We are living in the age of hyper-accelerated innovation cycles, measured in months, not years. It feels like trying to board a bullet train that refuses to slow down and nowhere is that pressure felt more acutely than in the data center.
The challenge is that “modernize now” is a lot easier to say than it is to fund.
IT leaders are clear on where they need to go: better networking, more compute, scalable storage that can handle AI workloads. What’s harder is getting there without blowing up the capital budget. If your procurement process takes six months to approve a project, the tech may be outdated by the time it’s deployed.
IDC’s 2025 IT Leasing and Financing Survey underscores the urgency: 82% of organizations say access to financing directly influences their choice of technology vendor. At the same time, high upfront costs and rapid innovation cycles make it difficult to commit to the right infrastructure without risk—and the data center is where this pressure hits hardest.
The numbers reflect a shift already underway. IDC data shows a near-even split between purchasing, leasing, and flexible consumption models across core infrastructure categories—driven by the need for flexibility to scale (44%), built-in tech refresh (42%), and support for cloud-like models (41%). In an AI-driven environment, financing is no longer just a procurement decision. It’s a strategic lever for modernization.
Where Cisco Capital comes in
As the captive finance organization of Cisco, Cisco Capital is uniquely positioned to support customers through this transition. Enabling the full Cisco portfolio—including the latest AI-ready data center solutions—Cisco Capital provides flexible payment solutions designed to help organizations access the technology they need today, while aligning payments to how their infrastructure evolves.
For data center teams, this means the ability to:
- Scale infrastructure as AI workloads grow without overcommitting capital upfront.
- Bundle hardware, software, and services into a single, simplified agreement, reducing procurement complexity across the full data center stack.
- Stay agile as technology requirements shift with payment structures that support refresh cycles and transformational infrastructure changes, not work against them.
Having a payment model that keeps IT and finance aligned—rather than pulling in opposite directions—accelerates the whole modernization process. Organizations can deploy the latest data center technology immediately, enabling faster AI transformation and improved operational efficiency while preserving critical capital and cash flow for other strategic investments. By helping to remove the financial barriers to modernization, Cisco Capital supports organizations in aligning infrastructure investments with their business goals and evolving needs.
In the rapidly evolving AI landscape, timely investment can be critical to staying competitive, even as technology and requirements continue to evolve. The objective is to develop a financial and operational model designed to help data center infrastructure scale, adapt, and evolve in step with the pace of AI advancements.
Don’t let your infrastructure be the anchor that holds you back. The right financial model can help make your infrastructure more agile to support evolving AI workloads.
Explore how the Cisco Capital comprehensive portfolio of flexible payment solutions can support your data center modernization journey
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Payment solutions, applicable financiers, and availability of any referenced programs will vary by jurisdiction. Financing and service offerings through Cisco Systems Capital Corporation and its affiliates (collectively, “Cisco Capital”) are available in certain jurisdictions and are subject to credit approval and execution of standard Cisco Capital documentation. Payment solutions not available through Cisco Capital may be offered by an independent financing source. Rates and terms are based on customer’s credit rating, offering types, product types and options. Not all customers may qualify. Not all services or offers are available in all jurisdictions. Other restrictions may apply. Cisco Capital reserves the right to change or cancel the foregoing at any time without notice. In California, loans offered by Cisco Capital will be made or arranged pursuant to a California Financing Law License.
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