Cisco Bets on On-Premise AI Infrastructure as Enterprise Adoption Shifts

Cisco Systems Inc., the networking giant, is shifting its focus from cloud-based AI infrastructure to on-premise solutions. According to Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins, companies are looking for a more flexible approach to deploying AI workloads, where they can balance cost, performance, and security.

This marks a departure from the long-held narrative that enterprise AI would increasingly reside inside hyperscale cloud platforms. Cisco believes that businesses will adopt a combination of deployment options, including on-premise infrastructure, public clouds, and edge computing.

The company sees an opportunity in this shift, as enterprises will need infrastructure capable of supporting AI applications close to where their data is generated and stored. This requires low-latency, high-bandwidth networking and built-in security, observability, and automation, which Cisco can provide through its co-designed, vertically integrated stack.