Cisco and NVIDIA, together with VAST Data, are presenting a new architecture for agentic AI in enterprises. The collaboration focuses on improving the infrastructure that enables companies to deploy AI agents that perform complex tasks independently.
The project, called Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA, combines Cisco’s network and server technology with NVIDIA’s accelerated computing power and AI software and VAST Data’s data platform technology. In this way, Cisco is continuing to build on the Cisco AI PODs offering together with its partners. These are modular building blocks that can process data faster and make it available for AI applications. With the addition of the VAST InsightEngine, these PODs can perform retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG, more efficiently. This technique combines large language models with current business data, making answers more reliable, specific, and immediately usable for business applications. This reduces the time needed to extract information from business data and make it available to AI models.
Scalable deployment of Agentic AI
The architecture must ensure that AI agents have access to the right information in near real time, without delays caused by data bottlenecks. At the same time, attention is paid to security and governance, so that sensitive data remains protected and companies comply with compliance requirements. Cisco emphasizes that the design is suitable for supporting multiple AI workloads simultaneously, enabling scalable deployment of agentic AI.
According to Cisco and NVIDIA, this development heralds a new phase in which companies can use AI agents that go beyond simple chatbots. Instead, they can collaborate with knowledge workers, make independent decisions, and accelerate business processes. VAST Data states that the integration of their InsightEngine into the Cisco architecture is a first step toward large-scale acceleration of RAG and agentic AI.
The first AI POD designed for RAG acceleration with NVIDIA and VAST is now available. Cisco sees this as the beginning of a broader range of AI services that respond to the growing demand for applications within enterprises.