TLDR: Cisco has launched its new Data Fabric architecture, powered by Splunk, at the Splunk .conf25 event. This initiative aims to transform machine-generated data into AI-ready intelligence, addressing key challenges in AI adoption such as infrastructure constraints, trust deficits, and data gaps. The Data Fabric is designed to reduce the cost and complexity of managing machine data at scale, enabling its use in training custom AI models, powering agentic workflows, and correlating diverse data streams for insights. Key components include a Unified, Intelligent Data Foundation, Cross-Domain Real-Time Search and Analysis, and the upcoming Time Series Foundation Model. Cisco also introduced AI Canvas for orchestrating analysis workflows and Splunk Federated Search for Snowflake.
BOSTON, MA – Cisco has officially unveiled its groundbreaking Cisco Data Fabric architecture at the Splunk .conf25 annual conference in Boston, Massachusetts. This new architecture, powered by the recently acquired Splunk platform, is set to revolutionize how organizations harness machine-generated data for artificial intelligence applications, positioning Splunk as the ‘machine data fabric for the AI era.’
Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s President and Chief Product Officer, emphasized the critical need for a robust machine data platform in the age of AI. “Organizations everywhere are sitting on a gold mine of machine data that’s been too complex, cumbersome, and costly to leverage for AI, until today,” Patel stated. He highlighted that while human-generated data (text, images, video) has been effectively used to train AI models, machine-generated data—including metrics, event logs, traces, and other telemetry—remains largely untapped. This represents a ‘missed, untapped opportunity’ that the Cisco Data Fabric aims to address.
Patel identified three primary impediments to widespread AI adoption: infrastructure constraints, a trust deficit stemming from non-deterministic models, and the aforementioned data gaps in machine-generated data. Cisco’s strategy, he explained, directly confronts these challenges by providing low-latency, high-performance, and energy-efficient networking for data centers, ensuring safety and security through model validation and runtime guardrails, and offering a powerful, continuously improving data platform.
At its core, the Cisco Data Fabric is engineered to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity associated with managing machine data at scale. It facilitates the use of this data for various AI applications, including training custom AI models, enabling agentic workflows, and correlating multiple streams of machine and business data to extract actionable insights and drive better decisions.
Key capabilities of the Cisco Data Fabric include:
Operate on Machine Data at Extreme Scale: This is achieved through a Unified, Intelligent Data Foundation that simplifies data transformation across edge, cloud, and on-premises environments (SecOps, ITOps, DevOps, NetOps). It also features Cross-Domain Real-Time Search and Analysis, allowing users to query data where it resides across various sources like Amazon S3, Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, Snowflake, and Microsoft Azure.
Unlock the Value of Proprietary Data: A forthcoming Time Series Foundation Model will power advanced pattern analysis and temporal reasoning on time series data, enabling sophisticated anomaly detection, forecasting, and automated root cause analysis. The Splunk Machine Data Lake provides an AI-ready foundation for model training and enterprise analytics, complemented by the Splunk AI Toolkit and Splunk Model Context Protocol Server.
Unify Experiences for Humans and AI Agents: Cisco AI Canvas, integrated with the Splunk Cloud Platform, offers an AI agent to orchestrate analysis workflows and provides collaborative workspaces. This ‘virtual war room’ experience aims to enhance real-time collaboration and accelerate decision-making during incidents.
Kamal Hathi, SVP and GM of Splunk, a Cisco company, underscored the goal: “Our goal is to give customers the fastest, most secure path from data to action.” He added that embedding AI across the platform and embracing open standards will enable organizations to anticipate change, scale innovation, and deliver more resilient digital services.
Archana Venkatraman, Senior Research Director, Cloud Data Management at IDC, commented that the Cisco Data Fabric addresses a “critical pain point” in unifying vast streams of machine data for continuous resilience, offering a “pragmatic solution for organizations operationalizing AI at scale.”
Many core components of the Cisco Data Fabric are available today, with additional features rolling out through 2026. The Splunk AI Toolkit is currently available, with new hosted models expected in 2026. Replay S3 for Federated Analytics will be available in October 2025, and the Time Series Foundation Model will be listed on Hugging Face in November 2025. The Cisco AI Canvas integration with Splunk and Splunk Machine Data Lake is slated for 2026.
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This announcement reinforces Cisco’s strategic pivot towards becoming a dominant player in the AI landscape, leveraging its $28 billion acquisition of Splunk to offer integrated solutions spanning networking, security, and analytics.
