Cisco has partnered with Nvidia to provide secure artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for enterprises, allowing them to deploy data centres optimised for AI workloads at scale.
In a joint statement released on Tuesday, Cisco and Nvidia revealed that they are jointly developing the Cisco Secure AI Factory with Nvidia to significantly simplify the process of deploying, managing, and securing AI infrastructure, regardless of scale. AI factories, which are specialised data centres designed to handle AI workloads, offer modularity, scalability, and agility. However, they also come with new and intricate security challenges.
The collaboration between Cisco and Nvidia centres around the Nvidia Spectrum-XTM Ethernet networking platform, which serves as the core of the Cisco Secure AI Factory with Nvidia. Further, Cisco is incorporating security solutions such as Cisco Hypershield to safeguard AI workloads and Cisco AI Defense to protect the development, deployment, and operation of AI models and applications. This partnership will offer customers the flexibility to design infrastructure tailored to their specific AI requirements.
The secure AI infrastructure will include Cisco UCS AI servers powered by Nvidia HGX and Nvidia MGX for enhanced computing, Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric AI and Nexus networking solutions driven by Silicon One and Nvidia Spectrum-X Ethernet networking, as well as high-performance storage from partners like Pure Storage, Hitachi Vantara, NetApp, and VAST Data. Additionally, the Nvidia AI Enterprise software platform will be used to simplify the development and deployment of production-grade agentic AI workloads.
Furthermore, the Cisco Secure AI Factory with Nvidia will offer two deployment options: build your own and ready to deploy. Solutions based on this architecture are expected to be available for purchase before the end of 2025.
