Cisco ACI is Cisco’s Software-Defined Networking (SDN) solution specifically designed for data center networking. I would argue that it is Cisco’s only truly SDN-native solution, as it was built from the ground up to be API-first. In other words, every operation within the system is executed via API.

But let’s take a step back.

A brief history of infrastructure

Over the years, IT infrastructures have increasingly required capabilities that were not originally envisioned. These capabilities are essential for scaling applications horizontally, enabling multi-site service delivery, supporting workload mobility, and handling disaster recovery scenarios.

Ideally, applications should be able to scale horizontally in a seamless and agile way. However, in the real world, many applications were designed to rely on a consistent network identity, regardless of where they are running.

As a result, infrastructure has evolved to become as transparent and scalable as possible. We’ve moved from physical servers to virtual machines that can be migrated (e.g., vMotion) transparently from one host to another, even across sites.

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