Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIACiscoNVIDIA
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Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA Makes AI Easier to Deploy and Secure, Anywhere Organizations Need It

Expanded architecture lets businesses run AI at scale, from central data centers to the factory floor, without sacrificing performance or security. WWT's Jeff Fonke comments.

NEWS SUMMARY:

  • Cisco expands its Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA to work not just in large data centers, but at local edge sites where real-time decisions can't wait, from hospitals and warehouses to moving vehicles.
  • Cisco is the premier partner to deliver partner-developed systems featuring NVIDIA Spectrum-X switch silicon paired with a Cisco operating system, providing customers the flexibility of leveraging both NVIDIA Cloud Partner-compliant reference architectures and Cisco Silicon One-based architectures.
  • Cisco adds deeper security capabilities to its reference architecture by extending Hybrid Mesh Firewall policy enforcement to NVIDIA BlueField DPUs and integrating Cisco AI Defense to secure multi-agent systems.
  • Cisco AI Defense will support and secure NVIDIA's new open agent development platform, OpenShell, adding controls and guardrails to govern agent and claw actions.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — March 16, 2026 — Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced a major expansion of its Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA, giving customers a framework for deploying AI across their entire infrastructure – from central data center to local sites where data is created and decisions are made. Enterprises, neoclouds, sovereign clouds, and service providers can now move AI from pilot to full-scale production without stitching together disconnected systems, compressing deployment timelines from months to weeks and embedding security from the start.

"Most organizations understand the potential for AI to transform their businesses, but they're navigating how to deploy the technology safely and at scale," said Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO, Cisco. "In partnership with NVIDIA , we're solving that challenge with an architecture that sets a new standard for performance – making it simpler to deploy, operate, and secure AI infrastructure."

"AI factories are transforming every industry, and security must be built into every layer—from silicon to software—to protect data, applications, and infrastructure," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. "Together, NVIDIA and Cisco are building the secure foundation for AI infrastructure—core to edge—so companies can scale intelligence with confidence."

Cisco Secures Enterprise AI Agent Development

Building on Cisco's commitment to fuse security into all layers of AI infrastructure, as well as the agentic workforce, Cisco also announced today that Cisco AI Defense will support and secure NVIDIA's OpenShell runtimes – part of the NVIDIA Agent Toolkit – adding controls and guardrails to govern agent and claw actions. By continuously monitoring and validating every tool and action an agent performs, Cisco AI Defense ensures that enterprises can confidently deploy AI agents to manage critical workflows without compromising security. This integration bridges the gap between innovation and risk, allowing organizations to trust their autonomous systems to operate reliably and securely.

Industry Reactions:

"World Wide Technology's clients trust Cisco for enterprise networking. Their robust AI networking portfolio extends that trust to AI workloads. Cisco's portfolio offers choice and flexibility to clients to build tailored AI infrastructure using Cisco Silicon One and NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet switch silicon based switches with stellar performance up to 102.4Tbps running NX-OS or SONiC and unified by the Nexus One management plane. We're excited about these advancements to deliver the scalability and performance required for the agentic era."

 – Jeff Fonke, Practice Director - Global Solutions & Architecture, World Wide Technology

 

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