Data center networking has undergone a profound transformation with the rise of AI. What once were simple data repositories with connectivity are now mission-critical infrastructures powering advanced applications across industries. As enterprises embrace AI, they face urgent challenges: How can they scale infrastructure to meet soaring demand? How can they maintain efficiency and security in an increasingly complex environment? For organizations aiming to lead in this AI-driven era, partnering with the right technology providers is not just beneficial-it's essential.

At Cisco, data center networking is the cornerstone of our secure, full-stack AI strategy. Our vision is to deliver flexible, scalable networks with streamlined operations-maximizing bandwidth, minimizing latency, improving energy efficiency, and evolving in step with our customers' application needs.

We are thrilled to announce that Cisco was recently recognized as a Leader by Gartner in its inaugural version of the Magic Quadrant? for Data Center Switching, recognizing our strength in the Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision.

Figure 1: Magic Quadrant for Data Center Switching

Over the past 18 months, Cisco has continued to deliver steady innovation across the portfolio. We have:

• Focused on delivering high-performance:Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches have played a key role in the industry, with a differentiated silicon strategy (Cisco Silicon One) in data center networks, enabling a shift from 100G to 400G and ultimately 800G speeds to support the insatiable demand for greater bandwidth and lower latency driven by modern applications like AI/ML, storage, and video. In addition, Cisco 8000 Series Routers, powered by Silicon One, offer the option of deploying SONiC-based systems for customers with diverse, custom needs.
• Simplified operations and management:Cisco Nexus Dashboard provides centralized operations for data center networks and services, delivering automation, policy orchestration, and real-time analytics across diverse NX-OS and ACI fabric environments. The unified dashboard scales effortlessly to meet the needs of the largest enterprises, while also offering cost-effective solutions for more modest deployments. By reducing complexity and enhancing visibility across both on-premises and hybrid cloud environments, Nexus Dashboard empowers customers to focus on accelerating innovation.
• Reimagined network operations:Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric is revolutionizing the way customers design, build, and operate data center fabrics. It is delivered as a service and helps customers to scale multiple fabrics globally with minimal expertise. Its cloud controller manages the network, so you don't have to. Automated software updates help to further reduce IT workloads. Soon, customers will be able to deploy full-stack clusters with Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric AI, which includes NVIDIA GPUs and VAST Data storage to provide a completely automated, ready-to-use, AI system.
• Infused security into the network:Security and networking come together with Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switches, powered by Cisco Hypershield and Nexus Dashboard. Customers get strong protection, high performance, and flexible, programmable features-all in a compact design.

  Cisco Hypershield makes security policy management easier with Security Cloud Control, a cloud-based platform that helps organizations define and manage security across their entire enterprise. SecOps teams can enforce consistent policies and streamline operations.

  These enforcement points include:

  • Cloud-native agents using Isovalent's extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) technology, deployed across public and private clouds
  • Layer 3 and Layer 4 segmentation through Cisco Smart Switches
  • Next-gen firewalls with advanced features like IDS/IPS and URL filtering
• Engineered digital resilience:By combining the industry's broadest network telemetry with Splunk's cross-domain analytics, Cisco delivers unmatched AI-driven insights-empowering a more resilient, intelligent digital infrastructure.

As evidenced by recent partnership announcements, Cisco is well-positioned for strategic growth. Our data center networking solutions-powered by Silicon One and strengthened by robust ecosystem partnerships with NVIDIA and AMD-are redefining AI cluster management through the Nexus Dashboard platform.

Cisco is meeting today's market demands while actively shaping the future of the industry. Backed by a robust portfolio across networking, security, and cloud management, Cisco leads with innovation and delivers measurable business impact for global customers. We believe this recognition from Gartner reinforces the value and momentum behind that success.

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Attribution and Disclaimers: 

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Data Center Switching, Andrew Lerner, Simon Richard, Nauman Raja, Jorge Aragon, Jonathan Forest, 31 March 2025 GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.