Technology companies Cisco and Nvidia announced an expanded partnership to help businesses adopt artificial intelligence (AI) technology more easily. Many companies recognize AI’s importance for growth but face technical and security challenges in building AI-ready data centers. The partnership hopes to provide flexible solutions that support AI workloads with high-performance networking.
“A robust and scalable AI ecosystem is key to driving the transformative power of AI,” said Hans Vestberg, chair and CEO of Verizon. “This expanded partnership between Cisco and Nvidia builds toward accelerating and enabling resource-intensive AI workloads at the edge of the network.”
The collaboration will focus on integrating Nvidia’s Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform with Cisco’s networking technology. This will allow businesses to optimize their AI infrastructure while using their existing management tools. By enabling compatibility between the two companies’ architectures, the goal is to simplify AI deployment for enterprises.
“Enterprises are under immense pressure to deploy AI quickly and effectively, and many leaders struggle to justify the investment while balancing the risks,” said Chuck Robbins, chair and CEO of Cisco. “Together, Cisco and Nvidia are partnering to remove barriers for customers and ensure they can optimize their infrastructure investments to unlock the power of AI.”
Nvidia Spectrum-X offers features such as adaptive routing, telemetry, congestion control, and low latency. Businesses will also benefit from Cisco’s networking, security, and digital resilience solutions, including the Splunk data platform. The companies are working to make AI adoption more accessible by creating solutions that improve workload performance and security.
Enterprise challenges
“Advancing at lightspeed, AI will revolutionize every industry,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia. “Nvidia Spectrum-X is Ethernet enhanced and supercharged for AI. Together with Cisco’s enterprise platforms and global reach, we can help companies worldwide build state-of-the-art Nvidia infrastructure as they race to transform with AI.”
As businesses continue developing AI models using their own data, having a strong security strategy is crucial. The partnership aims to address enterprise challenges such as congestion management and load balancing, helping companies scale AI deployments securely.
“World Wide Technology’s long-standing partnerships with Cisco and Nvidia have already resulted in cutting-edge AI solutions that drive innovation and business transformation,” said Jim Kavanaugh, co-founder and CEO of World Wide Technology. “By leveraging the strengths of Cisco’s deep expertise in the data center and Nvidia’s advanced AI technologies, we are poised to deliver value to our customers and help them navigate AI adoption with confidence.”
Cisco and Nvidia also plan to develop joint solutions, including data center switches that integrate Nvidia’s Spectrum Ethernet platform with Cisco Silicon One technology. These efforts will provide businesses with more options and flexibility in building AI infrastructure.