<p>Two networking-gear vendors have agreed to integrate products with Cisco's answer to the Software Defined Network (SDN) trend called Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI).</p><p>For Cisco, partnering with other vendors serves the dual purpose of getting third-party endorsements of the ACI play (which SDN devotees have met with skepticism) and of showing that the networking giant had not devised ACI to lock customers into an all-Cisco environment.</p><p>"This should also resolve any speculation that ACI would not be including technology partners that compete with Cisco's other lines of business," Gary Kinghorn, a Cisco marketing manager, wrote in a blog post announcing the integration deals with A10 Networks and Catbird.</p><p>San Jose, California-based A10 has agreed to integrate ACI with its application delivery controller called Thunder ADC. The solution will use Cisco's Application Infrastructure Policy Controller (APIC) as the central policy control and management station. APIC automates network configuration based on an individual application's needs and policies.</p><p><a href="http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/focus/archive/2014/02/two-network-vendors-jump-ciscos-aci-bandwagon">Keep reading...</a></p>