This week’s networking news round‑up explores how the industry’s biggest vendors are pushing the boundaries of AI‑ready networks, data centre fabrics and service provider solutions.
Cisco – AI‑ready networks and data centres
At Cisco Live 2025, Cisco’s leadership highlighted a bold pivot: the company is positioning itself as an AI‑driven firm with networking at its core. The focus is on building AI‑ready networks that can support the massive data flows generated by training and inference workloads. Cisco announced new high‑capacity switches based on its Silicon One chips, an AI Canvas to accelerate AI development, and integrated security and observability tools such as Hypershield. This shift from simply delivering network hardware to providing a unified platform underscores how important data centre networking has become in the age of agentic AI.
Juniper – AI‑nati vedata centre and routing
Juniper’s AI‑Native Networking Platform, now part of HPE, integrates Mist AI, the Marvis virtual assistant and Apstra automation to simplify operations across campus, data centre and WAN. Juniper says its AI data centre solution provides a quick way to deploy high‑performance AI training and inference networks while remaining flexible and easy to manage. On the WAN side, the company’s AI‑native routing family delivers robust 400 GbE and 800 GbE capabilities for high performance, reliability and sustainability. This combination of automation and high‑speed hardware earned Juniper recognition as a leader in the 2025 Magic Quadrant for enterprise wired and wireless LAN infrastructure.
Nokia – Visionary in data centre switching
Nokia was named a Visionary in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for data centre switching. The company’s portfolio includes the 7220 and 7250 IXR platforms, SR Linux operating system and Event‑Driven Automation framework, with options to run community SONiC software. These switches support 400 GbE and 800 GbE speeds and emphasise automation and reliability, reflecting Nokia’s vision for AI‑native data centres and service provider networks. The recognition underscores both the completeness of Nokia’s vision and its ability to execute in the data centre market.
Summary
Across the board, networking vendors are rapidly adapting to AI’s demands. Cisco is refocusing its strategy around AI‑ready data centre networks; Juniper, under HPE, is promoting AI‑native platforms that combine high‑speed hardware with automation; and Nokia is expanding its vision with next‑generation switching fabrics. We’ll continue monitoring these developments every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to keep you informed of the latest trends.
Insightful roundup! I appreciate the detailed look at AI-ready networks from Cisco and the competition.
The Juniper section was particularly engaging; the integration of Mist AI and Apstra shows how automation is evolving.
Great to see a balanced overview of different vendors. This news summary made for a very enjoyable read!