Cisco expands partnership with Nvidia to spice up AI adoption

The deal goals to offer organizations with better flexibility and selection in managing AI workloads

Cisco has introduced an expanded collaboration with Nvidia with the purpose of delivering synthetic intelligence (AI) expertise options for the enterprise.

Whereas companies acknowledge AI’s significance for progress, many are nonetheless within the early levels of implementation as a result of technical complexities and safety challenges of operating AI-ready information facilities, Cisco stated in a launch.

The networking agency famous that this settlement with Nvidia seeks to offer organizations with better flexibility and selection in managing AI workloads that require high-performance, low-latency and energy-efficient connectivity throughout information facilities, cloud environments and customers.

Cisco additionally highlighted that on the core of this collaboration is the Nvidia Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform, which integrates Cisco and Nvidia silicon to assist enterprise AI workloads. By making certain interoperability between each firms’ networking architectures, the partnership will simplify AI infrastructure deployment and permit organizations to optimize their investments utilizing present administration instruments and processes throughout front-end and back-end networks, it added.

“Enterprises are underneath immense strain to deploy AI shortly and successfully, and lots of leaders wrestle to justify the funding whereas balancing the dangers,” stated Chuck Robbins, chair and CEO of Cisco. “Collectively, Cisco and Nvidia are partnering to take away limitations for patrons and guarantee they’ll optimize their infrastructure investments to unlock the facility of AI.”

“Advancing at lightspeed, AI will revolutionize each business,” stated Jensen Huang, founder and CEO at Nvidia. “Nvidia Spectrum-X is Ethernet enhanced and supercharged for AI. Along with Cisco’s enterprise platforms and international attain, we may also help firms worldwide construct state-of-the-art NVIDIA infrastructure as they race to remodel with AI.”

The combination of Cisco and Nvidia applied sciences will enable prospects to profit from developments within the Nvidia Spectrum-X platform, corresponding to adaptive routing, telemetry, congestion management and low latency, together with Cisco’s networking, safety and digital  portfolio, together with the Splunk information platform.

Beneath this partnership, Cisco will develop information middle switches that combine with the Nvidia Spectrum Ethernet platform. Additionally, organizations will be capable to standardize on Nvidia Spectrum-X networking utilizing each Cisco and Nvidia silicon-based architectures inside a single administration framework.

The 2 companions will proceed to work collectively to sort out key challenges, together with congestion administration and cargo balancing, to assist prospects scale and safe AI deployments.

Cisco additionally stated it plans to reinforce its silicon switches to make sure compatibility with Spectrum-X and Nvidia’s reference architectures. These updates are anticipated to roll out by mid-2025 and can apply to present and upcoming Cisco Nexus, Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric and Cisco UCS merchandise.

A brand new survey not too long ago revealed by Nvidia reveals that telcos are leaning into AI, and even generative AI (gen AI), fairly aggressively, going in opposition to the business’s repute for being slower to undertake new applied sciences. Of the telecommunications professionals surveyed by Nvidia, 97% acknowledged that their firm is both actively deploying or assessing deploying AI of their operations, with 80% of respondents saying they imagine AI to be essential for his or her firm’s future success, and two-thirds planning to extend spending on AI infrastructure this yr. High areas of AI funding embrace bettering community planning and operations (37%) and in utilizing AI for field-operations optimization (33%).