Cisco to Deliver Secure AI Infrastructure with NVIDIA

Cisco has introduced an AI factory architecture, developed in collaboration with NVIDIA, with security as its central focus. This initiative builds upon their recently expanded partnership and delivers validated reference architectures to enterprises. By jointly creating the Cisco Secure AI Factory, the two companies aim to simplify the deployment, management, and protection of AI infrastructure at any scale.

Chuck Robbins, Cisco’s Chair and CEO, emphasized the importance of integrating networking and security to unlock AI’s full potential for enterprises. Similarly, Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, highlighted the transformative nature of AI factories across industries, emphasizing that security must be embedded at every level.

The secure AI architecture leverages high-performing, scalable infrastructure and an adaptable AI software toolchain. It integrates security throughout the AI stack to automatically adjust as infrastructure evolves. Central to this design is the NVIDIA Spectrum-XTM Ethernet networking platform, which forms the foundation for the Cisco Secure AI Factory.

Furthermore, Cisco incorporates advanced security solutions, including Cisco Hypershield to safeguard AI workloads and Cisco AI Defense to protect the development, deployment, and usage of AI models and applications. Together, Cisco and NVIDIA empower enterprises to design tailored, secure AI infrastructure with ease and flexibility

Building a Secure AI Factory

AI factories – data centers purpose-built to power AI workloads – are designed to be more modular, scalable and agile, but organizations must also look beyond raw compute power. AI Factories must address new and complex security challenges. The recently published Cisco State of AI Security report analyzes dozens of AI-specific threat vectors and over 700 pieces of AI-related legislation to highlight key developments from a rapidly evolving AI security landscape. Organizations that strategically address both their AI infrastructure and security challenges simultaneously will be more agile, scale faster, and derive business value quicker.

Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA is expected to build on the companies’ unique ability to offer flexible AI networking and full-stack technology options that leverage the planned joint architecture. The partnership will bring together technologies from Cisco, NVIDIA, and our ecosystem partners into a secure AI factory architecture for enterprise customers, including: compute, networking, storage, and software.

The Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA includes security at all layers:
Securing the infrastructure through Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall that provides unified security management and consistent policy across multiple enforcement points. It will, in the future, extend pervasive, zero-trust security enforcement to every AI node by integrating with NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs.
Securing the Workload via Cisco Hypershield that prevents adversary lateral movement and proactive vulnerability mitigation without the need for patching, all from a single management interface. Future enhancements will further strengthen workload protection through integration with NVIDIA BlueField-3’s DOCA AppShield for real-time workload threat detection in AI-focused virtual machines and containers.
Securing the AI application with Cisco AI Defense that empowers security and AI teams with comprehensive tools to protect AI applications from safety risks across the development lifecycle. Additionally, AI Defense helps companies align to AI security standards with a single integration, including NIST, MITRE ATLAS, and OWASP LLM Top 10. Future enhancements include integration with NVIDIA AI Enterprise to streamline AI security workflows.

Cisco and NVIDIA each bring a unique understanding of customer AI infrastructure needs, and by combining their insights, can offer flexible deployment models alongside proven reference architectures. The Secure AI Factory will provide enterprise customers with scalable, high-performance AI infrastructure that supports customers at any stage of their journey and embeds security throughout.

Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA will have flexible deployment options, including
Ready-to-deploy approach along with Cisco’s security portfolio and NVIDIA technology, customers can deploy a vertically integrated AI solution that automates and simplifies the secure AI factory lifecycle from design to deployment and ongoing monitoring.
Build-your-own: Featuring customizable modular components from Cisco, NVIDIA, and the companies’ storage ecosystem partners, customers can incorporate their current infrastructure and build solutions that are designed precisely for their unique environments.