Cisco and Nvidia announced Tuesday plans for an expanded partnership with the intent to create a cross-portfolio unified architecture to simplify the building of AI-ready data centre networks for enterprises.
As part of the partnership, Nvidia will enable Cisco Silicon One coupled with Nvidia SuperNICs to become part of the Nvidia Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform. Under the agreement, Cisco would be the only partner silicon supported in Nvidia Spectrum-X Ethernet solutions.
Cisco will build systems combining Nvidia Spectrum silicon with Cisco operating system software, allowing enterprise customers to simultaneously standardize Cisco networking and Nvidia technology in the data centre, according to a Cisco press release. By unifying the architectural model between front- and back-end networks, the proposed collaboration will make it easier to manage various enterprise and cloud provider networks using existing management tools and processes, the release said.
“Enterprises are under immense pressure to deploy AI quickly and effectively, and many leaders struggle to justify the investment while balancing the risks,” Chuck Robbins, chair and CEO of Cisco, said in the press release. “Together, Cisco and NVIDIA are partnering to remove barriers for customers and ensure they can optimize their infrastructure investments to unlock the power of AI.”
“Advancing at lightspeed, AI will revolutionize every industry,” Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said in a statement. “NVIDIA’s Spectrum-X is Ethernet enhanced and supercharged for AI. Together with Cisco’s enterprise platforms and global reach, we can help companies worldwide build state-of-the-art NVIDIA infrastructure as they race to transform with AI.”
Cisco said it will develop new data centre switches with the Nvidia Spectrum Ethernet platform, and it will also enhance its Silicon switches to be compatible with Spectrum-X and Nvidia’s enterprise reference architectures. These updates will be available in mid-2025, including existing and upcoming Cisco Nexus, Cisco Nexus Hyberfabric, and Cisco UCS products. The timeline for new Cisco Spectrum switches will be announced at a later date, Cisco said.
Image borrowed from Cisco’s website
