Cisco ecstatic on networking and security capabilities in the agentic AI era

“We have networking, and we have security. None of our networking friends have security and none of our security friends have networking. It's an interesting place to be,” says Chuck Robbins, Chair and Chief Executive Officer at Cisco.

Cisco Live 2025 kicked off with the networking and security company unveiling several new solutions to boost its capabilities in helping customers not only secure their AI development and deployments but also have better visibility and security on the network.

In his keynote address, Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO at Cisco emphasized that Cisco has established the fact that security needs to be integrated into the network to build secure AI and deploy agentic AI applications.

“I don't believe there's any company better suited right now to help you. Now you might say I'm biased, but I like to think I'm objective. There are lots of companies that are going to help you like OpenAIs, NVIDIA, AMD, and there's lots of companies that are going to have a role to play. We think when it comes to secure networking, the fact that we have networking, security, and silicon, the combination shouldn’t be underestimated,” said Robbins.

Taking a look at some of the announcements at Cisco Live, the focus continues to be on ensuring businesses can deploy AI securely. This includes fusing security capabilities deeper into the networking infrastructure, helping companies implement zero trust architectures, innovating on security for AI apps and models, and delivering breakthrough AI tools that improve threat detection and remediation.

For secure AI networking, Cisco unveiled the C9350 and C9610 Smart Switches to power campus networks. The new generation of Cisco Smart Switches, powered by Silicon One, delivers up to 51.2 Tbps of throughput, below 5-microsecond latency and quantum-resistant secure networking to power high-stakes AI applications, the company said. Both the new switches and the previously introduced Nexus smart switches include Hypershield, the company’s AI-powered security architecture for data center protection, as a service.

There was also a family of five new Cisco Secure Routers introduced at Cisco Live 2025 as AI transforms branch operations. The new Cisco Secure Routers offer native SD-WAN and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) integration, next-generation firewall (NGFW), and post-quantum security in a single-box WAN solution—with up to three times the throughput of previous generations, Cisco said.

Cisco is also building out its AgenticOps capabilities as the tech giant helps partners and businesses brace for agentic AI’s impact on IT operations. To that end, AgenticOps, or Cisco’s approach to running modern IT operations that turns real-time telemetry, automation, and domain expertise into intelligent actions, now includes AI Canvas, a GenAI user interface for customer dashboards that lets NetOps, SecOps, and DevOps teams collaborate, optimize operations, while reducing IT strain.

Apart from that, there is also the Hybrid Mesh Firewall and Universal Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) that simplify policy management, enhance visibility, and enable enterprises to scale securely without adding complexity to their security stack. In addition, Cisco announced further Splunk integrations that unify data across platforms, helping security teams automate tasks and respond faster to threats.

“We want to help you build AI-ready data centers. We want to help you future proof your workplace, and we want to do that with an underlying layer of digital resilience,” said Robbins.

Partners hyped on announcements

“Our partners are responding positively. With the increasing complexity of IT environments and the security landscape, our partners recognize the value of taking a platform approach to security and networking to customers,” commented Dave West, SVP and President of Asia Pacific, Japan, and Greater China, Cisco.

For West, everything that Cisco announced plays to its strength as a company to deliver a platform advantage for customers, whether that is fusing security into the fabric of the network to deliver end-to-end security, or simplifying how customers manage their wireless, switching, routing and industrial networks all on a single, unified management platform.

Meanwhile, partners also shared their views on the announcements made. Dilip Kumar, Global Head, Technology Solutions, NTT DATA explained how their clients are facing increasingly complex network infrastructure challenges as they integrate AI into their operations.

“Cisco's new architecture directly addresses these challenges by providing the performance, security, and scalability required to unlock the full potential of AI. Cisco's new network architecture, combined with NTT DATA's global reach and AI-powered Software Defined Infrastructure services, will enable us to deliver AI powered solutions that accelerate reliability, enhance security, and drive tangible business outcomes for our clients worldwide,” said Kumar.

Nate Nielsen, Principal Solutions Architect, Campus & Branch Networking, WWT also shared his views on some of the announcements made at Cisco Live.

“Branch connectivity, security, and management have officially joined the rapid evolution of the tech industry. Gone are the days of autonomous management, multiple platforms for edge connectivity and security, and lengthy maintenance windows. Today, agility, simplicity, unification, and minimal to zero-touch deployment are essential,” said Neilsen.

According to Neilsen, WWT’s go-to-market strategy is enhanced by the new Cisco 8000 Secure Edge Family. A single box offers high-performance WAN Edge services, post-quantum capable cryptography, advanced L2-7 firewalling, DDoS protection, SD-WAN & SASE, enhanced application quality of experience (QoE), WAN optimization, and DNSSEC. Neilsen added that the list of features keep going, yet without compromising performance and scalability thanks to new advances in platform architecture.

While this may sound like a lot to keep up with operationally, Neilsen pointed out that it is quite the opposite with controller-mode enabled. Hea added that autonomous mode is still an option for organizations that prefer manual, box-by-box management. However, Neilsen said that point-and-click provisioning through Intent-based orchestration not only standardizes configurations at scale, but it significantly lowers the learning curve and empowers engineering teams with greater capabilities.

The next step

“As I think about what we can do together, I think it's important for us to first realize that we're all having to evolve at an incredible pace. I mean this is changing so quickly. Between the technology transitions and the global geopolitical landscape, all of our lives are so much more complicated than they used to be,” said Robbins.

For Robbins, as organizations try to achieve their outcomes and build their AI infrastructure in the agentic AI era, security is imperative, and the infrastructure needs to be built with integrity and considerations for humanity which will be underpinned by trust.

“We believe that the era of agentic AI is only going to be secured by applying security services in the network to those workflows. And if you believe that, Cisco is the only company that can fuse networking and security together seamlessly with technologies that we own. And hopefully you'll allow us to partner with you so that we truly can succeed together,” concluded Robbins.

With additional reporting from Gina Narcisi