ACI
Integrated solution covering both physical and
virtual components acts as overlay for
application
Runs on Cisco Hardware
Supports Automation of Virtual & physical
Network
Legacy networks can be directly connected to
Fabric using multi-chassis LACP
Sub-second convergence
L4-L7 Service insertion through Open SDK
Every Leaf is a gateway for physical and virtual
Apps , no additional gateway required
Managed by APIC Controller
East-West and North-South routing regardless
of workload connected
NGFW through virtual and Physical appliance
Traffic filtering by Grouping end points into
EPGs and using Contracts
Not provided natively
Protocols VXLAN , IS-IS , BGP
NSX provides basic load-balancing features as
part of NSX Edge when enabled
NSX
Overlay-based model, underlay is managed
separately. Can adopt any vendor’s underlay.
hardware-agnostic software layer that delivers
switching, routing and distributed firewall features
to applications running on VMware's
virtualization platform
Supports Automation of Virtual Networks but
cannot do automation for physical networks
L2 based software gateways running on ESXi
must be used
Convergence can be slower
L4-L7 service insertion is possible through close
API and subject to licensing
Network gateways to talk to other network end
points
Managed by NSX Controller and NSX manager
East-west Routing with extra distributed logical
control VM per IP Domain
Only Virtual appliances are supported
Policy enforcement through Distributed firewall
running on ESXi Virtual distributed switch
NSX Edge provides basic NAT capabilities for
IPv4
VXLAN/GENEVE
ACI requires the use of a partner’s services, such
as Citrix, F5