VAST Data and Cisco are expanding their strategic partnership to offer a fully integrated AI infrastructure stack aimed at simplifying enterprise deployments of intelligent systems. The joint solution brings together
VAST’s AI Operating System with Cisco’s UCS servers, Nexus switching, and Nexus Hyperfabric AI to form a cohesive platform for compute, networking, storage, and observability.
Now available through Cisco’s Global Price List, the VAST AI Operating System is validated and supported directly by Cisco, giving enterprise customers a streamlined path to deploy and operate agentic, data-driven AI systems. This turnkey stack is designed to help organizations unify their data pipelines, manage AI infrastructure more efficiently, and scale securely from the edge to the cloud.
Unified Stack, Unified Experience
The core offering includes a consolidated infrastructure blueprint built on Cisco’s UCS and Nexus platforms, coupled with the capabilities of the VAST AI OS. This combination enables enterprises to run advanced AI workflows—such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and real-time event processing—directly at the data layer.
Key tools like VAST InsightEngine and AgentEngine are embedded into the OS, allowing organizations to move beyond static models and instead run autonomous agents that interact continuously with live data. These tools are designed to accelerate vector search, inference workflows, and decision automation in real time.
Data and Compute Convergence for AI at Scale
The integration also brings structured, unstructured, and vector data management into a single platform, reducing infrastructure complexity. This makes it easier to build applications that rely on large-scale reasoning and contextual awareness. Combined with Cisco’s networking backbone and
VAST’s disaggregated shared-everything (DASE) architecture, the solution delivers consistent performance across enterprise AI deployments.
Operational Agility and Built-In Security
The stack includes lifecycle orchestration through Cisco’s Nexus Hyperfabric AI and VAST’s global namespace capabilities, simplifying infrastructure provisioning, monitoring, and scaling. Security is baked in through a zero-trust architecture that supports multi-tenant environments and enforces governance controls for sensitive workloads.
Tailored for MSPs and Channel Partners
For MSPs, deploying AI infrastructure often means wrestling with fragmented components across compute, networking, and storage, adding time, cost, and complexity. This joint solution from Cisco and VAST Data directly addresses that pain point by delivering a unified, performance-validated stack.
“Cisco is uniquely positioned to provide a fully single vendor solution for the entire infrastructure stack—Cisco UCS compute with GPUs, Cisco Nexus networking, Cisco UCS storage nodes for VAST,” said
John Mao, VP Global Business Development at VAST Data. “This not only makes it more turnkey from a deployment perspective, but MSPs can also be more confident in a fully tested and performance validated solution.”
The VAST AI OS enhances this stack with advanced software capabilities such as scalable vector databases, orchestration tools, and high-performance storage tailored for AI workloads.
To support MSPs in managing complex, multi-tenant environments, the architecture includes built-in isolation and compliance safeguards. “Cisco provides industry leading solutions around network security and segmentation for multi-user and multi-tenant environments,” Mao noted. “VAST also provides multi-tenant capabilities at the data storage and data access layer.”
To accelerate adoption, VAST is also introducing training through Cisco BlackBelt Academy and co-developing service offerings with Cisco’s Managed Service Creation team. “These programs will enable Cisco MSP and partners to take [these offerings] to market,” Mao added.
