Cisco has announced the Digital Network Architecture (DNA), an open, extensible and software driven architecture for digital business.
Cisco DNA complements Cisco’s data center based Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) technology by extending the policy driven approach and software strategy throughout the entire network: from campus to branch, wired to wireless, core to edge.
Delivered within the Cisco ONE Software family Cisco DNA is built on five guiding principles:
1. Virtualize everything to give organizations freedom of choice to run any service anywhere, independent of the underlying platform – physical or virtual, on premise or in the cloud.
2. Designed for automation to make networks and services on those networks easy to deploy, manage and maintain – fundamentally changing the approach to network management.
3. Pervasive analytics to provide insights on the operation of the network, IT infrastructure and the business – information that only the network can provide.
4. Service management delivered from the cloud to unify policy and orchestration across the network - enabling the agility of cloud with the security and control of on premises solutions.
5. Open, extensible and programmable at every layer – Integrating Cisco and 3rd party technology, open API’s and a developer platform, to support a rich ecosystem of network-enabled applications.
“The digital network is the platform for digital business,” said Rob Soderbery, SVP for Enterprise Products and Solutions, Cisco. “Cisco DNA brings together virtualization, automation, analytics, cloud and programmability to build that platform. The acronym for the Digital Networking Architecture – DNA – isn’t an accident. We’re fundamentally changing the DNA of networking technology.”
Cisco DNA News Highlights
To support the DNA architecture, Cisco is announcing automation, virtualization and cloud management capabilities.
For automation, Cisco launched the APIC-EM Platform, a new version of Cisco’s enterprise controller. This automation software removes the need for any staging for pre-configuration or truck roll-outs to remote locations, which typically cost IT around $200-$2000 per device. The Plug and Play agent sits on Cisco routers and switches and talks directly to the network controller, reducing deployment time from up to 4 weeks to a few days, and providing up to 79 percent decrease in Day 0 deployment costs over traditional methods.
Meanwhile, the Cisco Intelligent WAN Automation Services automate IWAN deployment and management, providing greater WAN deployment flexibility and allowing IT to quickly configure and deploy a full-service branch office with just 10 clicks.
IWAN automation eliminates configuration tasks for advanced networking features, and automatically enables Cisco best practices, application prioritization, path selection and caching to improve the user experience.
DNA Virtualization
Evolved Cisco IOS XE is a network operating system optimized for programmability, controller-based automation, and serviceability. The new OS provides open model-driven APIs for third party application development, software-defined management, application hosting, edge computing and abstraction from the physical infrastructure to enable virtualization. It supports the Cisco Catalyst 3850/3650, ASR 1000 and ISR 4000 today, and will continue to be expanded across the Enterprise Network portfolio.
Evolved Cisco IOS XE includes Enterprise Network Function Virtualization (Enterprise NFV) that decouples hardware from software and gives enterprises the freedom of choice to run any feature anywhere. This solution includes the full software stack - virtualization infrastructure software; virtualized network functions (VNFs) like routing, firewall, WAN Optimization, and WLAN Controller; and orchestration services - to enable branch office service virtualization.
For cloud management, the new CMX Cloud provides business insights and personalized engagement using location and presence information from Cisco wireless infrastructure. With CMX Cloud enterprises can provide easy Wi-Fi onboarding, gain access to aggregate customer behavior data, and improve customer engagement.
Next generation data center switches
Cisco also announced data center technology innovations in three key areas: networking, hyperconverged infrastructure, and hybrid cloud orchestration which will enable application-centric hybrid cloud deployments.
Cisco says the new switching platforms provide the scale, telemetry, security, and performance needed for distributed containers and microservices, as well as the lossless traffic needed for IP storage and hyperconverged infrastructure.