Data Center Trends – Automation, AI-ready Infrastructure and ACI
Digital transformation and generative AI have triggered a revolution in data centers. Below I summarize the most important trends from the last 12‑18 months.
AI‑ready infrastructure and new switches
– In February 2025 Cisco unveiled new 9300 switches with built‑in Data Processing Units (DPUs). These provide 800 Gbps throughput and 128 GB memory and can run security services such as Layer†4 stateful firewalling, NAT, IPSec, telemetry and DDoS protection directly on the switch. This architecture reduces latency and simplifies network design because security functions are moved into the network infrastructure.
– Solutions for intensive AI workloads are becoming more flexible. Drut, a software company, released in 2024 the DX3.0 system, which creates virtual "vPODs" made of CPU, GPU and memory slices from multiple servers. This allows dynamic allocation of expensive GPU resources and increases utilization — even 6 of 8 GPU cards in a single server can be assigned to other tasks. It’s an example of how data centers are becoming more modular and AI‑ready.
State of network automation and orchestration
– The NetBox Labs report (based on EMA research) from April 2024 shows that only 27 % of network teams report full success in managing complex infrastructure. 80 % of successful automation projects were fully funded, whereas only 57 % of partially successful projects enjoyed full funding. At the same time, 76 % of organizations expect their network automation budgets to grow within the next two years. This underscores growing interest in automation.
– Results from the "State of Network Automation Survey 2024" (Packet Pushers) show that among 106 respondents, 58 have automated up to 50 % of their networks while 48 have automated more than 50 %. The most commonly automated tasks include backups, device deployment, firmware upgrades, service provisioning and firewall rules. However, 81 % of respondents rely on their own scripts rather than commercial tools.
Orchestration with ACI
– Cisco’s Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) combines network automation, policy orchestration and monitoring in a single ecosystem. According to Techniche data from 2023, ACI already has more than 6 000 production customers. Cisco has numerous case studies across industries and continues to expand ACI with multi‑cloud support – for example, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
– Growing interest in automation suggests that more enterprises are considering migration to ACI and similar platforms. Although there are no official statistics, the NetBox Labs report indicates that 76 % of organizations want to increase their automation budgets and that fully funded projects dramatically increase the chance of success. These figures suggest that many companies plan to adopt centralized solutions like ACI.
Summary
New technologies — such as switches with DPUs and virtual compute pools — are designed to handle rising AI workloads. At the same time, the challenges of managing networks are pushing companies toward automation and platforms like ACI. More than six thousand organizations have already implemented ACI, and rising automation budgets indicate that this number is likely to increase. In the coming years, success in automation will depend on well‑funded projects and the adoption of proven orchestration platforms.
Great overview of current data center trends! I enjoyed reading about automation and AI-ready infrastructure.
The section about ACI adoption and how many companies are considering it was very informative. Thanks for sharing!
Excellent article. It's impressive to see the growing interest in network automation and virtualization.