In our increasingly technology-reliant world, most modern enterprises cannot achieve sustainable growth without an adaptive IT environment. That’s why having a stable, adaptable network makes the difference between a business that is succeeding and one that is struggling to keep its operations above water. Employees and customers alike depend on an enterprise’s network to do their jobs and conduct business. In other words, when the network fails, the business and its operations fail, too.

Leaders in the IT industry have turned their attention to creating a network solution that evens out the bumps in the road. If you are looking for a smooth connection process, Cisco DNA Center is for you.

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In today’s technology-focused world, the foundation of a business’ digital presence is its network. From the top executives to the newest intern, your enterprise and the people that work with you depend on your network to do business. If your network performance isn’t providing the connectivity and bandwidth your employees need to be productive, your business will suffer.

For this reason, many enterprises have turned to intent-based networking (IBN), which offers the adaptability, fluidity, and agility enterprises need to be successful. Instead of depending on continuous intervention by administrators, IBN relies on proactive and predictive analytics software that helps plan, design, and automatically implement changes on the fly in accordance with the changing circumstances at hand.

While software defined networking and other technologies have already reduced the complexity of network administration to some degree, IBN takes it to the next level, and though orchestrated control and machine learning, IBN can automate time-consuming and repetitive administrative tasks.

[Featured Case Study]

Data Center Relocation and Policy-Based Networking with Cisco ACI

For IT, this means less time devoted to keeping the network running as it should and more time to devote to innovation and strategic initiatives.

So how can enterprises get started with IBN? With .

What is Cisco DNA center?

Cisco DNA Center sits at the core of ‘s IBN system. It offers an intent-based platform for IT and business applications that streamlines network operations and assures required reliability and performance levels. Through its single point of management, offers administrators access throughout the network and the ability to distribute policies and manage workflows, regardless of location.

The solution is comprised of three primary aspects:

1. Automation – With controller-based automation, Cisco DNA Center simplifies the design, provisioning, and configuration management of your entire network.
2. Policies – A built-in policy-based dashboard offers administrators intuitive workflows and the ability to drag-and-drop tasks to set policies for categories including users, devices, and applications.
3. Analytics – Cisco DNA Center’s intelligent analytics pull data from across the network, including contextual data, which is then used to enable automated adaptability efforts in response to changing network environments.

[Featured Video]

5 Things to Know about IBN with Cisco DNA Center

Why choose Cisco?

While there are multiple IBN solutions available on the market today, Cisco (a veteran leader in networking technologies for enterprise companies) continues to pave the way as a leader in .

Only Cisco offers an open, extensible platform, which allows enterprises to customize the network and build the applications needed for improved productivity and IT efficiency. Cisco DNA Center also provides open APIs and a variety of third-party integrations to keep the network flexible to your specific needs.

With , your network can learn, adapt, and troubleshoot problems even before they happen. Built in automation simplifies network management by automatically applying the right policy in the right place, all through a centralized dashboard. For IT, this means networks can now be deployed in minutes, with policy-driven provisioning and guided remediation.

In terms of security, Cisco DNA Center integrates with , which offers agentless, end-to-end network traffic monitoring. Cisco DNA Center’s scalable visibility and security analytics also offer simplified segmentation modeling and advanced threat detection, further securing your network from cyberattacks.

An additional benefit offered by Cisco DNA Center is integration with , which simplifies the purchase and implementation of new technologies. This is especially beneficial for enterprises in the midst of digital transformation efforts, but offers advantages for any enterprise as technology continues to advance and newer solutions are integrated into the network.

There’s no better time to get started with IBN

The speed of business is only increasing, and enterprises are adopting new technologies at a faster pace than ever before to keep up. The digital footprint of the enterprise and the number of connected devices is also increasing. All this combined means IT can no longer manually administer the network and a better solution must be utilized.

Through IBN, enterprises can build a strong foundation for all digital efforts, and Cisco DNA Center is the solution that makes it simple.

Are you interested in Cisco DNA center?

As a leader in intend-based networking, Cisco is helping enterprises around the world take control of their networks and simplify the management process. While other network solutions can offer speed and power, it means nothing if its not built with the right intent behind it. Cisco DNA Center delivers the intend-based networking solution today’s enterprises need to be successful.

Next Steps: Is your network holding you back? The speed and proficiency of your network correlates with your company’s velocity to evolve and compete today.

You need more than a fast network; you need an intent based network. That is what Cisco DNA Center delivers.

Take a closer look at Cisco DNA Center in our white paper below, “Make Your Network Work For You With Cisco DNA Center.“

The post The Benefits Of Cisco DNA Center For Intent-Based Networking appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

First, VMware reinvented the data center with their ESXi hypervisor. Then they transformed server management and deployment with vSphere. Now VMware’s NSX is revolutionizing networking through advanced software-defined networking (SDN) technology. VMware NSX is a comprehensive networking solution that solves the challenges faced by the modern data center. Designed to maximize speed, agility, and security, NSX can help your enterprise realize its full potential.

Creating a Fully Virtualized Data Center

Modern data centers have already adopted a software-first approach, utilizing VMs and software-defined storage whenever possible. However, many data centers still rely on legacy networking solutions. VMware NSX is the final piece of the software-defined data center (SDDC) puzzle. With NSX, you can now virtualize every aspect of your data center.

NSX brings hypervisor technology to the network. Just like a traditional hypervisor, it works by abstracting the software layer from the underlying hardware. A virtualized network extends the benefits of virtualization to your applications. Deployment of new application hosting environments is no longer limited by the physical infrastructure. The comprehensive management platform allows you to easily create, relocate, snapshot, and restore application environments. Each workload can run in the environment that best meets its individual needs.

Virtualizing your Services

NSX unites all of your networking and security services under a single management platform. From VMs to the cloud, NSX manages traffic and security in every part of the network.

• Switching – All VMs can communicate through a virtual extensible LAN (VXLAN) with NSX’s full switch functionality.
• Routing – NSX provides dynamic routing between logical switches and virtual networks.
• Distributed Firewalling – NSX’s scalable firewall automatically provides security and visibility for all virtualized networks and workloads.
• Load Balancing – NSX provides L4-L7 load distribution to maximize application scalability and availability.
• Edge Gateway – VXLAN to VLAN bridging capability ensures efficient connectivity for physical workloads.
• Virtual Private Network (VPN) – NSX offers both remote access and site-to-site VPNs.
• Endpoint Protection – NSX’s vShield Endpoint provides effective anti-virus protection.

Better Security with Microsegmentation

Legacy security solutions focus primarily on perimeter defense. When a threat breaches the outer defenses, there are few provisions in place for lateral protection. Once a threat penetrates the network, it is free to move throughout the system. This type of single-point security is no longer adequate. NSX’s microsegmentation approach provides comprehensive security for every part of the network.

Microsegmentation addresses individual security needs, allowing you to assign unique security policies to every single task, workload, and service. Assigned policies follow workloads as they move throughout the system. When creating and assigning security policies, you are not limited to fixed aspects, such as IP addresses. Policies can be defined based on changing criteria, like operating systems and users. NSX also allows for efficient, automated security. Newly created workloads are automatically assigned to the appropriate security policies. Microsegmentation with NSX provides flexible, customizable, and effective security for the entire network.

Which Version of NSX is Right for Your Enterprise?

VMware offers two different versions of their NSX data center. NSX-V is designed for enterprises that already use vSphere and are looking to extend virtualization to their network. While NSX-T is better suited for companies with more diverse data center architectures. NSX-T works well with public cloud hosting environments, container-based applications, and even other hypervisors.

A Cost-Benefit Analysis of NSX

In addition to all the benefits already mentioned, NSX is also designed to provide a substantial ROI. A Total Economic Impact study revealed that, in three years of use, NSX might save enterprises:

• $1 million in hardware and operating expenses
• $1.2 million through automation and reduced administration time
• $7.4 million in decreased hardware needs
• $1.6 million from increased user efficiency
• An indeterminable amount through security breach prevention and containment

VMware NSX extends the full benefits of virtualization to your network, giving you a true. All networking and security services are easily managed through a single, comprehensive platform. Application environments are simple to deploy and manage, allowing for better workload optimization. NSX’s microsegmentation approach ensures constant and consistent security that can be customized to meet each workload’s individual needs. VMware has also designed NSX to provide a significant ROI. The increased security, agility, and speed that NSX offers can help you reduce expenses and optimize your data center.

NEXT STEPS: Achieve more speed, more security and more agility with less time and money with the VMware NSX platform by reading our white paper titled A 360-Degree View of the VMware NSX Platform.

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Companies live in an environment today in which the “time to value” is diminishing constantly. In order to attain continuous profitability, IT managers and their staffs must focus on strategic value added projects rather than dissipate their time with routine maintenance of the existing infrastructure. Multiple studies point out that routine maintenance is currently consuming as much as . Simply put, IT Managers must find a new paradigm that can deliver their organization to the promised land.

Enter: Software Defined Networking

Software defined networking (SDN) is a buzzword today the same as virtualization was a decade ago. SDN is about virtualizing hardware and centralizing control of it as software at the application layer. SDN is about simplifying the network infrastructure of the enterprise by centralizing the control of all of its many devices such as switches and routers, into the software layer, making it application centric rather than hardware centric. Its goal is to deliver self-service network configurations, allowing applications to dynamically route network traffic, reconfigure, and even create additional network resources based on user initiated demand.

SDN sets out to make the switch and router infrastructure as agile and as flexible as the virtual server and its corresponding data are today within modern-day network data centers. Switches and routers can be provisioned and then decommissioned as easily as virtualized servers and workstations. This packaging of device virtualization and network infrastructure allows users to implement a complete network experience.

But SDN is much more than just automated deployment of end-to-end network computing environments. It’s also about delivering packets across the network more efficiently and effectively. In today’s legacy based network, the firmware of the switch or network device determines how frames and packets are forwarded and ultimately delivered to their destinations. Various types of traffic can be prioritized according to QoS rules, but identical traffic destined for the redundant endpoints are treated identically. removes the responsibility of managing network traffic from the device itself and puts it in the hand of a centralized controller that can make forwarding decisions based on network variances and conditions. With SDN, the total network can work in total synchronization with user and application demand.

Time is money for Enterprise Applications

The term “application” can be misleading as we often think of a single application that resides on our personal device. Enterprise applications are usually far more complicated. A web application for instance is many times composed of three tiers:

1. Web tier (where the users connect to a web server)
2. Application tier (which may reside on the web server or another server)
3. Backend tier (which usually hosts some type of database in which the application integrates)

Each of these web component devices will need IP addresses, DNS records and possible NAT assignments. On top of this, the application traffic may require a separate VLAN throughout the switch network along with QoS assignments. Routers may have to have access control lists and routing tables may be modified as well. Traditionally, this type of undertaking within a large enterprise could consume weeks if not months and in today’s global hyper competitive economy, time is money.

It’s not just the dynamic implementation of new applications that needs to be automated, but the decommissioning of applications as well. Application specific VLANs and routing entries need to be erased from the devices they were robotically created on in the first place, minimizing the footprint of these devices in order to maximize both security and performance. To sum it up, enterprise infrastructures must become application aware and more agile to support dynamic application instantiation and removal.

Imagine the following scenario for the implementation of a highly complex enterprise application such as an ERP system. Relying on your IT staff to configure the network for such a mammoth software implementation would be highly time consuming and hiring an outside consulting team would be expensive. But what if the application vendor provided you with an SDN ready configuration that could simply be pushed out onto all of your data plane devices? Imagine how much time and money that would save. Believe it or not, this scenario is completely plausible with SDN solutions that are readily available today such as Cisco ACI.

Overview of Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure

Cisco ACI stands for Automation is built from the ground up with Cisco ACI. Their design efforts were directed under a mandate of simplicity and as a result, Cisco developed a fresh approach to networking that completely streamlines the application deployment process.

At the core of ACI is the Application Policy Infrastructure Controller or APIC. The APIC is a centralized clustered controller that provides the programmability and centralized management that in term governs the network fabric in order to provide an optimized ecosystem for desired applications. Underneath the APIC lies a simple two tiered switch architecture rather than the traditional three-layer system embraced by traditional networks. Though well suited for the traditional client-server traffic of yesteryear, the traditional 3-layer switch design is poorly suited for the east-west traffic flow patterns that are typical of today’s data center. Cisco’s two layered approach, referred to as a leaf-and-spine architecture, creates a redundant and highlight efficient mesh fabric that allows for nearly unlimited scalability. Spine switches are the core devices, but instead of being a large, chassis-based switching platforms (as is characteristic of traditional core switches), the spine is composed of many high-throughput Layer 3 switches with high port density. Leaf switches make up the access layer; providing network connection points for servers, as well as uplink to the spine switches.

The real genius of ACI lies in what Cisco refers to as the Network Application Profiles which they describe as an automated deployed Cisco validation design. The NAP contains all of the configuration information required by the app for the supporting network devices such as VLAN, ACL and firewall settings. Essentially the application network profile is the end to end connectivity and policy requirements for an application. Once created, the NAP can be deployed within minutes. What’s more, complicated application vendors can simply supply you a preconfigured NAP as part of your application package. Implementation can be completed the day of purchase.

What is Group-Based Policy?

Cisco describes it as:

“(GBP) is an API framework for OpenStack that offers an intent-driven model intended to describe application requirements in a way that is independent of the underlying infrastructure. Rather than offering network-centric constructs, such as Layer 2 domains, GBP introduces a generic “Group” primitive along with a policy model to describe connectivity, security, and network services between groups. While GBP has focused on the networking domain, it can be a generic framework that extends beyond networking.”

describes group-based policy as “an application-centric policy model” that separates information about application connectivity requirements from information about the underlying details of the network infrastructure.”

This approach offers a number of advantages, including:

• Improved automation: Grouping constructs allow higher-level automation tools to easily manipulate groups of network endpoints simultaneously.
• Easier, application-focused way of expressing policy: By creating policies that mirror application semantics, this framework provides a simpler, self-documenting mechanism for capturing policy requirements without requiring detailed knowledge of networking.

• Consistency: By grouping endpoints and applying policy to groups, the framework offers a consistent and concise way to handle policy changes.

• Extensible policy model: Because the policy model is abstract and not tied to specific network implementations, it can easily capture connectivity, security, Layer 4 through 7, QoS, etc.

Cisco ACI makes extensive use of group-based policy in its application-centric policy model, in which connectivity is defined by consolidating endpoints (physical or virtual) into endpoint groups (EPGs). Connectivity is defined when the end user specifies a contractual relationship between one EPG and another. The end user does not need to understand the protocols or features that are employed to create this connectivity. Figure 1 provides an overview of this model.

Differences between traditional and Application centric infrastructure (ACI)

1. Automation: ACI allows to automate configuration through a servers network.
2. Time: In traditional structures, an IT admin would need weeks to deploy a new app, while in ACI structures it’s faster because the IT admin works at the application level.
3. Efficiency: Without ACI there is no shared architectural model, causing many problems when implementing the app. With ACI there is a shared model for policy automation that enables less people do more.
4. Security: managing only one policy for many servers decreases the probability of error, thus granting a higher level of security.
5. Scale: amplifying the scope of your network is easier, being able to implement new hardware in less time.
6. Openness: With this structure, centralizing all the access to data helps to deliver more connectivity.

Cisco ACI is a Game Changer for the Digital Business

The IT industry is going through a significant transformation, with BYOD, big data, cloud computing, Software Defined Data Center, IT as service, and security now prominent concerns. At the same time, companies increasingly want to reduce overall IT spending and provide much-improved levels of service to business units by increasing overall IT agility. Many in the networking industry have cited SDN as the model to move the industry forward. Cisco ACI is a catalyst to help promote the adoption of SDN throughout the IT industry: in essence, as an enabler of the SDN vision.

DID YOU KNOW?
WEI is Cisco ACI certified and is one of the very few IT solutions providers worldwide with experience implementing Cisco ACI in production environments. Want to learn more about our experience with Cisco ACI? Contact us today to start a discussion.

The post Cisco ACI: An SDN Solution for Digital Transformation appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

Writer’s note: Every Thursday in November and December, this blog will highlight the SDN solution, Cisco ACI. As market acceptance and adoption increases for SDN, IT professionals can count on WEI to fairly evaluate the market leading SDN solutions available today.

Several analysts have predicted a rise in the adoption of SDN and software-defined technologies in the years ahead. We stand by the prediction as our networking solution engineers often get asked about our experience implementing the market leading available today. Read through this example of how WEI assisted its customer with a data center relocation and consolidation project that was enhanced by the implementation of Cisco ACI — which presents a new networking model that leverages policy-based networking.

Challenge

A Fortune 100 Communications company was faced with a data center relocation initiative as their building lease was about to expire. The company saw this relocation as an opportunity to consolidate their existing data center and build a new state-of-the-art data center with infrastructure built for today, and for the future.

The customer was faced with the following challenges:

• The building lease expiration posed a tight deadline, especially for relocating a data center of this size
• This data center housed the customer’s VDI environment, Telecom equipment and Business Applications, making it critical to minimize downtime and impact to employees
• could not be compromised

Given WEI’s vast experience managing data center relocations coupled with experience implementing software defined networking solutions, the customer brought in WEI to manage the data center consolidation, relocation, and integration of net new infrastructure, as well as the implementation of the

Solution

As a supplier of the customer’s data center components (servers, storage, and networking), WEI already understood the existing IT environment and was able to get started quickly. WEI’s project management team brought together the three stakeholder groups, the Data Center Infrastructure Manager, and the Server and Networking teams, to understand business goals and requirements. The Data Center Infrastructure Manager required the new data center to run on DC power. Since WEI is the only in the region with DC power options available, WEI staged all the equipment in our Data Center Demo Lab over an 8-week period replicating the customer’s environment with servers, storage, and software defined networking with Cisco ACI.

The hardware and software configuration was done collaboratively among WEI, Cisco and the customer’s networking team during a week-long testing and training session in WEI’s Knowledge Transfer Center. This was a huge time-saver for the customer because they did not have to wait for the new data center install to be complete in order to start testing Cisco ACI in their updated environment.

WEI also led the data center build and played a major role in the physical install with the Rack and Stack of 70 cabinets by WEI integration and engineering teams.

Outcome

The decision to implement Cisco ACI was a key factor in the success of the consolidation and relocation because its backbone infrastructure allowed the data center to be set up quickly. ACI features automatic fabric deployment and configuration with single point of management by the . Only one rack had to be configured and then the APIC pushed the configuration to the 70 racks in the new data center, which saved a significant amount of time.

Cisco ACI allows for:

• More portability for applications across different data centers
• Automation of IT tasks, such as switch configuration and deployment
• Policy-based networking with no limitations on the number of VLANS
• More secure network with built-in microsegmentation
• Accelerated data center application deployment

Cisco ACI and the engineers from WEI transformed the customer’s traditional data center networking model to one that is policy-based. As new applications are developed or added, the customer has the infrastructure in place to allow for security and connectivity to be built around the application, rather than the network.

“WEI is Cisco ACI certified and is one of the very few IT solutions providers worldwide with experience implementing Cisco ACI in production environments.”

– Greg LaBrie, WEI Director of Technology Solutions and Services

This project was the largest Cisco ACI implementation in a production environment in the United States. The goal of this data center relocation was to build an efficient, secure data center that can scale, and it gave the customer a new greenfield production environment. The success of this implementation will be mirrored and rolled out in the customer’s data centers across the country.

Next Steps

Ask us about and how it fits into your roadmap of IT priorities and projects.

The post Cisco ACI Case Study: Data Center Relocation and Innovation appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

Writer’s note: Every Thursday in November and December, this blog will highlight the SDN solution, Cisco ACI. As market acceptance and adoption increases for SDN, IT professionals can count on WEI to fairly evaluate the market leading SDN solutions available today.

Networks are continuously undergoing some level of transformation and conversion to new technologies and bandwidth capabilities. It is the nature of the beast and one that data center managers are all too familiar with. However, IT leaders are facing increasing levels of required network alterations and conversions today due to several emerging trends:

• Continued virtualization of server resources resulting in 10 GB server connectivity requirements
• Network traffic congestion that now warrants continuous 10 GB infrastructure
• Highly virtualized computer environments that demand continuous network availability
• Birth of that allow for automated provisioning and policy enforcement
• A shift to network architectures that can simplify operations and accommodate efficient and fluid programmable infrastructure for DevOps
• The shifting direction of data center traffic from a traditional north-south stream to the east-west current that is typical of multi-tiered web application environments

Achieving these objectives will require a new type of underlying network infrastructure consisting of devices that are designed for these demands, as well as a more efficient type of network topology to organize them.

The majority of are built around a three-layer hierarchical design which has served us well up to now. This design consists of an access layer, aggregation layer and core. This topology was designed around the traditional client-server traffic patterns we have grown accustomed to. A typical device that has served as the work horse of this design is the Cisco Catalyst 6500. Although it can be found within all three layers, it is more commonly utilized in the access layer where it can accommodate servers with 1 GB connections.

Traditional devices such as the Cisco Catalyst 6500 were originally designed to make forwarding decisions in the supervisor engine. Although this was well suited for the traffic levels of yesteryear, the 10 GB traffic of today requires that forwarding decisions be distributed to the line cards to increase performance and to reduce the amount of traffic required to flow through the supervisor engine.

A New Networking Model

In order to meet the new challenges of today, data centers must transition to a new switch topology called the Leaf-Spine. The leaf-spine is a two-layer network topology composed of leaf switches and spine switches. Servers and storage connect to leaf switches which in turn connect to high port capacity spine switches. Think of leaf switches as the access layer and spine switches as the core. One of the key concepts of the is the fact that a server has to cross the same number of devices every time it connects to another server which ensures greater efficiency and is ideally suited for today’s east-west traffic flows.

A new topology requires a new type of switch and the Cisco Nexus 9000 series is specifically designed to take the data center to the next level in both . The 9000 comes in both modular and fixed configuration and can serve in both traditional and leaf spine architectures. It is ideally suited for virtualized and non-virtualized server environments and can provide the underlying network structure for virtualized, bare-metal and cloud computing environments.

The support two modes of operation: NX-OS standalone mode and Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) fabric mode. In standalone mode, the switch performs as a traditional switch but with greater port density, reduced latency and 40 GB connectivity. It can accommodate an astounding 1,024 10 GB connections. In ACI fabric mode it supports the new SDS paradigm which combines hardware forwarding, software and automation into a single package by separating the controller from the data plane.

Innovation is at the very core of the 9000 series which is designed to achieve greater power and cooling efficiencies. The Cisco Nexus 9000 Series power supplies are more than 90 percent efficient at 20, 50, and 100 percent of load (platinum rated), providing industry’s lowest watts per port. As power and cooling expenditures are very real costs for any data center, cost savings are incurred regardless of the ecosystem that the 9000 supports.

In summary, the Cisco Nexus 9000 switch series provides the innovation, bandwidth and feature capabilities to hasten the transition of your data center to meet the challenges of today.

and how this SDN solution can help accelerate your organization’s digital transformation.

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There’s a lot of talk about SDN solutions today such as Cisco’s Application Centric Infrastructure. In fact, Cisco ACI is the industry’s most comprehensive software defined networking (SDN) architecture to date. By integrating ACI into , IT now has the ability to align IT services with business objectives and policy requirements.Achieving this organizational transformation can be a game changer for most any organization, allowing them to streamline their services at large and gain greater efficiencies and profit margins. Instead of serving its traditional role as a cost bucket, IT can become a leader, introducing and initiating value added projects that recognizably add to the profitability and success of the business.

All of that is wonderful, that is as long as IT is taking care of the most important facet of all – keeping the network secure. Having the agility and responsiveness to allow users to easily access the analytical information they need or to provision desired resources in a matter of minutes is all well and good, but if the integrity of those resources are compromised then it all doesn’t really matter. Having an infrastructure that provides an elastic fertile ecosystem for application developers is great, but if that innovation is accessed in an unauthorized manner, then all of those benefits are instantly nullified.

To put it simply, security is job #1! That’s why provides embedded security and policy-based automation to ensure that your provisioned resources are secured through an evolutionary process called microsegmentation. The idea of segmenting the network is nothing new. Your firewall segments areas of your network such as LAN, DMZ, Internet, etc. Think of Ransomware and how it seeks out connected drives. Some new strains of it can even seek out a company’s backups if they exist on the same segment as the infected device.

How exactly does microsegmentation with Cisco ACI work?

is about separating segments from the broadcast domain by creating policy definitions. It uses a new application-aware construct called the endpoint group, or EPG, that allows application designers to define the endpoints that belong to the EPG regardless of their IP addresses or the subnets to which they belong. An endpoint can be a physical server, a virtual machine, a Linux container or a mainframe computer. ACI provides microsegmentation support for VMware vSphere Distributed Switch, Microsoft Hyper-V virtual switch, and bare-metal endpoints, the type of endpoint is irrelevant. You just need all of them secured regardless of IP address, MAC address, endpoint type or network location.

This idea of microsegmentation is then compounded with the core principle of conducting a zero-trust approach to each and every device. ؛£½اض±²¥ can be provisioned on a grand scale and in quick fashion, but they aren’t trusted upon boot up. A device is inaccessible until it has been issued a preconfigured policy which then, and only then, allows it the ability to communicate with other devices in the network. IT personnel can quarantine compromised or rogue endpoints or limit the lateral movement of a threat quickly and easily. With ACI, there is no window of vulnerability during the provisioning process.

Policy-based automation is the embedded security that is at the very core of . An EPG by definition is a microsegment, and its security enforcement policy is defined by a contract that consists of a built-in stateless whitelist firewall and Layer 4 through Layer 7 (L4- L7) service insertion policy that supports a robust ecosystem of L4-L7 partners for next-generation firewall (NGFW) and next-generation intrusion prevention system (NG-IPS). You can make your policies as granular as necessary, creating a unique policy model for within one policy model for networks, servers, storage and services.

By instilling this protected means of microsegmentation, complimented by automated granular policies, Cisco ACI helps lower TCO of your infrastructure investments, on top of all of the other means through which it reduces costs and adds value as well. Cisco ACI is the complete package, which is why it is the premier SDN solution in the market today. Interested in learning more? Check out our white paper titled

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Software defined networking (SDN) has emerged as a versatile, budget-friendly and dynamic architecture that allows IT managers to respond quickly to business demands and manage cloud networks in a central environment. It’s a new revolution in IT that can help propel your business ahead of the competition and deliver an impactful change. Surely you’ve seen that SDN can provide , but like any new IT project, you should make sure you are well-versed in the approach before deploying a new strategy.

What is Software Defined Networking?

Software defined networking, or SDN, is an architecture based around three layers. At the center of it is the control plane, the main layer whose purpose is to manage the interactions between the application layer and the network infrastructure below, or data plane. Traditionally, the control plane and data plane physically resided on the same level, while SDN distinctly separates the two.

The control plane is meant to quickly respond to changing business needs and serves as the intelligence center for the network. This is the heart of and it is becoming an architecture of choice in the IT environment. For more information about SDN take a minute or two to watch the video below.

How SDN Can Benefit Your Organization

The IT department can use SDN to overcome network usage bottlenecks and control the network as varying needs fluctuate among users in the business. This approach can help your organization save on costs and avoid the need to purchase new infrastructure as company demands shift and evolve. Being able to adapt and overcome challenges as they arise is a big benefit companies deploying SDN are currently seeing.

Another benefit of software defined networking is the . Unplanned instances occur and it may not be possible to plan for every scenario that may arise. SDN’s adaptability and flexibility can help increase uptime and keep your company running smoothly.

SDN Next Steps

If you are you interested in leveraging the power of SDN at your organization and want to learn how to get started, . If you would like to learn more about SDN, read our latest white paper, . This paper goes in depth by discussing SDN use cases and the technical theory behind it, and explores how the market drivers of today are demanding software defined networking in order to innovate and compete.

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