#CiscoChampion Radio S2|Ep 1. Cisco ACI

#CiscoChampion Radio is a series by Cisco Champions as technologists. We’re kicking off Season 2 with Cisco Senior Architect Azeem Suleman, who is talking about Cisco ACI. Lauren Friedman (@lauren) moderates and Scott Morris and Jason Benedicic are this week’s Cisco Champion guest hosts.

Listen to the Podcast.

Learn about the Cisco Champions Program HERE.
See a list of all #CiscoChampion Radio podcasts HERE.

Cisco SME
Azeem Suleman, Cisco Senior Architect

Cisco Champions
Scott Morris, (@ScottMorrisCCIE), Senior Instructor
Jason Benedic, (@jabenedicic), Technical Architect

Highlights
ACI Overview
Benefits of ACI
Use case examples
Why ACI is different (from an SDN perspective)
Best practices for implementing ACI
ACI Contracts
ACI “WOW” factors

Resources
Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure

Transcripts
Mohamed Abousena Hi to all
@ChrisKnowsIT Hello
laurenmalhoit Shameless plug: http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/general-virtualization-articles/cisco-aci-creating-basic-network-constructs.html
laurenmalhoit ACI on GitHub: https://github.com/datacenter/aci
bwhaynes Q: Is cisco ACI a SDN solution? Some vendors move away from OpenFlow or Open Networking Foundation (ONF). what are Cisco similarities and differences?
laurenmalhoit It is technically an SDN and hardware abstraction solution.
laurenmalhoit Main difference is that we work with the physical stuff, too
laurenmalhoit And we offer more visibility into the software and hardware layers with health scores, latency, etc.
@ChrisKnowsIT Real interesting article from Joe Onisick regarding ACI\NSX posted yesterday: http://www.definethecloud.net/building-the-right-network-for-your-vmware
edmorgan Yeh, that post by Joe is really good
laurenmalhoit Another video from Joe on visibility: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/aci-video-demo
CCIE4713 I think all of us (at least those who were alive in the 80’s) now have that playing in our heads!
laurenmalhoit Migration white paper: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/white-paper-c11-731686.html
laurenmalhoit Configuring VMware Integration on the APIC http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/vmware-esx-and-vsphere-articles/general/cisco-aci-con
Cisco Champion Radio Ok, folks… who has questions?
Fish14 Lauren M – hadn’t seen some of those URLs. Very nice
Fish14 glad you are sharing them…… thanks!!!!!!
laurenmalhoit Thanks!
smitmartijn Q: APIC is currently physical – is a virtual edition coming up?
laurenmalhoit No commitments to a virtual APIC now that I know of, but someone should ask out loud
laurenmalhoit That’s spelled SHARD =)
bwhaynes Q: What is your “wow” feature of Cisco ACI or the APIC?
laurenmalhoit Thinking more about the basic SDN question. Most SDN solutions just take the current complexities of th network and put it in the software layer
laurenmalhoit That’s where the application centric part comes in for ACI. We break down the barriers between apps teams and ops teams. We find out how apps really
laurenmalhoit communicate and what their dependencies are. It’s also non-block and penalty free…no STP
laurenmalhoit wow factors: being able to copy application network profiles, fabric discovery, health scores
jabenedicic wow factor: default block, not like a traditional network which is default open
jabenedicic wow factor: integrate into UCSD, fully automated provisioning of services from end to end including network & security provisioning
laurenmalhoit wow factors: truly separating identity from location
WirelessStew Way to go Fish!!!
laurenmalhoit yeah, a lot of great questions there!
bwhaynes Q: What about reports or analytics? Anything worth mentioning or anyone have some funky stories?
CCIE4713 Fish got the lightbulb and ran with it!
jabenedicic wow factor: ability to visualise an application on the network for audit purposes
Fish14   we’ve been playing with ACI here can you tell?