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

Cisco ACI

Cisco APIC-EM [EOL]

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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.

To learn more, read our detailed Network Virtualization Report (Updated: October 2026).

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Network Virtualization

October 2026

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Helped 921,523 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

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

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.

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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…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The biggest benefit has been that it has improved communication between my endpoints in the data center."

"We can support multiple VDRs of multiple branch offices at same physical location in the same infrastructure."

"Because we can use automation processes with this platform, we have been able to free up our IT department's time."

"Their technical support is very good. We had a problem and Cisco gave us the best engineer to resolve the issue."

"We use Cisco ACI for perimeter security and threat detection."

"The scalability is perfect, and it is one of the main reasons that we install it."

"Instead of taking days or multiple days for a deployment of a server or application, they can do it immediately within minutes because all the configuration templates are already there in the control plane, which we can push immediately when the new server gets added."

"The scalability is great; this is the greatest feature of the technology, as it is a great improvement in scaling out and can greatly increase the overall scalability of the Fabric with multi-port and multi-site, making it a great product."

More Cisco ACI pros

"Enabling business agility and accelerated time to market with the automated service delivery."

"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."

"The environment enables a DevOps culture, continuous delivery, and automated processes."

Cons

"I believe there's room for improvement in terms of ACI's integration with various technologies."

"It needs more integration with public clouds, like Azure and AWS."

"It would be good if Cisco ACI had some cross-domain orchestrator that could rule all the pillars in the customer network or interconnect more easily with the compass environment."

"The GUI is not easy to use."

"I would like this solution to be integrated with Pure Storage."

"An area for improvement in Cisco ACI is security, which Cisco needs to enhance in the solution. Though Cisco ACI uses a whitelist model, you must purchase an external product, such as a security firewall solution, to make whitelisting work, which the customer could find expensive. For example, you're a customer who has Cisco ACI, and the solution doesn't have IP-based filtering, so as a customer, you've purchased Cisco ACI. However, you still need to buy another product for security, and some customers wouldn't like that. However, some customers prefer to go with Cisco ACI because of its scalability and flexibility versus other solutions such as Juniper and Aruba. Technical support for Cisco ACI also needs improvement, particularly in product knowledge."

"I would rate this solution a five out of ten. Not a ten because I don't have good training for this solution. I am now implementing Cisco ACI in the company. It's not 100% on the network. It's on 25% approx, more or less."

"Deploying Cisco ACI was a little complex because we needed to add a lot to the fabric. You need to configure some servers, connect everything, make templates, and deploy switches. It takes five people to deploy and maintain."

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

"We have saved time on the provisioning and configuration."

"Cisco ACI is more expensive than Juniper, however, ACI is not the most expensive option."

"A big company can automate it themselves or spend a lot of money and buy it."

"Cisco ACI costs depend on how many sites you have. One simple site with a simple installation, including two leaves, two spines, and some fibers, would cost $200,000 to $300,000 for the licenses. The solution is a bit expensive, but it's a good investment if you want your data centers to work without interruption."

"Price is always an issue."

"The product is not cheap."

"The price could be improved. It is expensive, but then again, it is Cisco. The price is worth what you pay for."

"The licensing cost for ACI is expensive - I would rate its price 2.5 out of five."

More Cisco ACI pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Construction Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	19
Large Enterprise	89

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...

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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...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco ACI?

Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Cisco ACI, I observe that it is on the more expensive side, although discounts sometimes make it more affordable. Overall, it is recognized as a pr...

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Comparisons

VMware NSX vs Cisco ACI

Compared 14% of the time

Juniper Contrail Networking vs Cisco ACI

Compared 8% of the time

TrendAI Deep Security vs Cisco ACI

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Secure Workload vs Cisco ACI

Compared 7% of the time

Nuage Networks vs Cisco ACI

Compared 6% of the time

More Cisco ACI Competitors

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

November 2026

Download Cisco ACI product report

Buyer's Guide

Network Virtualization

October 2026

Download Cisco APIC-EM [EOL] product report

Also Known As

No data available

Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module

Overview

Cisco ACI provides centralized management of data centers offering automation, flexibility, and integration capabilities for enhanced network efficiency. It streamlines application deployment and network management with programmability and scalability, supporting multi-tenancy and security integration.

Cisco ACI empowers data centers with advanced infrastructure management through automated system controls, micro-segmentation, and tenant isolation. Its programmability simplifies network operations, enabling seamless interactions with VMware and other APIs, while the Service Graph facilitates traffic redirection. Although users find its complex interface challenging, they appreciate ACI's adaptability in component addition, which ensures future scalability. Enhancements are desired in cloud integration and ease of use. Licensing concerns and demand for better third-party product integration are noted, alongside aspirations for comprehensive technical support and cloud platform compatibility.

What are the key features of Cisco ACI?

Centralized Management: Streamlines control of network operations from a single point.
Micro-segmentation: Enhances security through precise traffic segmentation.
Tenant Isolation: Allows distinct network environments for enhanced resource separation.
Programmability with APIs: Offers customization and simplified network management.
VMware Integration: Ensures seamless operation with VMware environments.
Service Graph: Redirects network traffic efficiently for optimal performance.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Cisco ACI?

Operational Efficiency: Reduces manual network configuration efforts.
Scalability: Supports future growth with flexible infrastructure adaptability.
Cost Savings: Multi-tenancy and automation contribute to reduced expenditure.
Infrastructure Control: Enhances management of both physical and virtual network elements.

Cisco ACI is implemented extensively in data centers, enhancing network configuration, and supporting application deployment across sectors. It simplifies system migration and supports multi-site connectivity, enabling centralized control and automation in both virtual and physical environments.

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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We monitor all Network Virtualization reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.