NetApp and Cisco expand FlexPod for enterprise AI infrastructure

NetApp and Cisco are expanding their FlexPod partnership with new validated solutions designed to help enterprises run AI workloads across data center, department-level, and edge environments. The companies said the new FlexPod architectures combine Cisco compute, networking, and security capabilities with NetApp storage and data management to give customers a pre-tested infrastructure path for AI deployment.

The new solutions are aimed at common AI use cases, including retrieval-augmented generation, semantic search, AI inferencing, and edge computing. For larger enterprise AI deployments, the architecture includes NetApp AFX, future data discovery and governance capabilities from NetApp AI Data Engine, and Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA. The companies have also worked with NVIDIA on FlexPod solutions based on NVIDIA Enterprise Reference Architectures for organizations building AI factory environments.

For teams that are still early in AI adoption, NetApp and Cisco are positioning FlexPod as a way to reduce some of the infrastructure work involved in deploying AI against existing enterprise data. The AI inferencing and RAG workflow option is designed for departments that need a pre-integrated stack without requiring deep AI infrastructure skills. At the edge, the architecture combines Cisco Unified Edge with NetApp storage options to support AI inferencing, containerized workloads, and virtualized workloads across distributed locations.

Enterprise AI projects are creating new pressure around storage, networking, data governance, security, and operations. Customers may want to move faster with AI, but they still need help keeping data protected, managed, and usable across hybrid environments. For channel partners, validated infrastructure gives them a clearer services opportunity around AI readiness, deployment, governance, lifecycle management, and ongoing support.