Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC)

Features and Capabilities Centralized application-level policy engine for physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructures Detailed visibility, telemetry, and health scores by application and by tenant Designed around open standards and open APIs Robust implementation of multi-tenant security, quality of service (QoS), and high availability Integration with management systems such as VMware, Microsoft, and OpenStack Designed for automation, programmability, and centralized management, the Cisco APIC itself exposes northbound APIs through XML and JSON. It provides both a command-line interface (CLI) and GUI which utilize the APIs to manage the fabric holistically. OpFlex OpFlex is a new open and extensible southbound protocol that supplies policy directly to data center networks. Unlike commonly used SDN protocols, it supplies application policy, not low-level configuration, to network devices. This allows devices to self-configure and freely expose new innovation. By centralizing policy but distributing control, networks can become much more scalable, resilient, and interoperable. Cisco and partners are submitting OpFlex to the IETF for standardization to OpenDaylight for open source SDN implementations. An OpFlex agent will be available free from Github for leading hypervisors, switches, and Layer 4 to 7 services. A reference implementation on OVS will be available. Cisco APIC provides: A single pane of glass for application-centric network policies Fabric image management and inventory Application, tenant, and topology monitoring Troubleshooting Cisco APIC is completely removed from the data path. This means the fabric can still forward traffic even when communication with the Cisco APIC is lost.