IT’S ALL ABOUT THE APP

How Application-Centric Infrastructure Redefines the Way IT Is Delivered

Cisco ACI overcomes IT silos and drastically streamlines, optimizes, and accelerates the application deployment lifecycle—giving IT the agility to respond to constantly changing demands from the business at just-in-time speed.

Application-Centric Infrastructure: The CIO’s Definition

The way we deploy applications in the virtual, cloud, and big data era looks very different from the old models, but the network has not kept pace with this evolution.

Previous attempts to change network management to accommodate this new paradigm have only added new layers of complexity between the application and network.

What Is the Problem?

Software-defined networking (SDN) and network virtualization were both admirable attempts to alleviate the complexity of managing applications on virtualized infrastructure, but mostly just added more complexity.

Enter Cisco ACI. It eliminates all of this complexity between application and network by starting with a clean slate and enabling networks to be programmed in an automated fashion based on the application’s profile.

A Brief History of “Virtualizing” the Network

Gordon Payne, SVP - Solutions, Citrix:The application used to live in a house with a physical address. The post office knew where to reach it. Then server virtualization came along and moved the application into an RV with no fixed address.

ACI is like putting a GPS device on that RV—we now have visibility and control of the application again.

Knowing Where the App Lives: An Analogy

ACI is made of three basic components:

1. Cisco Nexus 9000 or 9300 switches2. Policy model3. Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC)

A Peek Under the Hood

The Application Policy Infrastructure Controller is the unified point of automation and management for the ACI fabric, policy enforcement, and health monitoring. It optimizes performance, supports any application anywhere, and unifies operation of physical and virtual environments.

APIC: The Secret Sauce of ACI

• Holistic view of applications, with centralized application-level integrated visibility

• One management point for physical, virtual, and cloud-based environments

• Easier collaboration between the application, infrastructure, cloud, and security teams

• Secure multi-tenancy with detailed control for applications and tenants

• Real-time application health monitoring across physical and virtual environments

• Accelerated application flow completion time by up to 80%

• Open APIs, open standards, and ecosystem partner integrations

Benefits of ACI

WHAT CAN ACI DO FOR YOU?

Schedule a Unified Data Center Discussion with ePlusOur infrastructure experts can help you understand the full benefits of

ACI in the context of your IT environment.

Get Started: Email tech@eplus.com