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Cisco ACI vs Cisco APIC-EM [EOL] comparison

Why PeerSpot?
Cisco ACI and Cisco APIC-EM [EOL] are both solutions in the Network Virtualization category. Additionally, 85% of Cisco ACI users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Cisco APIC-EM [EOL] users who would recommend it.
Cisco ACI
Read 106 Cisco ACI reviews
  • 6,425 Views
  • 1,349 Comparison Views
85% willing to recommend
Cisco APIC-EM [EOL]
Read 1 Cisco APIC-EM [EOL] review
    100% willing to recommend
     

    Comparison Buyer's Guide

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    Executive Summary
    We performed a comparison between Cisco ACI and Cisco APIC-EM [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

    Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Broadcom, ZeroTier, Inc. and others in Network Virtualization.

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    Network Virtualization
    October 2026
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    Helped 920,336 peers since 2012

    Review summaries and opinions

    We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
     

    Categories and Ranking

    Cisco ACI
    Average Rating
    8.0
    Reviews Sentiment
    6.1
    Number of Reviews
    106
    Ranking in other categories
    Network Virtualization (1st), Software Defined Networking (SDN) (2nd), Cloud and Data Center Security (7th)
    Cisco APIC-EM [EOL]
    Average Rating
    8.0
    Number of Reviews
    1
    Ranking in other categories
    No ranking in other categories
     

    Featured Reviews

    Sulaiman Olubiyi - PeerSpot reviewer
    Sulaiman Olubiyi
    Senior Network Automation Engineer at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Network automation has simplified secure multi-site connectivity and reduced daily operational effort
    I believe Cisco ACI could improve by incorporating something related to agentic AI, where it can execute tasks based on particular evaluations or loop engineering, enhancing fault identification or suggestions based on each tenant's configuration. Additionally, I think they should ensure that the documentation is comprehensive. I appreciate that Cisco provides documentation, and their support engineers are helpful in case of any issues. In terms of governance and security regarding Cisco ACI's AI capabilities, I think what we call evals or evaluations is important, whereby the engineer can evaluate the functionalities of the AI in Cisco ACI, preventing it from making deletions or modifications on its own. Therefore, there should be evaluations or guardrails incorporated into the development capabilities. Regarding accuracy and reliability of output for Cisco ACI's AI capabilities, it hasn't met my expectations. What we need is something called RAG, or retrieval-augmented generation. If Cisco can implement that to utilize customer-specific data instead of general knowledge, while ensuring data privacy under GDPR laws, I think that will result in very good, reliable output.
    Read full review
    it_user817026 - PeerSpot reviewer
    it_user817026
    Sr. IT & Business Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Enabling business agility and accelerated time to market with the automated service delivery
    Infrastructure as a Service for managed services and other customers, including computing, storage, and networking Business agility and accelerated service delivery Automated processes/workflow automation Better manageability Eliminating the IT administration silos for our datacenter and…
    Read full review

    Quotes from Members

    We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
     

    Pros

    "Cisco solution is a perfect product and considered number one in the world in many parts."
    "The most valuable feature of the solution is the Call Manager."
    "There are many features which are useful, like the automatic completion of the VXLAN."
    "With ACI, if you need more capacity you can just buy more and plug them in without needing to do anything else. All of the sudden that infrastructure is there for me to use, configure, and add stuff to."
    "It is very easy to do the configuration after you know how to work with the product, and it is global, so you change one interface and changes are reflected on every switch."
    "The scalability is perfect, and it is one of the main reasons that we install it."
    "Cisco ACI is a hardware-level product that can support terabytes and petabytes of data at the same time, which VMware NSX can't do because it's a virtual environment with limited throughput and scalability."
    "In principle, what we are looking for is to have one gigantic tool which can be programmable, making our lives easier in terms of troubleshooting and management."
    More Cisco ACI pros
    "Enabling business agility and accelerated time to market with the automated service delivery."
    "The environment enables a DevOps culture, continuous delivery, and automated processes."
    "Eliminating the IT administration silos for our datacenter and infrastructure by providing a single managed and converged infrastructure which provides unified compute, storage, and networking environment with a single point of management."
     

    Cons

    "The ACI setup is in its initial phases is difficult. The learning curve at the beginning is higher than a normal setup."
    "It is still not mature and has room to grow. As with any product out there, it requires time to develop."
    "From my point of view, troubleshooting issues relating to ACI can be a little bit complicated to perform."
    "It could benefit from an orchestration tool that makes deploying services easier."
    "It would be nice if I could specify network-centric in my design, and the system would organize and set itself up in that way."
    "It's a very complex system, as it should be. It's a new way of thinking about networking. Cisco ACI adds complexity. Cisco ACI is extremely complex. That's not necessarily a complaint, as much as it is a fact."
    "I believe there's room for improvement in terms of ACI's integration with various technologies."
    "Cisco ACI, segmentation-wise, could be more flexible, which is an area for improvement. The solution could be improved in terms of macro or micro-segmentation for many access lists and contracts. The process becomes very messy in the end."
    More Cisco ACI cons
    "Need a better workflow definition tool with tracking on existing provisioned services, and to improve multitasking in the workflow automation."
     

    Pricing and Cost Advice

    "It's expensive but the product is very good. I have never found another partner like Cisco with a solution like this and with great support."
    "This is an expensive solution."
    "Cisco is much more expensive than other vendors, especially when it comes to the licensing."
    "The thing that I like the most from Cisco is the support and all the documentation that they have. We do have to pay for it though."
    "We used Cisco Professional Services for the deployment. They were outstanding, but very expensive."
    "The pricing and licensing are both high, particularly if you want a high level of functionality. It would be great if the price and licensing cost could be decreased."
    "A big company can automate it themselves or spend a lot of money and buy it."
    "Pricing for Cisco ACI could be expensive if you're not a gold partner. If you're a gold partner, you'll get reasonable pricing, but to become a gold partner, you must cross several layers. For example, at least twenty engineers within your organization have to be certified, with each certification priced at £2,000 minimum, so this would make some companies think twice about the product. If you're going for Aruba and Juniper products, on the other hand, you can quickly get the partner status, and you can start selling the product. As a gold partner, you can get up to seventy percent discount on Cisco ACI, for example, while an ordinary partner gets ten percent off. Cisco ACI is expensive for both customers and partners, but I'm rating pricing for the product as four out of five because even if the price is costly, you get a lot of benefits from the product. Cisco ACI isn't the best, price-wise, but it's still a good solution. If you're in a small organization, you may be unable to afford it. Cisco ACI is best for enterprises but not SMBs because Cisco ACI and its required resources are expensive."
    More Cisco ACI pricing and cost advice
    Information not available
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    Top Industries

    By visitors reading reviews
    Financial Services Firm
    13%
    Outsourcing Company
    13%
    Manufacturing Company
    9%
    Construction Company
    7%
    No data available
     

    Company Size

    By reviewers
    Large Enterprise
    Midsize Enterprise
    Small Business
    By reviewers
    Company SizeCount
    Small Business22
    Midsize Enterprise19
    Large Enterprise89
    No data available
     

    Questions from the Community

    What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
    There are some very major differences between both the Products and to name a few. -Cisco ACI have physical network gear (9K Switches) where the Code runs in ACI Policy Mode & the UCS server wh...
    See all answers
    What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
    Once you know your way around the Cisco ecosystem, using Cisco ACI is not so difficult. It is a global product, so when you change one interface, changes are automatically reflected on every switch...
    See all answers
    What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco ACI?
    Cost is one thing that could be improved, as it is heavy for an emerging market like ours.
    See all answers
    Ask a question
    Earn 20 points
     

    Comparisons

    VMware NSX vs Cisco ACI Logo
    VMware NSX vs Cisco ACI
    Compared 14% of the time
    Juniper Contrail Networking vs Cisco ACI Logo
    Juniper Contrail Networking vs Cisco ACI
    Compared 8% of the time
    TrendAI Deep Security vs Cisco ACI Logo
    TrendAI Deep Security vs Cisco ACI
    Compared 7% of the time
    Cisco Secure Workload vs Cisco ACI Logo
    Cisco Secure Workload vs Cisco ACI
    Compared 7% of the time
    Nuage Networks vs Cisco ACI Logo
    Nuage Networks vs Cisco ACI
    Compared 6% of the time
    More Cisco ACI Competitors
    Array AVX Series vs Cisco APIC-EM [EOL] Logo
    Array AVX Series vs Cisco APIC-EM [EOL]
    Compared 100% of the time
    More Cisco APIC-EM [EOL] Competitors
     

    Product Reports

    Buyer's Guide
    Cisco ACI
    October 2026
    Cisco ACI reportDownload Cisco ACI product report
    Buyer's Guide
    Network Virtualization
    October 2026
    Cisco APIC-EM [EOL] reportDownload Cisco APIC-EM [EOL] product report
     

    Also Known As

    No data available
    Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module
     

    Overview

    Cisco ACI provides advanced capabilities with features like seamless integration with VMware and APIs for programmability. It offers centralized management for streamlined operations, efficient micro-segmentation, and robust security, addressing modern data center needs.

    Cisco ACI brings automation to data center infrastructure, enabling transitions from legacy to modern environments with centralized management. Organizations benefit from optimized server farms, seamless integration with VMware, and support for Kubernetes, making it suitable for large-scale environments. Offering support for healthcare, finance, and public sectors, Cisco ACI facilitates tasks such as virtual networking and multi-site connectivity with application-centric and network-centric designs.

    What are the key features of Cisco ACI?
    • Seamless Integration with VMware: Ensures smooth operation with existing virtualized environments.
    • Programmability via APIs: Offers flexibility in network configuration and management through APIs.
    • Centralized Management: Provides a unified view of the network, simplifying oversight.
    • Automation: Reduces manual configuration workload, speeding up deployment.
    • Scalability: Adapts to growing network demands with ease.
    • Robust Security: Enhances protection against threats with comprehensive security measures.
    • Efficient Micro-Segmentation: Improves network segmentation for security and efficiency.
    What benefits or ROI should users look for when evaluating Cisco ACI?
    • Streamlined Operation: Reduced complexity in network management.
    • Enhanced Performance: Improved network and application efficiency.
    • Cost Efficiency: Better resource allocation reduces operational costs.
    • Improved Security: Advanced features for increased protection.
    • Scalability: Allows growth without significant redesigns.

    In the healthcare industry, Cisco ACI supports secure and efficient data management, accommodating regulatory needs and enhancing patient data handling. Financial institutions benefit from robust security and seamless integration with existing infrastructures, facilitating smooth transaction processing. In the public sector, it's utilized for reliable network management and servicing a diverse range of applications.

    Cisco

    APIC-EM is a central part of Cisco Digital Network Architecture. It delivers software-defined networking to the enterprise branch, campus, and WAN. Its simple user interface lets you automate policy-based application profiles. With this module, IT can respond rapidly to new business opportunities. 

    Cisco
     

    Sample Customers

    Bowling Green State University, du, Qatar University
    Information Not Available
    Buyer's Guide
    Network Virtualization
    October 2026
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