Cisco ACI Has NSX Convergence Roadmap Ahead With 'Our Friends At VMware,' Says CTO

Christmas might come early this year for Ciscochannel partners seekingthe convergence of the top two software-defined networking solutions on the market in Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and VMware NSX.

At Cisco Live on Monday, Zorawar Biri Singh, CTO and senior vice president for Cisco's Cloud Services and Platforms, said he's "optimistic" that Cisco has a solid roadmap ahead regarding the convergence between ACI and NSX.

"There's a set of feature requests that our customers are asking for and the common theme has been, 'We want to see VMware and Cisco work together closely,'" said Singh, during a media Q&A event sitting alongside Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. "I think we've been doing that and customers have actually been recognizing that piece. So the work continues … I feel very optimistic that we have a pretty good roadmap with our friends at VMware."

Cisco's ACI is a mix of hardware and software, compared to the software-only NSX technology.

In a recent interview with CRN, Robbins said Cisco has been talking about a closer SDN relationship with VMware around NSX.

"As it relates to VMware, I think our teams are talking about where there might be points that balance the competitive nature of the partnership, but also meet perhaps some of the emerging customers 'asks.' So I think that's to be determined,"Robbins told CRN in May.