Meeting the Moment: Innovation for Unprecedented Times 

The last thirty days have been unprecedented. DeepSeek, Operator, Deep Research, and a wave of innovation and competition have changed the global narrative on AI. We’re no longer talking about incremental improvements to AI; these innovations are challenging foundational beliefs and redefining how we perceive the economics and timelines for how AI is going to impact our lives. We are living in incredible times.

I couldn’t be more proud of the innovation, velocity, and grit that our Product teams are bringing to the table in the face of these massive changes. In 2024 and 2025, we built innovations that are both accelerating the pace of AI innovation AND helping our customers adopt and integrate AI into their business safely, securely, and cost-effectively.

Just a few recent examples:

• AI Defense, announced just last month, invented a way for our customers to validate the safety of the AI models popping up everywhere in their business. With AI Defense validations that used to take weeks now only take a matter of minutes.
• Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric is a high-performance data center networking solution designed to support scalability, efficiency, and flexibility in modern IT environments. This allows businesses to support demanding applications and workloads — unique to artificial intelligence.
• Cisco’s AI Pods are specialized infrastructure solutions designed to support the deployment and operation of artificial intelligence workloads. They combine high-performance computing resources with Cisco’s advanced networking and security technologies to create an integrated environment optimized for AI workloads.
• This is just scratching the surface. And believe me, we are just getting started. This week at CiscoLive EMEA, you saw even more evidence of us continuing to push the envelope harder .

Here are the highlights from Amsterdam:

1. Are you ready for AI workloads? Everyone is pushing to rapidly get into the game with AI, but the demands AI makes of infrastructure are different. That’s why we launched incredible new AI servers with flexible design options that make it easy to get rolling with AI without massive upfront investments, and then to add scale and power over time as you learn and grow. The most important part of AI is getting started. Now it’s easier.
2. Are you reimagining your security architecture for AI and going beyond traditional enforcement points? That’s why we developed the next generation of network switching with our all-new line of Cisco Smart Switches. We built them with integrated, programmable DPUs that turn the switches into high-capacity, multi-function hosting devices for network and security services. These DPU switches provide acceleration that’s for I/O-intensive operations like connection handling, security scanning, and encryption. And they will support Hypershield enforcement points as one of the first use cases. By integrating security directly into the network, we are bridging the gap between security and networking layers, delivering a converged solution, and redefining data centers for the AI era.
3. Is your network AI-ready?  Connectivity is the foundation of everything we do, and AI is transforming it all. We are helping customers build AI-ready networks that power secure global connectivity for data centers, workplaces, and everything in-between. That’s why we are innovating with our Silicon One technology to introduce new Cisco 8000 routers to power converged networks with AI-powered automation, observability, and security. It’s incredibly cool. Our new Agile Services Networking architecture will provide a blueprint for service providers to enable AI connectivity, monetize assured services, and deliver truly transformative experiences.

I’ve never been more energized about the opportunity we have at Cisco to make our customers successful. As someone who has worked his entire career in technology, these are unprecedented times, and we are all-in on fundamentally shaping the future with you.

Share: