Cisco Digital Network Architecture

Cisco has been at the leading edge of networking and enabling its customers to adopt technologies that help them prepare for the future. In the wave of digitization, SDN, NFV, cloud adoption, analytics and orchestration, Cisco has come out with an architecture called the Digital Network Architecture.

Cisco's Digital Network Architecture (DNA) is an open, extensible, software-driven architecture that accelerates and simplifies your enterprise network operations. The fundamental principle of DNA is to enable a software-centric network infrastructure that can be changed to meet business needs.

Cisco's DNA delivers the same consistent experience to wired users, wireless users, and remote VPN users, and uses advanced analytics to provide rich insights into the network.

Cisco's DNA is based on the following key pillars:

• Virtualization: Cisco brings Network Function Virtualization (NFV) to the enterprise branch and provides the flexibility to run not only Cisco's network functions such as routers, firewalls, wide area acceleration services, and so on but also third-party services, including standard windows-based services such as DHCP servers on an NFV platform. The goal is to deliver consistent services and user experience regardless of the form factor of the underlying network infrastructure components.
• Automation: Cisco used the hybrid mode of SDN and introduced a controller that it calls Application Policy Infrastructure Controller-Enterprise Module (APIC-EM). This SDN controller abstracts the network and provides a layer that provides open, standard-based APIs that can be used by developers to create applications that can be run on top of the controller to meet specific business goals. Cisco also provides some apps bundled with the controller like the Plug and Play app, that can help configure devices automatically when they are connected to the network by pulling their configuration from a central configuration repository server, significantly reducing the provisioning time and errors.
• Analytics: Cisco believes that the network is the source of a lot of useful information that can be used to deliver new experiences and gain insights into the network. Cisco's DNA collects the information from the network devices using telemetry data such as SNMP and Netflow, and uses advanced analytics on the collected data to provide meaningful insights about the network.
• Cloud Service Management: Cisco's DNA uses cloud-based service models to reduce the deployment times for critical services for its end customers. Providing cloud-based services also helps customers to scale on-demand thus providing them the flexibility and agility that their business needs.
• Open, Standards-based APIs: Cisco's controller is an open and standards-based controller that provides a rich set of northbound APIs that are used by ecosystem partners and developers to build custom applications that can be run on top of the SDN controller.

Cisco's DNA ensures that the network is not only open, flexible, and agile enabling it meeting changing business needs but is also secure, ensuring that the network is able to detect and mitigate any attacks in a structured manner and not be reactive in its approach to security. Enterprises can reap the benefits of automation in terms of reduced operational costs using the APIC-EM controller and the associated applications:

The DNA services are delivered through the use of Cisco ONE software and does not require a rip and replace approach for the underlying hardware that might have been deployed by the customers, hence ensuring investment protection for the existing customers.