Cisco surpasses AI order target, unveils new data centre tools

Cisco has announced a series of updates and partnerships intended to accelerate adoption of AI-ready infrastructure across enterprise and hyperscale data centres.

The updates include expanded AI PODs, enhanced network management tools, and technical integrations with NVIDIA, as well as collaborations with emerging neocloud and global service providers.

AI-driven data centre growth

During the most recent quarter, Cisco surpassed its annual target of USD $1 billion in AI infrastructure orders from hyperscale customers, reporting achievement of this milestone one quarter earlier than planned.

The company's latest infrastructure updates are designed to allow enterprises and service providers to modernise their facilities for evolving AI workloads.

This is being achieved through validated solutions, simplified upgrades, and unified management platforms that bring together various network domains under one dashboard.

"The world is moving from chatbots intelligently answering our questions to agents conducting tasks and jobs fully autonomously. This is the agentic era of AI," said Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco. "As billions of AI agents begin working on our behalf, the demand for high-bandwidth, low latency and power efficient networking for data centers will soar. Cisco is at the forefront, delivering advanced, secure networking technology that's foundational to the AI-ready data centers of the future."

Matt Kimball, Moor Insights & Strategy, also highlighted the importance of secure connectivity for enterprise AI expansion, stating, "The criticality of secure connectivity becomes more apparent as AI use expands across the enterprise. Cisco's ability to deliver AI-ready infrastructure to its customers, along with its investment in AI-enabled operations differentiates the company."

"It is this kind of partner and customer-first thinking that leads to AI-powered tools that abstract the complexity associated with deploying and managing AI infrastructure. AI reaching its full potential is dependent on a resilient network on which partners build and deliver solutions and services."

Enterprise infrastructure upgrades

Among Cisco's newly announced solutions is the Unified Nexus Dashboard, which consolidates management across local area networks, storage area networks, IP fabric management, and AI/ML IT environments into a single interface. This is intended to improve operational efficiency and visibility for data centre operators. The platform's latest release is scheduled for July 2025.

Cisco has also released Intelligent Packet Flow, a traffic management feature designed to proactively steer AI workloads using real-time telemetry and congestion data. This aims to provide 'end-to-end' visibility linking networks, GPUs, and distributed AI compute jobs.

In technical collaboration with NVIDIA, Cisco demonstrated integration of Cisco G200-based switches and NVIDIA network interface cards, enabling NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking via Cisco Silicon One. This integration supports various operating environments, including NX-OS, Nexus Hyperfabric AI, and SONiC deployments.

The company has broadened its AI POD offerings, providing more configurable options for organisations deploying tailored AI workloads. Partnerships with NVIDIA continue, with the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPU now available to order with Cisco UCS C845A M8 servers, supporting the development of validated solutions as part of the Cisco Secure AI Factory initiative.

On the security front, Cisco AI Defense and Cisco Hypershield are now included in NVIDIA's Enterprise AI Factory validated design.

These solutions offer visibility, validation, and runtime protection for end-to-end enterprise AI workflows, supporting AI agents built on open models and optimised using NVIDIA microservices.

Additionally, Cisco has introduced new 400G bidirectional optics to enable data centre operators to upgrade their networks while maintaining existing fibre infrastructure, with availability scheduled for the second half of 2025.

Growth of the neocloud market

Recognising the emergence of a 'neocloud' market segment, Cisco has signed partnerships with new GPU- and infrastructure-as-a-service providers. Projects highlighted include:

• HUMAIN in Saudi Arabia, which is constructing an AI infrastructure using Cisco networking, analytics, and security technologies, including Nexus, UCS, Hypershield, and Splunk.
• G42, a technology group in the UAE, announced a strategic collaboration with Cisco to develop AI infrastructure across both public and private sectors.
• Stargate UAE consortium has appointed Cisco as a preferred technology partner to support advanced networking, security, and observability for future AI compute clusters.

Service provider advancements

Cisco's Agile Services Networking architecture is being expanded to support both terrestrial and satellite service provider networks, responding to changes in network traffic generated by new AI applications. This includes new converged access and edge routers powered by Cisco Silicon One, additions to the 8000 series hardware portfolio, and the launch of a multi-agentic framework for Cisco Crosswork Network Automation.

The latter provides tools for service providers to automate network operations using both Cisco and customer-built AI agents.

The architecture is also designed for integration with satellite networks, allowing resource allocation and service delivery in sectors such as maritime, aviation, emergency response, and the Internet of Things.