Cisco Upgrades Notre Dame's Campus Network for an AI-Driven Future

Cisco has completed a major campus-network modernisation at the University of Notre Dame, deploying nearly 1,000 switches across dormitories, educational buildings, and the campus core during a single summer. The project represents an incumbent modernisation for Notre Dame, which was already a Cisco customer for collaboration and switching.

The driving issue is familiar to university IT teams: ageing or insufficient infrastructure can affect the student experience, research effectiveness, and the school's ability to introduce new services. Cisco says other drivers for the upgrade include delivering greater network capacity, introducing state-of-the-art software-defined operations, as well as improved security and operational visibility.

Increasing reliance on AI workloads is a critical driver for getting university IT networks ready for the future. Cisco says that AI workloads, GPU-driven research, and the growing use of agents are placing increasingly severe demands on network capacity across many institutions of higher education.