Pure Storage® (NYSE: PSTG) and Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) have announced a new FlashStack® Cisco Validated Design (CVD), expanding the collection of AI PODs within the Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA. The new collaboration introduces a unified, production-grade platform that integrates compute, storage, networking, and software to help enterprises move from AI pilot projects to large-scale deployment.

Maciej Kranz, GM of Enterprise at Pure Storage, said that enterprises often prioritize GPUs and compute power but overlook the importance of reliable data. He added that the collaboration with Cisco and NVIDIA eliminates data barriers, offering customers the performance, simplicity, and efficiency required to operationalize AI.

Jeremy Foster, SVP and GM of Cisco Compute, explained that the new FlashStack CVD is not just about validating hardware. Instead, it orchestrates all elements of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) into an AI-ready infrastructure, reducing complexity and risk while enabling customers to transform data into actionable insights.

The companies reported that as enterprises move beyond pilot projects, the success of AI depends on data readiness. Fragmented architectures, limited visibility, and operational challenges often prevent AI models from reaching full potential.

The Cisco and Pure Storage validated solution addresses these issues by ensuring both structured and unstructured data are accessible to AI workflows. Built on Pure Storage’s Enterprise Data Cloud architecture, the solution delivers high-performance data access, concurrency, and energy efficiency through FlashBlade//S™. Portworx® by Pure Storage provides persistent and portable data management across Kubernetes-based AI environments.

Key components of the AI factory include:
• Pure Storage FlashBlade//S™ for large-scale data management
• Cisco UCS C845a servers powered by NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 GPUs
• NVIDIA AI Enterprise software for scalable AI deployment

Together, these technologies form a blueprint for enterprise-scale AI, supporting use cases such as RAG, agentic AI, semantic search, video analytics, and code generation.

The companies revealed that the new FlashStack CVD builds on a foundation of more than 5,000 existing FlashStack customers. The solution combines Cisco’s GPU-accelerated compute, Nexus switching, and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software with Pure Storage’s unified data platform, delivering a production-ready path from pilot to full-scale AI deployment.

By integrating Cisco’s Nexus 9000 series networking, the solution offers low-latency and congestion-aware data flow, essential for AI workloads. Cisco NX-OS and Nexus Dashboard further enable unified visibility, security, and control for AI-native environments.

The collaboration aims to simplify AI deployment, enhance performance, and support data-intensive industries as they scale AI solutions efficiently and securely.

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