The Data Center course is designed to provide comprehensive knowledge and practical skills in managing, designing, and operating modern data center environments. As organizations increasingly rely on digital infrastructure, data centers have become the backbone of IT operations — hosting applications, storing critical data, and ensuring business continuity. This course equips learners with the expertise needed to build, manage, and optimize data centers efficiently and securely.
This program covers the core components of a data center, including networking, storage, virtualization, servers, and security infrastructure. Participants gain in-depth understanding of how these elements integrate to deliver high-performance, scalable, and resilient computing environments. The course also emphasizes energy efficiency, automation, and cloud integration, aligning with the latest trends in enterprise data center design.
Learners are introduced to both traditional and modern data center architectures, including software-defined data centers (SDDC) and cloud-based models (private, public, and hybrid clouds).
This module introduces the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series, widely used for data center access-layer switching. Students learn about its architecture, features, and configuration, including low-latency Ethernet, FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet), and high-performance Layer 2/Layer 3 capabilities. The focus is on integrating Nexus 5K switches in server aggregation and unified fabric designs.
Learn about the Cisco Nexus 2000 Fabric Extenders (FEX), which provide a simple and scalable solution for extending the fabric of Nexus 5K or 7K switches. This course covers FEX architecture, deployment, and management, focusing on how 2K switches help reduce cabling complexity and centralize management.
This module explores the Nexus 7000 Series, designed for data center core and aggregation layers. Topics include modular chassis design, redundancy, virtual device contexts (VDCs), and high availability. Students gain experience in configuring the 7K for large-scale, mission-critical data centers.
VDC allows the logical partitioning of a single physical Nexus 7K switch into multiple virtual switches. This section teaches how to create, configure, and manage VDCs for enhanced isolation, security, and resource allocation in multi-tenant data center environments.
The vPC module covers how to configure and manage link aggregation between two Nexus switches, providing redundancy, loop prevention, and load balancing. Learners practice building resilient Layer 2 topologies with vPC peers, improving uptime and performance.
FabricPath combines the flexibility of Layer 2 with the scalability of Layer 3. This course teaches FabricPath architecture, configuration, and operation, explaining how it eliminates spanning-tree limitations while providing multipath and loop-free Layer 2 environments.
The OTV module explains how to extend Layer 2 networks across geographically dispersed data centers using IP-based transport. Participants learn about OTV configuration, edge device setup, and multicast requirements to enable seamless workload mobility and disaster recovery.
This section introduces the Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) hardware components — including spine switches, leaf switches, and APIC controllers. Learners understand the hardware architecture and data flow that form the backbone of policy-driven data center networking.
Participants explore how Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding works in Cisco ACI environments. Topics include endpoint learning, bridging domains, subnets, routing between tenants, and policy enforcement within the ACI fabric.
VXLAN is a key technology for network virtualization in modern data centers. This module explains VXLAN concepts, encapsulation, and operation, along with VXLAN integration with ACI to extend Layer 2 networks over Layer 3 infrastructure.
The Endpoints module focuses on how ACI identifies, tracks, and manages connected devices. Students learn how endpoints are dynamically discovered and how ACI policies are applied based on endpoint identity and location within the fabric.
Tenants are logical containers in ACI used for isolating network, compute, and storage resources. This section teaches how to create and configure tenants, along with Application Profiles, Bridge Domains, and Endpoint Groups (EPGs) for secure and segmented networking.
This module explains Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) integration with ACI, covering VMware vCenter, Microsoft Hyper-V, and other hypervisors. Learners understand how ACI automates network provisioning for virtual environments and synchronizes policies with virtual switches.
Students learn how to connect ACI fabrics to traditional Layer 2 networks, configuring external connections through bridge domains and static paths. The module ensures smooth interoperability between ACI and legacy infrastructure.
This section covers Layer 3 connectivity between the ACI fabric and external networks using Border Leaf switches. Participants learn to configure L3Out interfaces, routing protocols (OSPF/BGP), and policies to establish secure and reliable external communication.
In this hands-on module, learners work directly with the Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC), the central management system for Cisco ACI. They practice real-world configurations, including tenant creation, policy deployment, endpoint verification, and troubleshooting, solidifying all previously learned concepts.
