Cisco Datacenter : Cisco NS-OX Vs Cisco ACI mode

Today I am going to discuss about the difference between two different solutions in the datacenter environment. These two solutions are proposed by Cisco. One solution is the basic Spine-Leaf architecture with NS-OX image and the other solution is Cisco Spine-Leaf architecture with Cisco ACI mode. 

Most of people used to ask me about,  what ACI is capable of ? I knew many of the people  used to compare Cisco ACI with Arista Spine-Leaf architecture. First of all that is not the correct comparison, if you want to compare the Arista Spine-Leaf architecture, the right solution is Cisco Spine-Leaf architecture with NS-OX mode devices which can have the same capabilities of Arista Spine-Leaf architecture with automation. Arista achieve the automation with Arista’s Cloud Vision while Cisco achieve the automation with DCNM.

So let me tell you this, Cisco ACI is a policy based spine leaf architecture with APIC controllers while Cisco basic Spine-Leaf architecture without policy based automation and managed controlled by DCNM.

Fig 1.1- Basic Spine-Leaf Architecture NS-OX mode

What is the difference between Cisco ACI with APIC Controller and Cisco NS-OX Spine Leaf architecture with DCNM ?

Cisco ACI involves clustering, and having leaf nodes and spine nodes. NX-OS mode means the switch is in standalone mode. Cisco ACI delivering open programmability with what we can call “open NX-OS”. Cisco added innovations including an object model on NX-OS platforms where API’s can be used in a similar programming methodology as Cisco ACI. 

By carrying together the physical and virtual environment, Cisco ACI was the only solution that allow Cisco ACI users to run whichever hypervisors they decide, integrate physical servers, as well as Docker based containers – all simultaneously which can’t be achieved using the physical spine leaf NS-OX architecture.

On the Cisco ACI architecture, you can integrate, seamlessly configure, and operate service chaining for L4-L7 devices  such as load balancers, firewalls etc.

Cisco ACI users enjoy a rich level of overlay network monitoring with atomic counters, health scores, statistics and alerts. By mapping physical health score and fault information to virtual networks or application groups, Cisco ACI allows users to immediately trouble shoot across the physical underlay and overlay environment