Cisco And NVIDIA Unveil Secure AI Factory For Enterprise AI Deployment

Wire

Cisco And NVIDIA Unveil Secure AI Factory For Enterprise AI Deployment

Cisco and NVIDIA have introduced the Cisco Secure AI Factory, an AI infrastructure solution designed with security at its core. This initiative expands on their partnership announced last month, providing validated reference architectures for enterprises to deploy and manage AI securely at scale.

“AI can unlock groundbreaking opportunities for the enterprise,” said Cisco Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins. “To achieve this, the integration of networking and security is essential. Cisco and NVIDIA’s trusted, innovative solutions empower our customers to harness AI’s full potential simply and securely.”

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang emphasised the importance of security in AI development. “AI factories are transforming every industry, and security must be built into every layer to protect data, applications, and infrastructure,” he said.

The Cisco Secure AI Factory incorporates Cisco’s security solutions with NVIDIA’s Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform. Key security components include:

Infrastructure Security: Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall provides unified security management, ensuring protection across network switches, firewalls, and workload agents. Future integrations with NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs will extend zero-trust security to every AI node.
Workload Security: Cisco Hypershield prevents adversary lateral movement and mitigates vulnerabilities proactively. Future enhancements will integrate with NVIDIA BlueField-3’s DOCA AppShield for real-time threat detection.
AI Application Security: Cisco AI Defense safeguards AI applications from security risks such as prompt injection and data privacy issues, aligning with industry standards like NIST and OWASP.

Enterprises will have two deployment options:

Ready-to-Deploy: A fully integrated AI solution leveraging Cisco’s security portfolio and NVIDIA technology.
Build-Your-Own: Customisable components from Cisco, NVIDIA, and storage partners to suit specific business needs.

Patrick Moorhead, Founder and CEO of Moor Insights & Strategy, praised the collaboration. “AI isn’t easy, but the combination of the two could be an ‘easy button’ for AI infrastructure,” he said.

Solutions based on the Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA architecture will be available for purchase before the end of 2025, with some individual technology components already on the market.