Cisco unveiled a sweeping set of product announcements at its Cisco Live 2025 event, aiming to future-proof enterprise networks and security frameworks for the AI era. The announcements span next-generation networking hardware, advanced AI-powered operations, robust observability integrations, and deep security enhancements, including a redefinition of zero trust architecture for agentic AI. With enterprise adoption of AI accelerating rapidly, Cisco’s new offerings are designed to handle the surging data traffic, latency-sensitive workloads, and increasingly complex threat landscape shaping today’s distributed IT environments.
“We are witnessing the fastest shift in enterprise technology in decades,” said Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO of Cisco. “As customers adopt AI to transform their businesses, they need trusted infrastructure that is secure, automated, and optimized for AI workloads at scale. Cisco is uniquely positioned to deliver that with innovation across networking, security, observability, and collaboration.”
At the heart of the announcement is Cisco’s AI-Ready Secure Network Architecture, which now includes AI-optimized switches and routers, unified management via Cisco Cloud Control, and AgenticOps—a new AI-driven operations model powered by Cisco’s Deep Network Model, a domain-specific large language model trained on decades of Cisco expertise. This model underpins Cisco AI Assistant and Cisco AI Canvas, providing conversational interfaces and generative dashboards for NetOps, SecOps, and DevOps. Cisco is also previewing a redesigned Cloud Control interface that will unify workflows across its networking, security, and observability portfolios.
Expanded Hardware for the AI-Driven Enterprise
Cisco introduced an extensive lineup of new networking devices optimized for the performance and security requirements of AI workloads. Key product announcements include:
- Cisco Catalyst C9350 and C9610 Smart Switches: Powered by Cisco Silicon One, these switches deliver up to 51.2 Tbps throughput and sub-5-microsecond latency, enabling high-performance data flows for AI training clusters, edge inference, and latency-sensitive industrial applications. These switches also include quantum-resistant MACsec and are Hypershield-ready.
- Cisco 8100 through 8500 Secure Routers: These WAN solutions combine integrated SD-WAN, SASE, and next-generation firewall (NGFW) capabilities into a single appliance, offering up to 3x throughput compared to previous generations. Ideal for branch sites and edge deployments, the routers also feature post-quantum IPsec encryption.
- Cisco Wireless 9179F Series Access Points: Built for stadiums and dense venues, the new Wi-Fi 7 access points offer seamless roaming and high-capacity wireless networking. The accompanying Cisco Campus Gatewaysimplifies large campus deployments with unified cloud-managed roaming.
- New Industrial-Grade Devices: Cisco rolled out ruggedized switches and wireless access points with integrated Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB), designed for use cases such as autonomous mobile robots and real-time visual inspections in manufacturing.
Cisco is also advancing enterprise security with two cornerstone innovations: Hybrid Mesh Firewall and Universal Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). These platforms reflect Cisco’s belief that identity-based, distributed security must be built directly into the network infrastructure.
- Cisco Secure Firewall 6100 Series: Aimed at AI-ready data centers, these firewalls offer up to 200 Gbps per rack unit and modular scalability.
- Cisco Secure Firewall 200 Series: Designed for branch deployments, this model provides integrated threat inspection and SD-WAN at market-leading price-performance levels.
- Mesh Policy Engine: Enables a single, intent-based policy across Cisco and third-party firewalls, simplifying segmentation and enforcement even in multi-vendor environments.
- Expanded Enforcement Points: Cisco extended policy management to C9000 Smart Switches, Catalyst SD-WAN, Cisco 8000 Secure Routers, and ACI data center fabrics.
ZTNA updates include:
- Universal ZTNA: Provides seamless, identity-based access across users, IoT devices, and AI agents. It integrates with Cisco Secure Access and Duo IAM, the latter of which now includes passwordless authentication and proximity-based phishing resistance.
- Agentic AI Protections: Cisco’s ZTNA architecture now supports agent identity management, secure resource access, delegated authorization, and full lifecycle visibility of agent activities using Model Context Protocol (MCP).
The rollout includes deeper integrations with Splunk, now part of Cisco, to enhance visibility and accelerate threat detection. Key integrations include:
- Cisco Secure Firewall Log Ingestion: Real-time threat insights surfaced in Splunk dashboards.
- TDIR Enhancements: Improved Threat Detection, Investigation, and Response coverage via enriched correlation between Cisco Secure Firewall FTD and Splunk.
- SOAR Automation: Pre-built playbooks for Cisco firewall actions—such as host isolation or blocking outbound traffic—reduce manual intervention in incident response.
- Connected App Risk Signals: Events from Cisco Secure Application are now forwarded to Splunk, enabling contextualized risk analysis at the application layer.
Cisco is also pushing AI-powered collaboration and observability. Key updates include:
- Webex AI Agent: Uses domain-specific templates to streamline self-service workflows.
- Room Vision PTZ Camera: AI-enabled video capabilities enhance hybrid meeting experiences.
- Jira Workflow Automation: Built into Cisco AI Assistant for the Webex Suite.
- Splunk AppDynamics and ThousandEyes Integration: Enables end-to-end observability from application to network layer, helping organizations maintain digital resilience.
“As organizations embrace agentic AI to solve complex problems and drive innovation, they must also prepare their infrastructure for the scale, security, and speed these systems require,” said Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer, Cisco. “From network silicon to the security operations center, Cisco is delivering the infrastructure to secure the AI-powered enterprise.”