Cisco and NVIDIA expand their partnership to deliver advanced AI technology solutions with NVIDIA Spectrum-X at the core.
Cisco recently announced plans to deepen its partnership with NVIDIA, expanding its joint effort to deliver advanced AI technology solutions to enterprise customers. As AI becomes an essential driver of business growth, many organizations remain early in their adoption journey, grappling with the complexity and security demands of building AI-ready data centers. This enhanced partnership seeks to give enterprises the flexibility to meet the demands of increasingly intensive AI workloads while providing high-performance connectivity across data centers.
A Shared Vision for AI in the Enterprise
Recognizing the need for a robust, scalable AI ecosystem, Cisco and NVIDIA are focused on simplifying the adoption and management of AI technologies. The two companies aim to deliver full-stack solutions that integrate seamlessly with existing enterprise networking and management tools, helping customers optimize their AI infrastructure investments. According to Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO of Cisco, the collaboration will “remove barriers for customers” and ensure they can “unlock the power of AI.” NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang adds that AI is advancing at “lightspeed” and emphasizes the transformative potential of combining Cisco’s global reach with NVIDIA’s AI-optimized Ethernet solutions.
Building a Common Architecture with NVIDIA Spectrum-X
The NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform is at the heart of this expanded partnership. Built on Cisco and NVIDIA silicon, this platform underpins a unified architecture that simplifies integration and standardization across enterprise environments. The partnership allows enterprises to leverage adaptive routing, telemetry, congestion control, and low latency capabilities to improve workload performance and visibility. By incorporating Cisco Silicon One into Spectrum-X solutions, Cisco becomes the sole supported partner silicon provider for NVIDIA’s Ethernet offerings, creating a streamlined path from AI prototyping to full-scale deployment.
Integrated Security and Simplified Operations
As enterprises develop their AI capabilities, integrating Cisco’s security and networking portfolio—including the Splunk data platform—ensures a comprehensive approach to digital resilience. This includes strategies to address congestion management, load balancing, and other operational challenges enterprises face when scaling AI workloads. The collaboration emphasizes a seamless user experience, enhanced by the compatibility of Cisco’s Nexus switches, UCS compute, optics, and other infrastructure components with NVIDIA’s Spectrum-X platform.
Cisco and NVIDIA’s ongoing collaboration also extends to the joint development of reference architectures, including NVIDIA Cloud Partner (NCP) and Enterprise Reference Architectures. By validating these architectures with Cisco technologies, the companies aim to provide enterprises with more choice and flexibility so that their AI deployments will be future-ready. Jim Kavanaugh, Co-Founder and CEO of World Wide Technology, highlights the potential of this partnership. He noted that by combining Cisco’s data center expertise with NVIDIA’s advanced AI capabilities, enterprises can confidently navigate the complexities of AI adoption and achieve transformative business outcomes.
Accelerating AI Adoption Across the Enterprise
Through this expanded partnership, Cisco and NVIDIA are laying the groundwork for enterprises to accelerate their AI initiatives. The two companies are poised to help enterprises transition from small-scale proofs of concept to production-ready AI environments by simplifying deployment, improving operational efficiency, and offering a unified management fabric. This collaboration ultimately empowers organizations to embrace the transformative power of AI, unlocking new opportunities for innovation and growth.
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