Secure AI Factory with FlexPod AI

The rise of generative AI is transforming how enterprises innovate, enabling breakthroughs in natural language understanding, image generation, and autonomous decision-making. Yet, as large language models (LLMs), diffusion models, and foundation models expand into mission-critical operations, enterprises face daunting challenges: security, scalability, data protection, and infrastructure complexity.

That’s why Cisco, NetApp, and NVIDIA have partnered to deliver Secure AI Factory with FlexPod^® AI: a validated, enterprise-ready solution that tightly integrates compute, networking, storage, and security to help organizations accelerate AI adoption without compromising trust or performance.

AI workloads aren’t like traditional applications. They demand:

• Specialized compute power: NVIDIA GPUs for massive parallel processing
• Hardened security: protection against model poisoning, prompt injection, adversarial inputs, and supply chain attacks
• Scalable architecture: seamless growth across compute, network, and storage without bottlenecks
• Data assurance: safeguarding proprietary training data, personal information, and intellectual property

Secure AI Factory addresses these challenges head-on by weaving Zero Trust principles, workload protection, and advanced data safeguards into every layer of the AI pipeline.

This solution is built on the combined strengths of three industry leaders:

• Cisco: delivering advanced networking, Zero Trust frameworks, Cisco AI Defense, Hypershield, and Hybrid Mesh Firewall
• NVIDIA: powering AI acceleration with GPUs, NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, and optimized frameworks for LLMs and generative AI
• NetApp: providing AI-ready data management and storage with NetApp^® AFF A-Series systems, NetApp Trident^™ orchestration, and ransomware protection

Together, these technologies create a performance-optimized, validated, and secure foundation for AI at scale.

At the heart of Secure AI Factory is FlexPod AI, co-engineered by Cisco and NetApp. FlexPod AI provides:

• Cisco UCS compute platforms optimized for GPU acceleration
• Cisco Nexus networking for ultralow latency and high-bandwidth throughput
• NetApp AFF all-flash storage for AI-ready, high-performance data pipelines
• NVIDIA GPUs and AI Enterprise software for model training, fine-tuning, and inference

With FlexPod AI, organizations gain a turnkey, scalable platform that simplifies deployment while enabling secure, end-to-end AI workflows from data preparation and training to inference and production.

Secure AI Factory with FlexPod AI integrates multilayered protections, including:

• Workload security: Cisco Secure AI Defense, Hypershield runtime protection, and Isovalent Secure Firewall for Kubernetes environments
• Infrastructure security: Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall for hybrid and multisite environments
• Data security: Zero Trust enforcement, firmware-level hardening, ransomware defense, anomaly detection, immutable backups, and rapid recovery

This layered defense means that sensitive data, intellectual property, and AI pipelines remain resilient against emerging threats.

Secure AI Factory with FlexPod AI isn’t just an infrastructure stack—it’s a launchpad for enterprise AI transformation. It helps you:

• Deploy AI faster with validated, tested architectures
• Scale workloads without performance bottlenecks
• Protect data and models with enterprise-grade security
• Innovate with confidence in hybrid, edge, and cloud environments

This is just the beginning. Join us at the NetApp INSIGHT^® partner and customer conference to see Secure AI Factory in action, meet the teams behind the innovation, and explore use cases. For deeper technical details, check out the Secure AI Factory with FlexPod AI solution brief and FlexPod page.