Cisco Systems Inc. has announced a major push into the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) with a slew of new products, services, and initiatives. Unveiled at its annual networking and security conference, Cisco Live 2024, the company introduced a comprehensive suite of AI-powered solutions across its entire product portfolio. These offerings are designed to enhance networking, observability, productivity, and security. Additionally, Cisco revealed the creation of a $1 billion global investment fund aimed at fostering AI startups, demonstrating its commitment to advancing the AI landscape.
Revolutionizing Networking with AI
AI-Infused Networking Infrastructure
Cisco’s new AI networking products are set to transform how businesses implement AI-powered applications. The Cisco Nexus HyperFabric AI clusters, developed in collaboration with Nvidia Corp., offer a sophisticated “AI cluster solution.” This system provides a unified platform for designing, deploying, monitoring, and assuring AI pods and data center workloads. Jonathan Davidson, executive vice president and general manager of Cisco Networking, emphasized the challenges companies face in deploying AI infrastructure. “Customers often face economic and operational challenges to get an AI stack up and running,” he explained. Cisco aims to simplify this process with an easy-to-deploy, cloud-operated AI stack solution for on-premises deployments.
Enhanced Visibility and Security
Cisco’s ThousandEyes infrastructure monitoring platform has been updated to deliver “digital experience assurance” for Cisco Networking Cloud users. This enhancement increases visibility across enterprise, cloud, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and internet networks, ensuring a reliable user experience. In terms of security, Cisco has bolstered its Security Cloud offering with numerous new AI features. These enhancements provide superior visibility into network health through AI-powered network management and access to new sources of telemetry data uncovered by AI.
Mark Leary, an analyst at International Data Corp., highlighted the complexity of delivering consistent digital experiences. “Networks, data centers, cloud services, security mechanisms, endpoints, and an ever-growing set of data and applications must all work in concert,” he noted. Cisco’s comprehensive data collection and cross-domain data correlation, driven by applied intelligence and embedded automation, promise to dramatically impact IT operations and business outcomes.
Advancing AI Capabilities with Specialized Support
Hypershield Support for Advanced Processing Units
Cisco also announced the Hypershield Support for Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s Pensando data processing units and Intel Corp.’s infrastructure processing units. These specialized chips are designed to handle infrastructure-related tasks, enhancing the performance of regular computing chips. Cisco’s Hypershield Support extends a more distributed security architecture from the cloud to on-premises data centers and the edge, providing robust security solutions for enterprises.
Integrating Generative AI with Application Monitoring
Cisco’s Splunk application observability platform has received significant updates, integrating generative AI assistant technology and Splunk Log Observability with the Cisco AppDynamics Application Performance Monitoring tool. The result is AppDynamics Log Observer Connect, a tool that offers deeper insights into application performance, helping customers optimize their systems effectively.
Boosting Productivity with AI-Enhanced Tools
AI-Powered Collaboration with Webex
One of the most promising aspects of generative AI is its potential to enhance human productivity. Cisco is capitalizing on this with new features in its collaboration tool, Webex. The Webex Contact Center, an extension of Webex for customer service teams, now includes advanced AI tools to design and manage conversational self-service experiences. These AI assistants support human agents, speeding up issue resolution and improving customer interactions.
Webex Suite and Cisco Spaces
Cisco also announced the upcoming availability of the AI Assistant for Webex Suite for enterprise users. This feature allows IT system administrators to manage remote device access via the Webex Control Hub. Additionally, a new Desk Reservation feature within Cisco Spaces simplifies booking desk space and scheduling the use of Cisco Collaboration Devices, enhancing workplace efficiency.
Investing in the Future of AI
$1 Billion Global Investment Fund
Cisco’s commitment to AI extends beyond product development to significant financial investments. The newly announced $1 billion global investment fund aims to support AI startups, fueling innovation and development in the AI space. Cisco has already made strategic investments in prominent AI startups such as Cohere Inc., Mistral AI, and Scale AI Inc., focusing on areas like customer readiness, compute infrastructure, foundational models, AI model development, and AI training.
Mark Patterson, Cisco’s Chief Strategy Officer, emphasized the company’s strategic role in advancing AI. “In addition to building the essential technology to connect, secure, and advance AI, Cisco is committed to investing in the broader AI ecosystem to more effectively meet our customers’ needs,” he said. This holistic approach ensures that Cisco not only develops cutting-edge AI technologies but also supports the growth of the AI industry as a whole.
Training and Certification Programs
Recognizing the importance of skills development, Cisco has launched new training initiatives for partners and customers. The AI Fundamentals for Partners training program aims to equip partners with the expertise needed to optimize AI infrastructure using Cisco’s tools and services. This program covers AI basics, key concepts, a taxonomy of AI solutions, and an overview of Cisco’s AI strategy.
For customers, the new Cisco Certification in AI program is designed to create an “AI-ready workforce” familiar with modern AI-based networking architectures. This certification helps organizations develop the skills necessary to design and enable AI and machine learning-based computing infrastructures and networks, ensuring they can effectively leverage AI technologies.
Embracing the AI Revolution
Cisco’s extensive AI initiatives, from advanced products and services to significant financial investments and training programs, position the company as a leader in the AI revolution. By integrating AI across its product portfolio and supporting the broader AI ecosystem, Cisco is not only enhancing its offerings but also driving innovation in the industry.
As businesses and individuals embrace these new AI capabilities, they stand to benefit from increased efficiency, improved security, and enhanced productivity. Cisco’s forward-thinking approach ensures that its customers are well-equipped to navigate the complexities of the AI era.