Cisco unveils flurry of innovations for AI era at Cisco Live event

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) announced several innovations alongside its Cisco Live 2025 event.

Cisco said it is fusing security capabilities deeper into its networking infrastructure, helping companies implement zero trust architectures, innovating on security for AI apps and models, and delivering breakthrough AI tools that improve threat detection and remediation.

The company announced solutions for Hybrid Mesh Firewall and Universal Zero Trust Network Access, or ZTNA, that simplify policy management, enhance visibility, and enable enterprises to scale securely without adding complexity to their security stack.

Cisco also announced further Splunk integrations that unify data across platforms, helping security teams automate tasks and respond faster to threats.

“Safety and security are the defining challenges of the AI era—and agentic AI multiplies the risk, as every new agent is both a force multiplier and a fresh attack surface,” said Jeetu Patel, president and chief product officer, Cisco.

In addition, Cisco unveiled innovations to simplify, secure, and future-proof data centers, empowering organizations to scale their AI ambitions.

Cisco noted that in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, the company surpassed its annual target of $1B in AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers, a full quarter ahead of schedule.

Cisco said it is also continuing to build on its relationship with Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA). At Cisco Live, the companies showed the first technical integration of Cisco G200-based switches and Nvidia network interface cards, or NICs, demonstrating Nvidia Spectrum-X Ethernet networking based on Cisco Silicon One that supports NX-OS, Nexus Hyperfabric AI and SONiC deployments.

Strategic partnerships with neocloud providers position Cisco as a leader in next-gen AI infrastructure, with secure networking as a cornerstone of AI innovation, according to the company.

Neoclouds are cloud providers that specialize in offering high-performance computing, mainly GPU-as-a-Service, or GPUaaS, for AI and machine learning workloads.

Cisco also unveiled a new network architecture to power the campus, branch, and industrial networks of the future.

The new architecture delivers operational simplicity through unified management, next-generation networking devices built for AI workloads, and advanced security capabilities embedded into the network, according to the company.

The company added that it is simplifying operations with unified management and AgenticOps — which is Cisco’s AI-driven approach to running modern IT operations that turns real-time telemetry, automation, and deep domain expertise into intelligent, end-to-end actions.