Cisco and F5 launch F5 ACI ServiceCenter app

F5 Networks and Cisco have launched the F5 ACI ServiceCenter app, designed to combine L2-3 connectivity with L4-7 application services within the Cisco ACI environment.

According to F5, the app improves visibility and control throughout the network and application stack to help customers accelerate application deployment within flexible, software-defined IT structures.

The collaboration enables users to deploy services such as application layer traffic management. F5 hopes that further integration efforts will let users deploy F5's portfolio of application and security services within Cisco's ACI framework.

The app runs natively in Cisco's APIC, and provides administrators a unified way to manage both L2-3 and L4-7 infrastructure. It also offers ACI-to-BIG-IP visibility, L2-3 stitching capability and L4-7 application services to ACI workloads.

Users can manage multiple BIG-IP devices by adding and logging in to the devices through the application. It also has a visibility tab that enables users to view BIG-IP Network elements like VLANs, VIPs and Nodes and co-relate them with APIC information. Users can also stitch between APIC Logical Devices and BIG-IP Devices using the L2-3 stitching tab.

The companies claim the F5 ServiceCenter app takes advantage of F5's Automation Toolchain capabilities. This enables customers to deploy, configure and customize application services in ACI environments via declarative APIs.

Cisco's ACI App Center is a platform that enables Cisco's technology partners to build ACI applications using the programmable ACI toolkit. The F5 and Cisco app enables mutual customers to use application services across a variety of scenarios.

The new app is available through Cisco's ACI App Center.