Cisco expands its data center architecture with ACI Anywhere

Cisco announced a new data center architecture that extends its Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) framework into public data and its HyperFlex hyperconverged servers into branch offices. The idea is "ACI Anywhere" and "HyperFlex Anywhere."

To bring this “data center anywhere” vision to life, Cisco is introducing a range of innovations across networking, hyperconvergence, security and automation. They include:

• The expansion of ACI into the cloud with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure environments. ACI is Cisco’s intent-based networking solution for the data center. It integrates with all hypervisors and container frameworks on which applications are deployed. With ACI Anywhere, that journey extends ACI to any workload, any location, any cloud. Virtual ACI already supports bare-metal clouds and remote edge locations. And now with the new Cloud ACI capabilities, Cisco extends automation, management, and security to AWS and Microsoft Azure by fully integrating with their Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) environments.  This will be available in Q2.
• The extension of HyperFlex into branch offices and remote locations to power applications at the edge. Cisco said this allows customers to seamlessly extend computing and storage from their core data centers to the edges of their operations. This will be available in Q2.
• Enhancements to CloudCenter to help customers manage the lifecycle of applications across multiple cloud environments.  The new CloudCenter Suite now features full application lifecycle management, greater workflow automation, and significantly enhanced cost optimization and governance.
• A simpler way for customers to buy and manage the technology across the entire data center architecture, via a single Enterprise Agreement.

“Enterprises should be able to deploy applications based on the needs of their business, not the limitations of their technology,” said Roland Acra, senior vice president and general manager, Data Center Business Group, Cisco. “Customers want to deploy applications and manage data across a range of diverse platforms, from on-premises to cloud-based. That is why we are taking the ‘center’ out of the data center. Today, Cisco is helping our customers expand their reach into every cloud, every data center, and every branch.”

“BT adopted Cisco ACI as the basis for our newly launched SD-Fabric managed service to extend SDN capabilities into the data center. With ACI, we can offer customers full automation, central policy control and built-in security,” said Adrian Comley, general manager, Dynamic Network Services, Global Services, BT. “We’re working with Cisco as it extends ACI policy to AWS and Microsoft Azure cloud services. With Cisco we’re enabling customers to rapidly deploy fabric extensions and provision applications anywhere with a repeatable, proven design for operational simplicity and better security.”