Cisco APIC Getting Started Guide, Release 6.2(x)

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Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure

Updated: January 12, 2026

Overview

This topic explains the Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and its centralized management controller, the Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC), which automates network provisioning and control through application-centric policies, offering unified management and programmability across physical and virtual components.

The Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) is a distributed, scalable, multitenant infrastructure with external endpoint connectivity controlled and grouped through application-centric policies.

The centralized management controller for ACI is the Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC). The Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) is a cluster-based management controller that

  • serves as the unified point for automation, management, monitoring, and programmability for the ACI. The APIC supports the deployment, management, and monitoring of any application anywhere, with a unified operations model for the physical and virtual components of the infrastructure.

  • programmatically automates network provisioning and control based on application requirements and policies. It is the central control engine for the broader cloud network. It simplifies management and allows flexibility in how application networks are defined and automated.

  • provides northbound REST APIs to support integration and custom workflows.

The APIC is a distributed system that is implemented as a cluster of many controller instances.