Artificial intelligence continues to be a focal point for companies in all areas of technology and communications as demand from enterprise customers continues to soar, but one of the underappreciated aspects of AI is that a network plays a critical role in the success of AI initiatives. Despite the same type of “AI bump” the capital markets have given the chip companies; the network vendors have been aggressive with evolving their products to meet the demands of AI.
The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles have almost two weeks to develop a game plan for Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans Sunday, Feb. 9, but the technology team starts well before that. In fact, the planning and strategy for the next championship game — Super Bowl LX, which will be held in Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara in February 2026 — are well underway.
Networking and complexity go hand in hand, like chocolate and peanut butter. Though this has been the norm, it’s playing havoc with business operations. A recent ZK Research/Cube Research study found that 93% of organizations state the network is more critical to business operations than two years ago. In the same period, 80% said the network was more complex. Increasing complexity leads to blind spots, unplanned downtime, security breaches and other issues that affect businesses.
When it comes to building campus networks, there is a religion around stacking versus chassis-based systems. In my network engineer days, I lived on both sides of that holy war. Initially, it was chassis or nothing, but I worked for a big financial firm with large budgets and didn’t give much credence to other options. As time went on, I began to appreciate a stack’s flexibility and budget flexibility, as one could start with a small network stack and add to it when required.
Cisco Systems Inc. provided positive numbers in its fiscal fourth-quarter results Wednesday, and there’s a story behind those numbers. The networking giant posted a modest revenue beat of $13.64 billion, $100 million more than consensus estimates. Gross margin, boosted by the acquisition of Splunk Inc., came in at a whopping 67.5%, the highest number for Cisco in 20 years. Product order growth rose 14% year over year, 6% excluding Splunk.