As you immerse yourself in the cutting-edge technologies showcased at Cisco Live, one thing is abundantly clear:AI is no longer a future concept-it's the engine driving today's digital transformation.At Cisco Live San Diego, we're showing the world how to build it securely in collaboration with NVIDIA.

Cisco is at the forefront of enabling organizations to harness the power of AI with solutions that are scalable, efficient, and, above all, secure. Our evolving portfolio lays the groundwork for AI-ready infrastructure, designed with the flexibility and protection needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

In San Diego, we are highlighting how we continue to expand the capabilities of our AI-ready data center technology to help our customers transform their data centers to support both AI and traditional workloads-anywhere, securely, and at scale.

Securing AI from the ground up

As organizations accelerate AI adoption, they face mounting complexity-from siloed infrastructure and operational sprawl to new security risks across the AI lifecycle. Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA provides the building blocks for solving these challenges: A full stack of infrastructure, software, and security designed to help enterprises deploy, operate, and scale AI with trust and efficiency.

Think of Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA as the blueprint for your AI ambitions. It's the bedrock upon which you can build secure, end-to-end AI solutions tailored precisely to your enterprise requirements. Secure AI Factory offers two deployment paths-a vertically integrated option built on Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric AI (shown in Figure 1), and a modular option that leverages Cisco AI PODs.

Figure 1. Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA-vertically integrated option

Using Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA, enterprises can confidently embrace AI, knowing they have a secure and flexible foundation to support their journey.

Additionally, Cisco and NVIDIA showed progress towards a unified architecture; at Cisco Live, the companies showcased the first technical integration of Cisco G200-based switches and NVIDIA NICs, demonstrating NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking based on Cisco Silicon One that supports NX-OS, Nexus Hyperfabric AI, and SONiC deployments.

Expanding AI horizons with AI PODs

At Cisco Live, we are introducing an expanded range of Cisco AI PODs. These full-stack AI solutions support edge, RAG, training, and large-scale inferencing at lower total cost of ownership and provide greater control and include NVIDIA accelerated computing, networking, and AI software. Built on Cisco UCS, Nexus, and our partner storage solutions, these validated architectures give customers the flexibility and performance to run enterprise-grade AI with less complexity and faster time to value.

Our AI PODs are purpose-built to simplify AI adoption, offering production-ready solutions that are constantly evolving to enable customers to tackle a broader spectrum of AI workloads.

Figure 2. Cisco AI PODs

Unifying network management

Cisco Nexus Dashboard integrations simplify data center networking by delivering unmatched visibility and control over your AI infrastructure. At Cisco Live, we are showcasing the integration of greater capabilities into the dashboard. Cisco Nexus Dashboard provides centralized data center network operations and automation across Nexus, MDS, and ACI fabrics. It delivers a unified fabric architecture across VXLAN-EVPN and ACI fabrics.

Cisco Intelligent Packet Flow optimizes traffic in real time using telemetry and congestion awareness, ensuring peak AI workload performance. Nexus Dashboard provides end-to-end visibility across networks, GPUs, and AI tasks for proactive issue detection.

These capabilities seamlessly align with AI PODs, ensuring smooth coordination between compute and networking-essential for today's AI-driven environments.

Switching on smarter AI security

In February, we introduced the Smart Switch powered by Hypershield, a fresh approach to securing AI data centers by fusing security directly into the network fabric. The DPU-powered Smart Switch is designed to deliver the high-speed data transfer and ultra-low latency demanded by compute-intensive AI tasks. We're excited to announce that Nexus Dashboard now supports Smart Switches.

Now we're releasing a top-of-rack model, which will feature 48 25G ports, two 100G ports, and six 400G ports. It enhances performance, security, and flexibility within a data center environment.

We're also extending Hybrid Mesh Firewall enforcement to the Cisco ACI fabric by integrating Cisco Secure Workload with Cisco ACI. This automation enables AI-driven policy discovery and applies observation-based security policies directly into the network.

Expanding our solution with Nutanix

Delivering top-tier digital experiences boosts customer satisfaction and drives revenue- and it can lead to lower support costs and smarter decisions through actionable insights. We now offer deeper integration with Nutanix Prism Central, which provides enhanced visibility and management through GPU metrics and M8 server support.

FlashStack with Nutanix for hybrid cloud AI deployments extends the power of AI across your entire infrastructure. This solution provides a pre-validated and easy-to-deploy infrastructure, reducing the complexity of managing separate components.

Accelerating AI on UCS servers

In San Diego, we are introducing new 6th Gen Fabric Interconnects, engineered to maximize the performance of Cisco UCS servers and ensure they are fully prepared for the rigors of AI.

Figure 3. Cisco fabric interconnects for UCS servers

 

Key benefits include:

• Increased bandwidth and reduced latency, accelerating data-intensive AI applications.
• Enhanced scalability, enabling your infrastructure to adapt and grow alongside your AI initiatives.

These updates complete Cisco's full-stack AI-ready infrastructure, ensuring that every layer-from compute to networking-is optimized for AI excellence.

Accelerating modernization with next gen bidirectional multimode optics

Over the past few years, Cisco has helped data center operators upgrade to higher speeds while protecting their existing cabling investments. Building on the success of our 40G and 100G BiDi optics, now we're introducing the next generation: 400G BiDi. This innovation enables a smooth transition to 400G networks using current duplex multimode fiber, simplifying upgrades and making it easier and faster to modernize.

Figure 6. Cisco QSFP-DD 400G BiDi for multimode fiber

Ready to build your AI future?

Through the continuing evolution of our AI-ready infrastructure, Cisco is committed to helping enterprises harness the full potential of AI-securely, seamlessly, and at scale. Whether you're just beginning your AI journey or looking to optimize existing deployments, our Secure AI Factory, AI PODs, and next-gen networking innovations provide the foundation you need to succeed.

Take the next step:

• Find out how a modern data center helps you power every move with data and insights: Watch the video
• Discover real-world AI use cases across industries: AI Industry Guide

Let Cisco be your trusted partner in building a smarter, more secure AI-powered future.

 

Learn more about bringing secure AI to the enterprise with Cisco and NVIDIA