Cisco, Nvidia Offer Alternative to Cloud Giants’ AI Infrastructure

Networking giant Cisco and chipmaker Nvidia said today they are forming a partnership to offer integrated AI hardware and software solutions in the data center.

It is a move that will give corporate clients an AI infrastructure alternative to those offered by the cloud giants. Currently, access to advanced AI hardware is available mainly through the data centers of AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

The Cisco-Nvidia alliance will see Nvidia’s advanced AI chips, GPUs and platforms available through Cisco. The two have offered integrated products and services for years; this latest alliance will deepen their collaboration.

Specifically, Nvidia’s Tensor Core GPUs will be available through Cisco’s M7 generation of UCS rack and blade servers, including Cisco UCS X-Series and UCS X-Series Direct, for AI workloads in the data center and at the edge.

Nvidia AI Enterprise, the chipmaker’s AI platform that has software frameworks, pre-trained models and tools, will be available through Cisco as well.

Available this month are Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs), which will let clients deploy and manage AI clusters in a variety of use cases, for FlexPod and FlashStack for Generative AI inferencing with Nvidia AI Enterprise.

Corporate clients also will have access to Cisco’s global network of partners to get support, advice and guidance about adopting AI and automation.

“Companies everywhere are racing to transform their businesses with generative AI,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, in a statement. “Working closely with Cisco, we are making it easier than ever for enterprises to obtain the infrastructure they need to benefit from AI, the most powerful technology force of our lifetime.” 

Added Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins: “AI is fundamentally changing how we work and live, and history has shown that a shift of this magnitude is going to require enterprises to rethink and re-architect their infrastructures. Strengthening our great partnership with Nvidia is going to arm enterprises with the technology and the expertise they need to build, deploy, manage and secure AI solutions at scale.”