to do with it. If the client's network is extremely complex, they have a lot of different things that can bring information into and out of their network. Implementation can become significantly more complex as there is more to consider. If the client's network is really simple, then the deployment is straightforward.

We do sometimes experience some issues with integration and in trying to satisfy some of the things that the client wants to do. There are some hidden issues that don't surface until you implement the solution in the network. Some of the issues are client-facing where the client causes the issues. In other words, the issues are not necessarily a problem with the system.

You still have to spend time to try to go through everything and make it work optimally. When you are implementing new features, there's almost always a learning curve if the features are not performing with objects that have already been built.

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AD
IT Evolution Manager at a aerospace/defense firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

The initial setup was easy. At the time that we did our setup, the design was easy. The original design was easy to set up. Then, Cisco changed it, and it was more complex. They should not have changed it.

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RK
Solution Architect

The initial setup of Cisco ACI is simple.

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EG
Network Engineer at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees

With the initial setup of Cisco ACI, it is new, so you need to make sure issues pop up. You have to work through those issues. I would like to see included how-to videos.

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KC
Network Engineer at CS Computer Systems

In the lab environment, we had a setup rebuilt, it was their virtual environment. It was a small deployment. Four switches in total, two leaf and two spine switches, and three controllers. From my past experiences with those types of deployments, the setup shouldn't be an issue. The natural connectivity between them and six switches should be easy. From the controller itself, the deployment of the overlay is pretty straightforward and simple.

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HS
Network Architect at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

It is very complex. All the configuration that needs to be done on the Cisco ACI is very complex. We have to create base policies for all the network devices and then implement it. Afterward, it is rather easy, but the implementation part is a long and complex process.

After it is deployed, it is rather easy because all the configuration is done automatically. You only need to do regular visits to see that it is working and do some regular tests. It is not that difficult.

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MW
Assistant Director IT at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

For our migration approach, we did a very quick migration into it in a network-centric mode. We're starting to move into application-centered mode now. We're still in the migration period.

The initial setup was very complex. It's just a new technology platform. Nobody had training on it. Nobody knew what it was on my team. That makes it complex. 

It's a very complex system, as it should be. It's a new way of thinking about networking. Cisco ACI adds complexity. Cisco ACI is extremely complex. That's not necessarily a complaint, as much as it is a fact.

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DG
Director of Network and Security at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

The initial setup of this solution is pretty complex.

The complexity comes about when you migrate from legacy networks into an ACI network. It's a complex process and there aren't tools that make it easy. usually, you're going to build ACI almost band new. Managing it is not complex, but building it is.

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JB
Systems Network Manager at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The initial setup of this solution is pretty straightforward. It is a plug-and-play type of solution where you can just take it out of the box and connect the wires.

Once this system is in place then it becomes complicated. However, the initial go at it is pretty straightforward, which is nice.

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PC
Sr. Voice Engineer at SGWS

Our setup is still in progress.

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RV
Systems Engineer at a tech services company

The initial setup isn't straightforward, but it is manageable. 

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ND
Project Manager at Radio France

The initial setup was a bit complex.

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PS
Network Engineer at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

I wasn't a part of the setup, but it was straightforward and easy.

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AW
Network Specialist at a comms service provider

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. It has been a new technology for us, so we had  look at the documentation and follow the instructions, which were pretty good.

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ML
Network Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

I wasn't there for the initial setup, so I can't really comment on the initial setup. The only thing I can say is that the setup seems to be an ongoing process.

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BE
Network Manager at a university with 501-1,000 employees

The initial setup of this solution is complex. Our environment is not very complex, but the product itself is very complex. It takes a lot of steps to configure.

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NK
Sr Network Engineer at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

For new users it has particularly new concepts, so people have to digest the implementation part and the regular use, the day-to-day operations. But once you're familiar with it, once the concepts are clear, it's quite easy to go on with day-to-day operations.

Laying the fabric-building and the policy for usage, with four spines and three controllers, can be done within a day. But the mapping and other operations take about a week, to complete the entire fabric with the proper testing and implementation.

In terms of implementation strategy, we have done two deployments. In the first, we had time to study what they were using, what VLANs, what the other requirements were. Migrating from legacy to ACI takes time. The main challenge is configuring ACI applications for visibility. It takes time to learn the traffic and then map the policies to ACI.

Day-to-day for maintenance, we have one or two people who work together in shifts, they're able to manage things.

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GD
Specialist Lab Network at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

The setup is okay. The configuration takes a lot of time and we have to prepare the devices to communicate with ACI which took a lot of time. The entire setup took around eight hours. 

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NetworkE4953 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

The initial setup was very complex. It's a new solution and it was very difficult to have an approach for it. With a lot of the help from a Cisco network engineer we had a good approach and are able to easily resolve any problem. 

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MD
ICT Expert at Orange Polska

The initial set up was complex. 

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JP
Senior Network Security Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

The initial setup of this solution is semi-difficult. There is a learning curve.

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TM
Infrastructure Engineer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

The setup was in the middle. It was straightforward as to what we were doing. Since ACI is a new technology, we had to make sure we didn't start too far apart. I didn't want to break anything. That made it complex.

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EC
IT Network Engineer at MANGO

The initial setup was complex. If I didn't have my partner's support, I probably couldn't deploy Cisco ACI in my data center.

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DR
Network Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

The initial setup is complex, because we had to work with Cisco Professional Services to find the correct solution for our implementation.

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TM
Technology Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

The initial setup is okay. It is not very complex, although I would not say it is very user-friendly because it is different from what we have been using. The best way to put it is that for me, it is new and it is straightforward.

A complete deployment, including the migration from their existing system, will take approximately two months.

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OY
Head Engineer at Havelsan Hava Elektronik Sanayi Ve Ticaret A.s.

The first setup was difficult because it is a very different discipline than other traditional network deployments. The terminology is very different, so the first time can be difficult.

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EK
Network Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

The first setup was complex, but the second one was easy.

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PJ
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

It took quite a bit of time to get the design completed in advance. However, once the core ACI Fabric was in and migrated on, the initial setup is fairly easy. It's the same with any new deployment.

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it_user302127 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

It's complex, and you must go through training.

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An Quang Vu Phan Phan - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Networking Pre-sales Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Like most SDN solutions, Cisco ACI is easy to deploy. 

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NP
Network Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

The initial setup of the Cisco ACI platform is a little complex. The migration was a little tough in the beginning but once we got it, it wasn't so hard. 

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MC
Network Engineer at BPCE Infogérance & Technologies

At beginning, it was not easy to set up, because it is a complex project. However, the initial setup was easy overall.

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RG
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees

The initial setup was complex.

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SA
Senior Network Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

If you know the steps, then the initial setup is quite straightforward. You need to know how to configure it. You're looking at a minimum of at least five working days to build the infrastructure. After that, it depends on how many devices you want to connect.

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DK
IT Network at a healthcare company with 201-500 employees

At first, the setup was really complex because we did everything with the GUI first. We had to figure out how to do that and it was frustrating because we had a lot of errors which didn't really tell us anything because we're used to other kinds of messages from the old school networking. That was kind of frustrating but then once we got it, it got easier. Now, there are new challenges that we are facing when we want to do certain configurations but it totally gets better with the help of online communities.

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SP
Principal Engineer at a tech company with 10,001+ employees

The initial setup of this solution is not straightforward. We had our standard configuration running, but when we moved to ACI it was a completely different dimension. It was a slow migration, and you need to completely change the way you think about things. This took me about three months to completely understand.

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AH
Network Engineer at a political organization with 10,001+ employees

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. We just moved from one platform to another.

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PM
Network Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

The initial setup was a bit complex. ACI was just out at that time, and there wasn't support at that time. This was the first year it came out. The support and deployments in Africa weren't considerable and resources were a problem. I am from South Africa. So, it was something that we taught ourselves.

There is support for it now. 

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AM
Project Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Our initial setup was complex because we have a very complex scenario. We had to put in place a tricky solution in order to support all of our customers' needs. However, we feel confident that it is a good solution for our needs.

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AS
Cloud Advisory Consultant at Accenture

The initial setup wasn't straightforward. We experienced some issues.

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Buyer's Guide
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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