Architecture for better automation of a modern data center

If we know that over 69% of companies use Cloud solutions on multiple sites and that traditional three-tier networks (Access-Aggregation-Core) can no longer keep up with the growing business needs of organizations, it's time for a new innovative solution that combines multiple data locations into one unified solution. This can be achieved through software-defined networking.

What are the challenges?

The world has entered an era of automated infrastructure management, which is not easy for companies because they have to redesign the core system and their processes. In professional terms, one needs to work from topology preparation, segmentation, to a catalog of standardized services and gradual migration to build a sustainable secure data center model. In doing so, engineers must also take into account infrastructure optimization, business continuity, hybrid cloud solutions, and core network upgrades, more specifically, data centers. In data centers, this means the introduction of automation of software management infrastructure to support applications and business goals of users.

In case your company uses multiple data centers and Cloud solutions, there may be agility issues that manifest in the instant availability of applications and their scaling. IT department headaches in this scenario create accessibility and disaster recovery as well as security.

Cisco ACI is the right architecture for a secure data center

Software-defined networking (SDN) is a key component in modernizing your data center to meet new and growing expectations. This is where the Cisco ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure) solution comes into play, with which you can modernize your data center through a Leaf & Spine with a controller (APIC) dual-layer network architecture, transferring task complexity to programmatically written controller commands. application-friendly infrastructure management.

This integrated solution automates the application infrastructure, simplifies management, and improves scalability, security, flexibility. The result is faster application delivery, reduced deployment complexity, and better coordination between applications and dynamic business requirements for existing and next-generation data centers.

The key role played by Cisco ACI is data center automation, where the data center is not just a classic data center, but all the places where data is kept. The Cisco ACI solution provides lots of business and IT benefits - secure, scalable, and automated application infrastructure.

The greatest benefits of data center automation

In a challenging time when resource demands are growing and all companies are necessarily forced to turn to the process of digital transformation, it is crucial to have a comprehensive solution that will have all the threads of infrastructure in their hands. Here are some of the key benefits of the Cisco ACI solution:

• Configure, monitor, manage and maintain a single-point data center network

• IP based core network (no STP), the whole network acts as one distributed device (distributed default gateway),

• multi-tenant scalable network technology with optimal traffic path between leaf-switches and consistent latency (due to CLOS topology),

• integrated network policy up to virtual servers,

• Zero-trust security model - ACI environment does not allow communication that is not explicitly allowed,

• monitoring and troubleshooting - all in real-time,

• automation and orchestration based on API,

• integration with VMM controllers,

• micro-segmentation - placing end devices in separate groups by special attributes, except L2 encapsulation (eg IP address, VM name, Guest OS, and other metadata), and

• mobility of end devices.

ACI solution in practice - case study mStart

STORM team has implemented an advanced software-defined data center (SDN) solution for data centers at mStart, the leading technology service provider in the region. The project consisted of the implementation of the Cisco ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure) solution for managing the network environment in data centers and the migration of services, which made mStart a successful transformation to software-defined data center technology - the technology of the future.

“The implementation of the ACI solution in mStart redesigned the distribution backbone and data center network by introducing dynamic routing protocols. This ensures that in the event of a failure of any component of the distribution system and/or data center network, the system remains highly accessible by automatically directing traffic from any data center ", said Nikola Pentek, project manager at STORM.

“The ability to configure, monitor, and manage a complete network environment in data centers from a single control point is the biggest advantage of ACI solutions.

“The ability to configure, monitor, and manage a complete network environment in data centers from a single control point is the biggest advantage of ACI solutions. The introduction of software-defined data center technology has improved system resilience and availability of access to application groups with minimal downtime in case of failure of individual system components or the entire data center ", said Srđan Bašić, Chief Specialist in Communications at mStart.

STORM has a wide implementation base in the field of Cisco technologies, many years of experience, certification, and know-how, which allows us to successfully implement complex projects such as this one done in collaboration with the mStart team.

Want to know how an ACI solution can be implemented in your network environment? Contact our sales department at prodaja@storm.hr. More about the solution on the link.