Cisco & NVIDIA Double Down on AI—New Partnership Aims at Enterprise Growth!

Cisco and NVIDIA have announced an expanded five-year partnership, set to transform AI-ready data center networking by integrating Cisco Silicon One into NVIDIA’s Spectrum-X Ethernet platform.

The collaboration provides enterprises with a unified AI networking architecture, simplifying the deployment and scaling of AI workloads across enterprise and cloud provider networks.

This move comes as enterprises face increasing pressure to adopt AI-driven technologies while managing complex networking requirements, security risks, and infrastructure limitations.

“We’re going to take our silicon technologies, our orchestration software, and a lot of the security infrastructure that Cisco brings to this space, and we’re going to embed it into the Spectrum-X platform.” – Kevin Wollenweber, SVP & GM of Data Center and Provider Connectivity, Cisco

Building an AI-Optimized Network Infrastructure

The NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform is now being enhanced with Cisco’s Silicon One chipsets, marking a major milestone in AI networking architecture.

This integration is critical because Cisco is the only third-party silicon provider included in NVIDIA’s Spectrum-X—a move aimed at ensuring flexibility, reliability, and high-performance AI connectivity.

“Customers will be able to deploy the Spectrum-X platform with the benefit of choosing between NVIDIA silicon for the back end and Cisco for either back-end or front-end networks built around GPU interconnects.” – Kevin Wollenweber, Cisco

Operational Benefits: Orchestration, Security, and Observability

Cisco is incorporating its networking software, orchestration tools, and security solutions into NVIDIA Spectrum-X, making it easier for enterprises to manage AI workloads across front-end and back-end networks.

“If they want to use their Nexus dashboard to manage their clusters, or they want to use the same management that they have on the back end as they already deployed on the front end, they can get consistency with what they’re already deploying.” – Kevin Wollenweber, Cisco

“The Spectrum-X platform is the reference architecture. It’s the GPU, the smart NIC, the switching, and all of the features like adaptive routing that run across that.” – Kevin Wollenweber, Cisco

Market Impact: Strengthening Ethernet for AI vs. InfiniBand

The AI networking landscape is evolving, and Cisco’s deeper integration with NVIDIA’s Ethernet-based AI networking stack challenges alternatives like InfiniBand.

ZK Research and theCube Research recently conducted an AI networking study, revealing that 59% of enterprises prefer Ethernet over InfiniBand due to its scalability, reliability, and existing enterprise adoption.

“Most customers prefer Ethernet rather than standing up a parallel technology such as InfiniBand. The two companies partnering brings validated solutions to market, which speeds up adoption.” – ZK Research Study

This move strengthens Cisco’s competitive position against rivals such as Arista Networks and Juniper, which have been expanding their presence in AI-driven networking solutions.

“Cisco will develop data center switches for the NVIDIA Spectrum Ethernet platform. The open ecosystem approach will provide customers with more choices and flexibility.” – Cisco Official Announcement

As AI continues to drive enterprise innovation, this collaboration ensures that businesses can deploy AI at scale—with high-performance, low-latency networking solutions designed for the future.

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