At Cisco Live 2025, Cisco unveiled a bold vision for the future of data center networking—one that embraces AI scalability, embedded security and cloud-operational simplicity. From game-changing switch architectures to hyper-intelligent security tools, Cisco's announcements focused on building the AI-native, zero-trust and observability-rich data center of tomorrow. Here are five of the most impactful innovations announced.

The Cisco Nexus N9300 Smart Switch revolutionizes data center infrastructure with its convergence of high-performance switching, network security and application services. Featuring Cisco Silicon One ASICs and a Data Processing Unit, it offers intelligent, service-aware capabilities. Optional Hypershield enhances zero-trust security, making it ideal for AI, hybrid cloud and security-conscious environments.