NEW DELHI: The San Jose-based Cisco Systems is optimistic about an AI-centric infrastructure portfolio to power next-generation data centres. In a bid to outdo rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE), Juniper Networks, Broadcom, and Accenture, it has recently unveiled a range of products and unified its portfolio, representing a consequential shift backed by AI. The multinational said that it is reinventing infrastructure for the next wave of AI and aims to future-proof the workplace with AI-powered hyper-connectivity. In an interaction with ETTelecom’s Muntazir Abbas, Cisco President & Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel talks on AI-centric data centre infrastructure, security portfolio, optics business, and telco partnerships, as well as collaborations with Nvidia and OpenAI. Edited excerpts:

You have a bouquet of offerings, and how does artificial intelligence (AI) fit into it? We are moving from a world where people were asking questions intelligently to chatbots. The infrastructure requirements are going to change quite dramatically. If you think about AI, it's constrained by compute power and network bandwidth. People need to trust AI to be able to use it. So, safety and security are a big deal because you must ensure effective guardrails. We help with all of it. Our portfolio spans across compute, networking, security, optics and observability and data businesses.

What are the data centre trends? There are massive build outs happening in data centres worldwide. These buildouts are happening at a scale proportion that is in the tens of gigawatts of capacity. Trillions of dollars will be spent by countries, and these data centers will also have a data sovereignty dimension to it. Countries will want to have their own data centers and availability for infrastructure, and it is going to have a direct correlation with national security and economic prosperity because of AI. So, every single invention that we are focused on and every single announcement we make will be towards helping our customers move to the journey of agentic AI. And on the data center side, we will be helping hyperscalers, neoclouds, service providers and enterprises.

What is the portfolio you have for data centers? Our networking portfolio includes Nexus switches, and it starts with Silicon One. We make our own silicon, and then we make the systems on top of the silicon. We tie our Nexus dashboard and ACI infrastructure for fabric management together. We'll make it simpler to manage. We also have our optics business and optical systems. We provide service providers with ultra long-haul optics. Inter-cluster communication with Ethernet also used in Cisco. We do both front end and back end.

What's the kind of opportunity that you are looking at, especially in the data center business? The opportunity is humongous. We had some partnerships that we announced with the Saudi government and the Humain Project. We are doing a similar effort with the UAE and Abu Dhabi. We are also working very closely with G42. We’ll make sure that we build out a tremendous amount of data center capacity. We are partnering with Nvidia, AMD, and OpenAI. Then, I think that ideally it becomes a blueprint that we can use in multiple parts of the world as well. We provide some of these technologies for data center build outs anywhere in the world. I think the data center business is going to be one of the fastest-growing businesses for us. It'll also include security baked into the fabric. We have a partnership with Nvidia, for NIMS architecture, with the NEMO framework, our AI defense, which is our safety and security product, will be used to make the models safe and secure.

Are you also partnering with telecom service providers for optical systems? We have recently launched Agile Services Networking, which is a kind of interoperable framework. We have also announced a few Cisco 8000 series routers over there as an upgrade. We have got ultra-long-haul optics so that we can cover data center interconnects up to 3000 kilometers. We have mid-range optics, long-haul optics, ultra-long-haul optics. We've got the ability to have assurance for service providers with ThousandEyes. We are doing a lot with telco service providers.

Any update on working with Jio, the largest telecom carrier in India? The combination of our technology and theirs, is coming together and that is going as per the plan.

Do you have a similar partnership with Bharti Airtel? Yes. I feel there is a tremendous amount of good execution consistency with Airtel. The teams are working well together. We will continue to keep progressing on that front.

Earlier, you talked about AI as a shield to protect. What are your offerings as enterprises are evolving? We have an update across all our products. If you think about using AI for cyber defense, think about Hypershield as a product. We have announced a hybrid mesh firewall. It's baked with AI. We are also securing AI itself. Our AI Defense product will then make sure that it has the right level of capabilities to protect the application.

Any update on the Indian manufacturing side? It is going as per the envisaged plan and is progressing well.