Cisco’s data fabric aims to turn machine data into AI’s next fuel source

By Express Computer On Sep 9, 2025

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Boston, Mass. | September 9, 2025 — For years, companies have struggled to make sense of the torrents of machine data flowing from sensors, apps, servers, networks, and factory systems. Now, Cisco believes it has cracked the code with the launch of the Cisco Data Fabric, a new architecture unveiled at Splunk .conf in Boston.

Billed as a breakthrough in transforming raw machine data into AI-ready intelligence, the Cisco Data Fabric is powered by Splunk and designed to strip away the cost and complexity of handling machine data at scale. The platform promises to give enterprises the ability to train custom AI models, power agentic workflows, and correlate disparate streams of machine and business data for predictive insights and proactive resilience.

“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,” said Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco. “Splunk revolutionized data and analytics for the cloud. Now, the Cisco Data Fabric is poised to do the same for AI.”

At its core, the Data Fabric is built for the AI era. By unifying and activating data across enterprise domains — from SecOps and ITOps to DevOps and NetOps — the framework helps customers move faster, strengthen security, and make better-informed decisions.

A Unified Approach to AI and Data
Cisco executives stress that this is more than just another data management layer. With intelligent edge data processing, real-time federation across sources like Amazon S3, Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, Snowflake, and Microsoft Azure, and a flexible open architecture, the Data Fabric is designed to meet enterprises where their data already lives.

“Our goal is to give customers the fastest, most secure path from data to action,” explained Kamal Hathi, SVP and GM of Splunk, a Cisco company. “By embedding AI across the platform and embracing open standards, we’re not just helping organizations analyze faster — we’re enabling them to anticipate change and scale innovation without unnecessary complexity.”

AI at the Center
Central to the vision is a suite of AI-native capabilities:

A Time Series Foundation Model, arriving later this year on Hugging Face, will support advanced anomaly detection, forecasting, and automated root-cause analysis.
The Splunk Machine Data Lake and AI Toolkit provide a persistent, AI-ready foundation for both training and analytics, ensuring enterprises can turn their proprietary machine data into a competitive advantage.
The Cisco AI Canvas, integrating with Splunk Cloud, introduces a collaborative “virtual war room” where humans and AI agents can investigate, visualize, and resolve incidents together in real time.

Industry Validation
Analysts see the move as significant. “The Cisco Data Fabric addresses a critical pain point in today’s AI-driven enterprise: the challenge to quickly and securely unify vast streams of machine data for continuous resilience,” said Archana Venkatraman, senior research director, IDC. “By enabling a federated approach that eliminates data movement, it provides a pragmatic solution for organizations operationalizing AI at scale.”

Roadmap and Availability
Cisco is rolling out the Data Fabric in phases. Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud Platform capabilities are available today, with additional features such as Replay S3 for Federated Analytics (October 2025), the Time Series Foundation Model (November 2025), and Cisco AI Canvas integrations (2026) planned over the next year.

With the launch, Cisco is making a clear bet: the future of AI isn’t just about bigger models, it’s about smarter data. The Data Fabric positions machine data — long seen as too messy and unwieldy — as the essential fuel for resilient, predictive, and adaptive digital services.