The Cisco Elastic Services Controller (ESC) is a sophisticated management tool designed to oversee the entire lifecycle of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). It provides comprehensive capabilities for onboarding, deploying, monitoring, scaling, and decommissioning VNFs, ensuring efficient resource utilization and service reliability. ESC is an essential component for managing both simple and complex multi-VNF services, offering a robust platform for service creation and lifecycle management.

Key Features - Complete VNF Lifecycle Management - Manage services and component VNFs from onboarding to deployment. - Monitor health and scale instances up or down based on demand. - Automatically remediate issues and spin down instances to free resources. - Service Creation and Maintenance - Oversee all service creation aspects from instantiation to maintenance. - Support for healing, auto-scaling, and teardown of services. - ETSI-Compliant VNF Manager - Maintain architectural control with an ETSI-compliant generic VNF manager (gVNFM). - Integrate into any ETSI-compliant Management and Orchestration (MANO) stack. - Support for both Cisco and third-party VNFs. - Complex Multi-VNF Service Management - Tools for service definitions, policy enforcement, and VNF placement control. - Integrated instrumentation and rules-based actions for scaling and service health management. - Customizable Actions - Choose between the Cisco NFVI MANO stack or your own components. - ESC server available in both 1-year and 3-year terms. - Comprehensive Support and Integration - Download software components, integrate your stack, and install in your environment. - Onboard VNFs and define services with ease. - Cisco provides advisory support to design, develop, and deploy automation strategies.

The Cisco ESC is designed to be a trusted advisor in your automation journey, helping you develop the right strategy to efficiently manage your network functions across their lifecycle.