Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (A Cisco ACI Story)

In the fashion of my two previous Dr. Seuss style stories I thought I’d take a crack at Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI.)  Check out the previous two if you haven’t read them and have time to waste:

 

Horton Hears Hadoop: http://www.definethecloud.net/horton-hears-hadoop/

The App on the Crap (An SDN Story) http://www.definethecloud.net/the-app-on-the-crap-an-sdn-story/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations!

This is the time.

The network is changing!

The future is here!

 

With software controllers.

And virtualized widgets.

You can steer traffic

any direction you choose.

Packets are moving. They’ll flow where they flow.

And YOU are the gal who’ll decide where they’ll go.

 

You’ll look up and down paths.  Look ‘em over with care.

About some you’ll say, “No VOIP will go there.”

With an overlay net, and central control,

No packet will flow, down a not-so-good path.

 

And when packets travel

on suboptimal paths.

You’ll reroute those flows,

based on 5-tuple match.

 

Net’s opened wide

With central control.

 

Now net change can happen

and rapidly too

with net as central

and virtual too.

 

And when things start to happen,

don’t panic.  Don’t stew.

Just go troubleshoot.

All layers old, and the new.

 

OH!

THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!

 

You’ll be on your way up!

Packet’s moving in flight!

You’ll be the rock star

who set network right.

 

The network won’t lag, because of central control.

You’ll provision the pipes, avoid traffic black holes.

The packets will fly, you’ll be best of the best.

Wherever they fly, be faster than the rest.

 

Except when they don’t.

Because sometimes they won’t.

 

I’m sorry to say so

but, sadly it’s true

that Bang-ups

and Hang-ups

will happen to you.

 

You can get all hung up

in congestion / jitter.

And packets won’t travel.

Some will just flitter.

 

Applications will fail

with unpleasant time-outs.

And the chances are, then,

that you’ll start hearing shouts.

 

And when applications fail,

you’re not in for much fun.

Getting them back up

is not easily done.

 

You’ll need the app team, spreadsheets , security rules.

You’ll have to troubleshoot through disparate tools.

Find a way to translate from app language to net.

Map L3/L4 to app names, not done yet.

There are services too, that’s a safe bet.

 

Which route did it take, and which networks the problem?

Overlay, underlay, this network has goblins.

Congestion, and drops, latency jitter

Check with the software, than break out the splitter.

You’ll sort this out, you’re no kind of quitter!

 

It can get so confused

two networks to trace.

The process is slow, not what you want for a pace.

You must sort it out, this is business, a race.

What happened here, what’s going on in this place?

 

NO!

That’s not for you!

Those duct tape based fixes.

You’ll choose better methods.

Not hodge-podge tech mixes.

 

Look first at the problem,

what’s causing the issues?

What is it that net, is trying to do?

The app is the answer, in front of you.

 

The data center’s there to run applications!

To serve them to users, move data ‘cross nations.

To drive revenue, open up business models.

To push out new services, all at full throttle.

The application’s what matters.

Place it on a platter.

 

You’ll put the app into focus,

With some abstraction hocus-pocus.

 

You’ll use the language of apps.

To describe connectivity.

Building application maps,

to increase productivity.

 

Use a system focused on policy,

not new-fangled virtual novelty.

Look at apps end-to-end,

Not with the app is VM trend.

 

Whether virtual or physical, you’ll treat things the same.

From L2 to L3, or L4-7,

use of uniform policy, will be your new game.

Well on your way to networking heaven.

 

Start with a logical model, a connectivity graph.

One that the system, deploys on your behalf.

A single controller for policy enforcement.

Sure to receive security’s cheering endorsement.

Forget about VLANs, routes and frame formats,

no longer will networking be the app-deploy doormat.

 

You see to build networks for today and tomorrow,

don’t use band-aids stacked high as Kilimanjaro.

You’ll want to start with REMOVING complexity.

Anything else, just adds to perplexity.

 

Start at the top, in an app centric fashion.

on a system that knows to treat apps as its passion.

 

And will you succeed?

Yes! you will, indeed!

(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)*

KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

 

So…

be your app virtual, physical or cloud

with services, simple, complex or astray,

you’re off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

ACI is waiting.

So…get on your way!

 

 

*This is intended as whimsical nonsense.  Any guarantees are null and void based on the complete insanity of the author.

**Disclaimer: I work for Cisco Systems with the group responsible for Nexus 9000 and ACI.  Please feel free to consider this post random vendor rhetoric.**

For more information on Cisco ACI visit www.cisco.com/go/aci