Cisco announced on the 25th that it has expanded its partnership with Nvidia to provide AI technology solutions to enterprises. The two companies are focused on providing a unified architecture that simplifies the construction of AI data centers.

NVIDIA will combine Cisco Silicon One with NVIDIA Supernic as part of the NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform. Cisco will build a system that combines NVIDIA Spectrum silicon with Cisco operating system software, enabling customers to standardize on both Cisco networking and NVIDIA technology in their data centers.

“A robust, scalable AI ecosystem is key to driving the transformative power of AI,” said Hans Vestberg, CEO of Verizon. “This expanded partnership between Cisco and NVIDIA, like our existing AI Connect strategy and solutions, will help accelerate and enable resource-intensive AI workloads at the network edge.”

■ Support for enterprise AI workloads based on NVIDIA Spectrum-X

The NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform, built on Cisco and NVIDIA silicon, will form the foundation for many enterprise AI workloads. The two companies will help customers meet their needs through interoperability and optimize their AI infrastructure investments through a common architecture.

“Enterprises are under tremendous pressure to deploy AI quickly and effectively, and many leaders struggle to justify investments while balancing risks,” said Chuck Robbins, Cisco Chairman and CEO. “Cisco and NVIDIA will work together to help customers remove barriers and optimize their infrastructure investments to harness the power of AI.”

“AI will transform every industry,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “NVIDIA Spectrum-X is an enhanced and hardened Ethernet for AI, which, together with Cisco’s enterprise platforms and global reach, will enable enterprises around the world to deploy cutting-edge NVIDIA infrastructure to fuel their transition to AI.”

■ Increased customer convenience through Cisco-NVIDIA technology integration

Integration and standardization of Cisco and NVIDIA technologies will enable customers to leverage the latest advancements in the NVIDIA Spectrum-X platform and Cisco’s networking, security, and digital resiliency portfolio. As enterprises develop AI capabilities and train models with their own data, it becomes important to have a comprehensive security strategy.

“Our long-standing partnership with Cisco and NVIDIA has delivered cutting-edge AI solutions that drive innovation and business transformation,” said Jim Cabana, co-founder and CEO of World Wide Technologies. “By leveraging Cisco’s data center expertise and NVIDIA’s advanced AI technologies, we can deliver exceptional value to our customers and help them confidently navigate the complexities of AI adoption.”

■ Accelerate adoption of enterprise AI workloads

The two companies will deliver new levels of innovation to accelerate the adoption of AI in the enterprise, focusing on simplifying deployment and operations and improving workload performance and visibility.

This expanded partnership will deliver the highest-performance Ethernet solution available for AI workloads and extend the NVIDIA Spectrum-X architecture to Cisco Silicon One, making Cisco the only partner silicon supported on Spectrum-X Ethernet solutions.

Cisco announced that it will develop data center switches based on the NVIDIA Spectrum Ethernet platform. The open ecosystem approach provides customers with more choice and flexibility. Organizations can standardize on the NVIDIA Spectrum-X networking platform with Cisco and NVIDIA switch silicon-based architectures, integrating the two companies’ industry-leading technologies into a single management fabric.

Cisco is accelerating its collaboration with NVIDIA to create and validate NVIDIA Cloud Partner and Enterprise Reference Architectures based on NVIDIA Spectrum-X. Through collaboration and joint development, the two companies aim to provide customers with the highest performing Ethernet solutions.