Cisco’s “ACI Anywhere” Software-Defined Networking Reaches AWS Cloud Networking kingpin Cisco Systems has announced a new solution that extends Cisco’s software-defined networking technology (SDN) from on-premises datacenters into the Amazon Web Services (AWS). The solution, called Cisco Cloud ACI For AWS, is part of the ACI Anywhere initiative Cisco Systems announced in January. It aims to expand the reach of its SDN based Application Centric Infrastructure to public clouds such as AWS or Microsoft Azure. Cisco stated that its ACI Anywhere network initiative offered flexible deployment options and the ability to deploy apps based upon business requirements rather than technology limitations. In announcing this week, Cisco said that the new offering expands on that functionality. It “automates end-to-end connectivity management and enforces consistent network security policies for applications running on-prem data centres and AWS public clouds regions.” According to the AWS Marketplace entry, Cisco Cloud ACI is built on the Cisco Cloud Application Policy Infrastructure Controller. This controller runs natively in AWS public clouds to provide automated connectivity and policy translation. It also provides better visibility into workloads in the cloud. [Click on the image to see a larger view.] Cisco Cloud ACI on AWS (source Cisco Systems) The Cisco Cloud Services Router(CSR 1000V) is the cloud router that connects on-premises and AWS Cloud environments. Cisco Cloud Application Policy Controller provides automation functionality throughout the lifecycle of the Cisco 1000V router, overlay, and underlay connectivity. This, Cisco claims, facilitates management and operations. Cisco cites the following benefits:

  • Hybrid connectivity that is automated and secure through unified management
  • A common policy abstraction allows for consistent security, governance, compliance, and management.
  • Allow elastic resource sharing between public cloud and on-premises data centers.
  • Facilitate workload migration in hybrid environments
  • Ensure business continuity and disaster recovery.

“ESG Research validates companies are increasingly adopting hybrid cloud approaches to deliver the best service to their customers,” Cisco quoted analyst Bob Laliberte from the Enterprise Strategy Group. Many companies are actually adopting a Multicloud policy. These distributed compute environments can be very complex to manage. Cisco ACI Anywhere and, more specifically, Cloud ACI For AWS [helps] consolidate management across the on-premises and popular AWS cloud environments, something we expect to be well received by all market segments.”