Cisco Introduces NVIDIA-Powered AI Servers and PODs for Scalable AI Workloads

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 29, 2024 — Cisco today announced new additions to its data center infrastructure portfolio: an AI server family purpose-built for GPU-intensive AI workloads with NVIDIA accelerated computing, and AI PODs to simplify and de-risk AI infrastructure investment. They give organizations an adaptable and scalable path to AI, supported by Cisco’s industry-leading networking capabilities.

“Enterprise customers are under pressure to deploy AI workloads, especially as we move toward agentic workflows, and AI begins solving problems on its own,” said Jeetu Patel, Chief Product Officer, Cisco. “Cisco innovations like AI PODs and the GPU server strengthen the security, compliance, and processing power of those workloads as customers navigate their AI journeys from inferencing to training.”

The exponential growth of AI is transforming data center requirements, driving demand for scalable, sustainable, programmable and secure networks. According to McKinsey, generative AI will add $2.6T to $4.4T per year to global economic output with enterprises at the forefront of value creation. But according to the Cisco AI Readiness Index, 89% of IT professionals plan to deploy AI workloads within the next two years but just 14% of organizations report their infrastructure is ready for AI today.

Cisco’s new solutions provide customers with the infrastructure pieces they need to accelerate their AI adoption, no matter their current starting point. These innovations extend customers’ existing infrastructure, enabling customers to grow and innovate without adding complexity. The new solutions are managed by Cisco Intersight, which enables centralized control and automation, simplifying everything from configuration to day-to-day operations. New solutions introduced today include:

• Accelerated Compute for the AI Era: Cisco is adding to its UCS AI compute portfolio with the new UCS C885A M8 servers purpose-built for GPU-intensive AI workloads. These high-density servers can tackle the most demanding AI training and inference workloads by harnessing the power of the NVIDIA HGX supercomputing platform with NVIDIA H100 and H200 Tensor Core GPUs. Each server includes NVIDIA NICs or SuperNICs to accelerate AI networking performance, as well as NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs to accelerate GPU access to data and enable robust, zero-trust security. This is Cisco’s first entry into its dedicated AI server portfolio and its first eight-way accelerated computing system built on the NVIDIA HGX platform.
• Plug-and-Play AI Infrastructure: Cisco is introducing AI PODs, infrastructure stacks tailored for specific AI use cases and industries. Combining compute, networking, storage, and cloud management, these stacks enable greater scalability and efficiency. Built on the foundation of Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs), the PODs provide customers with an established starting point, easily adaptable to meet their specific needs. The pre-sized and configured bundles of infrastructure eliminate the guesswork from deploying AI inference solutions – from edge inferencing to large-scale clusters with NVIDIA accelerated computing. These solutions include NVIDIA AI Enterprise, an end-to-end, cloud-native software platform that accelerates data science pipelines and streamlines AI development and deployment. This means faster time to value, consistent performance and reduced risk for AI projects.

These new solutions join Cisco’s already extensive portfolio of AI and data center infrastructure, including Cisco’s recently introduced 800G Nexus switching platforms powered by the Cisco Silicon One G200 chip, and the recently announced Cisco Nexus HyperFabric AI solution with NVIDIA.

The Cisco UCS C885A M8 is now orderable and expected to ship to customers by the end of this year, and the Cisco AI PODs will be orderable in November 2024.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that securely connects everything to make anything possible. Our purpose is to power an inclusive future for all by helping our customers reimagine their applications, power hybrid work, secure their enterprise, transform their infrastructure, and meet their sustainability goals.

Source: Cisco