Cisco Aci and Sda Integration

In December 2017, Cisco announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft to deliver integrated cloud networking and security solutions. This partnership builds on the already strong relationship between the two companies, which includes Cisco’s support for Microsoft Azure Stack and Azure Services Platform.

The first joint solution from Cisco and Microsoft is the Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) for Microsoft Azure Stack. This solution enables customers to deploy Azure Stack in their data center using Cisco’s ACI fabric. Cisco ACI is a software-defined networking solution that simplifies network operations and reduces costs.

The Cisco ACI for Microsoft Azure Stack solution includes a number of features that customers will find valuable, including:

• Seamless integration with Azure Stack: The Cisco ACI for Microsoft Azure Stack solution is designed to work seamlessly with Azure Stack. This means that customers can use the same tools, processes and APIs to manage their Azure Stack and Cisco ACI deployments.
• Unified management and policy: The Cisco ACI for Microsoft Azure Stack solution provides a single point of management and policy enforcement for both Azure Stack and Cisco ACI. This simplifies deployment and management of Azure Stack and reduces operational costs.
• Flexible networking: The Cisco ACI for Microsoft Azure Stack solution provides a number of networking capabilities that can be tailored to meet the needs of specific workloads. This includes support for network isolation, quality of service, and security features.
• Scalability: The Cisco ACI for Microsoft Azure Stack solution is designed to scale to support large Azure Stack deployments.

The Cisco ACI for Microsoft Azure Stack solution is currently in beta and is expected to be generally available in the second half of 2018.