Application Network Profile (ANP) : a collection of end-point groups (EPG), their connections, and the policies that define those connections
Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) : APIC is the SDN controller for Cisco ACI. It creates the policies that define the data center’s network infrastructure.
ACI fabric : This is connection of Spine and Leaf switches. In the ACI world Spine and Leaf are the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches (N9k) , and they are act as Control and the Data plane of the ACI. It is running re written version of NX-OS in ACI mode.
All endpoints, including APICs, connect to the network via Leaf switches. These Leaf switches are connected together using Spine switches in the backend.
Using these components, ACI can be deployed under a variety of different models. This includes support for on-site, cloud-based (including public, private, and hybrid clouds), and SD-WAN edge environments. This enables organizations to use policy-based network management throughout their corporate WANs.
