Cisco Introduces AI-Powered Data Fabric Architecture
At the recent Splunk .conf25 event held in Boston, Cisco announced the launch of its advanced AI-driven data architecture, the Cisco Data Fabric, powered by the Splunk platform. This innovative framework is designed to help enterprises derive actionable insights from vast pools of machine-generated telemetry including metrics, logs, events, and traces.
The new Cisco Data Fabric serves as a unified structure that seamlessly integrates business and machine data for artificial intelligence processing. A key component of this architecture is the Machine Data Lake, a virtual repository that supports federated data sources, enabling comprehensive analytics across a distributed data environment.
Leveraging Splunk for Federated Analysis
Built on Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud Platform technologies, Cisco’s Data Fabric facilitates the application of AI and machine learning to complex data sets. The platform breaks down data silos, allowing organizations to unify disparate data into a single, coherent view. This consolidated perspective is particularly beneficial for analytics and AI-powered applications.
“We’re weaving together data from wherever it resides and infusing it with AI to deliver a turnkey solution,” said Kamal Hathi, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Splunk business unit at Cisco. “It’s about combining fragmented data into a federated, distributed view that can scale infinitely across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.”
Key Capabilities of Cisco Data Fabric
The Cisco Data Fabric introduces several advanced features aimed at enhancing enterprise-level data management and analysis:
- Time Series Foundation Model (TSFM): Offers sophisticated pattern recognition and temporal analysis, which supports anomaly detection, forecasting, and automated root cause analysis.
- Intelligent Data Foundation: Transforms raw data from edge, cloud, and on-premises environments—including SecOps, ITOps, DevOps, and NetOps—into real-time, actionable insights.
- Borderless Real-Time Search and Analysis: Enables real-time search and analysis across various data sources such as Amazon S3, Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake (with Spark), Snowflake, and Microsoft Azure.
- Flexible and Open Architecture: Supports open standards and plug-and-play integrations, encouraging innovation through customizable and self-service tools.
Introducing Splunk Federated Search for Snowflake
Also announced was Splunk Federated Search for Snowflake, an integration that allows enterprises to perform unified analytics across platforms. This tool enables companies to correlate machine data with business data residing in Snowflake, Amazon S3, and Splunk indexes, simplifying data management and deepening operational insights.
“We’re helping customers understand the business impact of performance changes by combining data from multiple sources into a single, distributed query,” Hathi explained. “This holistic view is often difficult to achieve, but we’re making it accessible and actionable.”
Availability and Future Developments
The Cisco Data Fabric is currently available, offering enterprises immediate access to its powerful features. Splunk Federated Search for Snowflake is expected to be generally available for Splunk Cloud AWS commercial users in July 2026. Additionally, Cisco announced that the TSFM will be published to the Hugging Face open-source community in November 2026, expanding access to its cutting-edge AI capabilities.
These announcements underscore Cisco’s commitment to transforming enterprise data management through AI and federated analytics. By unifying machine and business data sources, Cisco aims to revolutionize how organizations gain insights, improve operations, and drive innovation.
This article is inspired by content from Original Source. It has been rephrased for originality. Images are credited to the original source.