Cisco Silicon One: Purpose-Built for Secure Networking in the Agentic AI Era

For the past several decades, innovation in campus networking – voice over IP, wireless connectivity, digital telepresence, BYOD – was  driven by how people use the network. The transition to agentic AI marks a shift of unprecedented scale. As AI digital coworkers are onboarded by the thousands and millions, network infrastructure must adapt to the behaviors of agents. This shift calls for a complete re-evaluation of requirements for how enterprises deliver capacity, security, and visibility.

I’ve written before about the impact of massive AI deployments on data center networks. Now, the agentic shift is reaching the campus, branch, and enterprise edge.

The network requirements of agentic AI

Agentic introduces four fundamental shifts in what enterprise networks must deliver.

#1: Distributed control and visibility

Enterprise security has long relied on a perimeter model designed for human users. External (internet) traffic is isolated by firewalls and internal traffic is…