Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA: Why This Is the Partner Opportunity of 2026

[ad_1] When you've got been paying consideration to what's occurring in enterprise AI, you already know the tempo of change is not like something we have now seen in a long time. At Companion Summit final November, I instructed our companions immediately: we're asking you to promote options which may not have existed three months in the past, to resolve issues our clients didn't even know they'd six months in the past. That isn't hyperbole. This the truth of the AI period.

It additionally means the companions who transfer now will seize an outsized share of the chance forward. So let me deal with one of the crucial vital answer choices Cisco has just lately delivered to market, and what it means for your small business – Cisco Safe AI Manufacturing unit with NVIDIA.

What Is Safe AI Manufacturing unit with NVIDIA, and How Does It Carry Extra Worth To Your Enterprise? Cisco Safe AI Manufacturing unit with NVIDIA is a modular reference design that mixes high-performance AI infrastructure with built-in safety and observability. Developed in collaboration with NVIDIA and key ecosystem companions, it helps enterprise clients speed up the supply of trusted AI purposes by integrating AI software program, compute, networking, storage, and safety right into a single, validated structure.

The distinction between this and every little thing else out there comes right down to the distinctive networking partnership that Cisco and NVIDIA have, making a market benefit via Cisco Silicon One and NVIDIA Spectrum-X shared licensing. However the true differentiation is safety. Safety and observability usually are not add-ons right here. They're embedded at each layer of the stack, from AI fashions and purposes right down to the underlying infrastructure.

Cisco AI Protection, built-in with NVIDIA AI Enterprise, protects AI fashions and purposes from improvement to runtime—guaranteeing each inference is trusted and safeguarded towards immediate injection, dangerous output, and knowledge privateness dangers. Cisco Isovalent delivers runtime safety for containerized AI workloads on Kubernetes, stopping lateral motion and unauthorized service entry via identity-based, kernel-level enforcement utilizing eBPF know-how, with out impacting utility efficiency. Safety goes even deeper, extending to the infrastructure itself.

Constant safety coverage enforcement is achieved with Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall, with Cisco Safety Cloud Management serving because the central level for visibility and operations. And with Cisco Splunk Enterprise Safety, real-time risk detection, investigation, and response are in-built. That is safety engineered into the Cisco Safe AI Manufacturing unit with NVIDIA, not bolted on.

Splunk Observability Cloud delivers real-time visibility throughout the whole AI surroundings, turning metrics, occasions, logs, and traces into actionable insights. This structure is constructed for belief, and in enterprise AI, belief is the prerequisite for adoption.

The Scale of the Alternative The numbers are laborious to disregard. Companion-delivered AI providers are projected to achieve $267 billion by 2030, rising at a 35 p.c compound annual development fee. On the identical time, the Cisco 2025 AI Readiness Index discovered that solely 28 p.c of organizations imagine their present infrastructure can deal with AI workloads. That hole, between the place clients are at present and the place they must be, is strictly the place expert Cisco companions are available in.

Cisco Safe AI Manufacturing unit with NVIDIA accelerates AI workloads at scale, enabling fast deployment of trusted AI purposes. The platform affords versatile, modular deployment choices and helps ongoing buyer engagement, creating recurring income alternatives for companions who lead on this area.

Why Companions Are Positioned to Win Enterprise AI deployments are inherently complicated. Clients want a platform that addresses compute, networking, safety, and observability and ship a single, coherent answer. That's the place companion competencies contribute to unbelievable outcomes.

Cisco Safe AI Manufacturing unit with NVIDIA is constructed on Cisco Validated Designs and NVIDIA Enterprise Reference Architectures (ERA), which positions companions to ship a examined and trusted platform. That's the simple button. Companions can layer their very own providers, vertical experience, and buyer relationships on prime of a validated basis and ship full options that clients merely can't get wherever else.

Cisco AI architectures are evolving quick. Cisco AI Protection integrates NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails for AI utility safety. Splunk Observability Cloud displays LLMs and AI brokers, the underlying GPUs and infrastructure, and AI utility behaviors, together with NVIDIA AI Enterprise. Modular Cisco AI PODs allow scaling from pilot to manufacturing with out fill infrastructure overhaul. Latest enhancements help agentic AI, accelerating retrieval-augmented technology pipelines with quicker knowledge extraction and retrieval.

The Cisco 360 Companion Program: Constructed for This Second Cisco Safe AI Manufacturing unit with NVIDIA is a pure match for the Cisco 360 Companion Program, which went reside in January 2026 after fifteen months of co-design with companions. Cisco 360 is constructed to empower the agile companion ecosystem: one which adapts rapidly, innovates repeatedly, and scales effectively to ship distinctive buyer outcomes.

This system is designed to make sure clients can work with essentially the most succesful companions to assist them quickly embrace AI. Cisco Most well-liked Companions can earn new specializations, together with Safe AI Infrastructure accreditation, which unlocks better incomes potential for companions. These specializations acknowledge companions who ship end-to-end options from design via ongoing buyer engagement, utilizing Cisco’s built-in {hardware}, software program, and providers. The brand new Cisco Companion Locator makes it easy for purchasers to seek out companions with verified capabilities throughout Safety, Networking, Cloud and AI Infrastructure, Collaboration, Companies, Splunk, and shortly Mass-Scale Infrastructure.

Constructing Companion Experience Cisco is providing entry to co-developed, curated enablement tracks that helps companions construct their competency in NVIDIA AI applied sciences & software program that's built-in into Cisco’s portfolio together with the Safe AI Manufacturing unit with NVIDIA.

For companions constructing critical functionality round AI infrastructure, the brand new Cisco AI Infrastructure Specialist Certification is the credential to pursue. Inside the CCNP Information Middle observe, it validates expertise in deploying, migrating, working, and troubleshooting AI options on Cisco knowledge heart infrastructure. This certification helps companions be extra related with clients and contributes to profitability development inside Cisco 360.

The training path that prepares companions for this certification, AI Options on Cisco Infrastructure Necessities, has already confirmed to be one in every of our hottest coaching choices. When it was included within the Ladder Up program for Cisco companions, it drove 3 times the enrollment of any earlier Ladder Up. The certification examination is now obtainable.

The training path contains complementary NVIDIA coaching from foundational GPU fundamentals and Introduction to Synthetic Intelligence to extra superior NVIDIA AI Enterprise options, Constructing AI Brokers with NVIDIA AI Blueprints, and AI Trade Use Circumstances. NVIDIA’s AI Infrastructure and Operations Certifications are one other complementary part of this studying path. This NVIDIA software program and compute coaching is an ideal complement for Cisco’s Safety, Networking, and UCS gross sales coaching.

Companions additionally acquire entry to Cisco Companion Studying Journeys, that are clear and role-based coaching paths for each technical and gross sales professionals, in addition to superior dCloud Demo Experiences that allows Most well-liked Companions to show capabilities in digital environments which accelerates time to worth.

The Backside Line The Cisco Safe AI Manufacturing unit with NVIDIA combines excessive efficiency networking, safety, accelerated compute, storage, and observability right into a single validated design that companions can construct on with confidence. The Cisco 360 program is designed to make sure our companions can ship distinctive buyer experiences whereas driving sturdy development.

The companions who put money into constructing competencies centered on investing of their AI Apply round Cisco Safe AI Manufacturing unit with NVIDIA now are those who will lead the enterprise AI infrastructure conversations in 2026 and past. The client demand is actual. The validated structure is confirmed. The Cisco 360 Companion Program is able to allow and reward companions to ship the worth clients count on within the AI Period.

In the event you agree this can be a vital alternative for Cisco companions, the query is whether or not you'll be the companion who captures it. Spend money on your apply, have interaction your clients, and let’s win collectively.