Cisco has announced a major expansion of its Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA, enabling large enterprises to move AI projects from pilot to production in weeks instead of months. The framework spans data centers to edge sites, integrating security from the start.
This partnership positions Cisco as a key player in secure, large-scale AI infrastructure deployment.
Expanding AI from Core to Edge
Cisco’s expansion of the Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA extends validated AI infrastructure beyond centralized data centers to edge environments such as hospitals, warehouses, and moving vehicles.
This shift addresses the growing need for real-time inference where data is generated, ensuring decisions can be made instantly without latency bottlenecks.
By integrating NVIDIA Spectrum-X switch silicon with Cisco’s operating system, enterprises gain flexibility to deploy AI across diverse environments, compressing deployment timelines from months to weeks while embedding security from the outset.
Security Built into Every Layer
A defining feature of the expansion is the integration of Hybrid Mesh Firewall enforcement into NVIDIA BlueField DPUs, enabling zero-trust micro-segmentation directly at the hardware level.
Cisco also introduced AI Defense, which secures multi-agent systems by adding governance controls to NVIDIA’s new OpenShell agent development platform.
This layered approach ensures that AI workloads are protected from silicon to software, aligning with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s emphasis that “security must be built into every layer” of AI infrastructure.
Technical Innovations Driving Scale
Cisco’s Secure AI Factory now incorporates next-generation switching silicon, including the N9100 switch powered by NVIDIA Spectrum-6 Ethernet and the N9300 based on Cisco Silicon One G300.
These platforms deliver up to 102.4 Tbps switching capacity, supporting the most demanding AI factory configurations.
Alongside hardware-accelerated security, Cisco introduced new Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs) and expanded support for NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition, ensuring enterprises and service providers can scale AI workloads efficiently across distributed sites.
Positioning Cisco as a Key AI Infrastructure Partner
This collaboration positions Cisco as a premier partner for enterprises, sovereign clouds, and service providers seeking secure, large-scale AI deployment.
By offering both NVIDIA Cloud Partner-compliant architectures and Cisco Silicon One-based designs, Cisco provides customers with choice and flexibility.
CEO Chuck Robbins highlighted that the partnership “sets a new standard for performance – making it simpler to deploy, operate, and secure AI infrastructure.”
With AI factories transforming industries, Cisco and NVIDIA’s joint framework ensures large enterprise organisations can scale intelligence confidently from core to edge.
References: Cisco NewsRoom
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