The Cisco 6000 Series switches and the Nexus Hyperfabric they will comprise are in many respects a new and fresh approach to networking for Cisco, bringing Cisco switching directly into relevance for deployment in smaller, distributed data center environments and edge computing clusters. This will enable organizations that have chosen Cisco as their strategic networking supplier to extend their Cisco solutions into parts of the network that were not a great fit for Nexus switching in the past. The new “as a service” model will accelerate ROI and reduce the cost and complexity of operations, smoothing over the burgeoning networking skills gaps faced by so many organizations.

The Nexus Hyperfabric initiative demonstrates that Cisco has been listening to market demands and is responding with open, cloud-oriented solutions that align with the evolving role of the network in the AI-native app economy. General availability will be here soon—late 2024—and Cisco is poised to deliver this new solution for data center fabrics that can be used to achieve, perhaps for the first time, a true data center networking as a service.