NetApp and Cisco have announced two sets of joint innovations aimed at helping enterprises accelerate AI adoption and strengthen cyber resilience across their data infrastructure.

On the AI side, the companies have expanded their FlexPod validated architecture to support enterprise AI deployments including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), semantic search, and edge inferencing. The updated FlexPod integrates NetApp’s AI Data Engine (AIDE), Cisco’s Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA, and Zero Trust-aligned controls across the AI pipeline, with architecture built on NVIDIA Enterprise Reference Architectures.

Storage as an Active Security Layer

On the cybersecurity front, NetApp and Cisco have released a new NetApp Splunk Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) playbook that enables automated incident response directly at the storage layer. Security teams can now automatically block suspicious users, take snapshots of affected data, and take volumes offline as part of a ransomware containment response — reducing mean time to contain (MTTC) and the manual effort required to protect data.

“With AI accelerating both the speed and sophistication of cyberattacks, the window to respond has never been smaller. By working with Cisco to enable Splunk SOAR workflows to take direct action on data stored in NetApp ONTAP, we’re helping make a defense-in-depth security strategy simpler and more effective.” — Sandeep Singh, SVP and General Manager, Platform, NetApp

Unified Data and Security Vision

The FlexPod enhancements also support edge computing scenarios, enabling enterprises to deploy AI inferencing and containerised workloads at the edge with centralised fleet management and policy-based configuration. NetApp estimates the longstanding FlexPod partnership has already saved customers up to 20 per cent of their time in infrastructure management and maintenance.

The NetApp Splunk SOAR playbook is available for download on SplunkBase.