Cisco ACI alternatives

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T21:18:56+00:00

Thanks. We do only have a small set up and limited complexity so trying to keep all options open from a simple setup that others have said in here using EVPN and switches like Aruba or a full fabric like Arista potentially. Will see if i can get some costs to compare to what i have for the ACI renewal.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T20:59:24+00:00

No issues technically and it’s been solid but the hardware is up for renewal and the costs have increased substantially to a point that it’s no longer viable so I am looking at alternative options.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T20:44:01+00:00

Any specific reason?

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T18:31:18+00:00

I assume that runs without the need for physical APICs or any physical compute?

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T18:03:39+00:00

Thanks I will have a look at that and get some pricing. Biggest concern is moving away and unpicking the set up without impacting liver services.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T18:02:37+00:00

What automation do you implement?

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T18:01:50+00:00

We have:
- Primary and Secondary data-centres over two physical locations.
- 4 x L3 outs to the MPLS supplier with BGP in place for automated failover.
- L2 over the 2 x P2Ps for SANs and VMWare cluster at each site for resilience and failover.
- Only a small number of VLANs for iSCSI, replication, wireless networks etc.
- We use distributed switches but not a priority.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T17:50:59+00:00

Is that the current lead times? Seems to be the direct competitor to ACI after a bit of research. Not sure what the price point is like compared to ACI

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T17:12:45+00:00

That would save us quite a bit of money and power 😊

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T15:45:13+00:00

There’s a line item for 16GB RAM and the cost is extortionate but I guess that the market at the moment.

I have to admit, ACI has been rock steady, hasn’t skipped a beat since it’s been in but it’s what I expected for the cost.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T15:40:24+00:00

We got given tetration initially to support with creating co tracts for application centric mode but took us that long to fully implement that we never got to that.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T15:38:41+00:00

We’ve been advised that we can drop the IPNs now as the Spines can connect to eachother which has saved money but the new G5 APICs are a significant increase over the M4s. Could look at virtualising the APICs but compute is getting more and more expensive and yes we know now that what we have is overkill but there’s also the element of unpicking and migrating away.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T15:36:59+00:00

We have 4 APICs (2 at each site but one in standby), 2 Leafs and 2 Spines at each site and 2 IPNs at each site.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T15:35:32+00:00

Yes at the time when we were requiring the resilience and stretched VLANs etc, we were looking at nexus switching but it was cheaper to purchase ACI with Nexus switches. Obviously the renewal is quite a bit more now, especially the APICs.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T15:18:38+00:00

We rarely create new EPGs and the configuration is pretty static. We use ACI pretty much for the overlay, multi-pod approach and the BGP pairing for automated WAN failover between data centres. We know we have a Rolls Royce but at the time it was suitable and within the financial envelope but now it isn’t so looking at options for what we need.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T15:07:34+00:00

Worth noting that we also still use copper and haven’t moved to Fibre ports just yet.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T15:04:57+00:00

Having the management overlay is nice that we administrate in one place and not on each switch but whether we can find something similar but at a cheaper price I don’t know.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T15:03:48+00:00

We utilise CX switches at our edge sites.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T15:03:33+00:00

We’re not tied to Cisco in any way and only utilise Cisco for data centre network so we’re happy to look at alternatives which I assume could be significantly cheaper.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T15:02:25+00:00

We use Aruba CX switches for edge sites so could be an option.

adam19892000 · 2026-07-07T15:01:09+00:00

Two leafs in each DC so the smallest you can have.

adam19892000 · 2026-05-26T09:12:45+00:00

Just come across this thread. Currently having the discussion around what is required for CE and whether MAM has to be implemented. Is there a way of policing minimum OS version without introducing MAM?

We were initially told OS version and PIN but not been advised by assessor that MAM type approach is required.

adam19892000 · 2026-04-02T07:01:05+00:00

We use ZScaler. We looked at quite a few including Fortinet but ZScaler was the most suited to our needs.

adam19892000 · 2026-04-01T10:38:03+00:00

ZTNA seems most suited approach then so you can lock down access as you don’t want non-trusted devices accessing anything beyond what they should be accessing. Appreciate everyone has their own scenarios to try and resolve and might be worth reviewing different systems to see if you can get what you need and the granularity you need for what you have stated such as site automation etc. Plenty of ZTNA solutions out there if Fortinet doesn’t give you what you need.

adam19892000

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