I am pleased to share that Cisco has been named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure.
This recognition reflects the focus and execution of our teams and partners, and the trust customers place in us to deliver networks that are simpler to operate, secure by design, and ready for AI.
I see it as validation of the strategic direction we have been pursuing. We have brought Cisco Switching and Cisco Wireless together into a unified campus networking platform. We are giving customers flexible management across cloud-managed, on-premises, and hybrid deployments. And we are embedding AgenticOps and security into the network itself, so operations and protection work together by design.
From our perspective, this recognition aligns with the work Cisco has been driving across the portfolio: bringing wired and wireless operations closer together, giving customers choice in how they manage their environments, applying AI to simplify operations, and building security into the network fabric. That is Cisco’s strategy, and it is the work we will keep advancing for customers.
AI is changing network requirements in two connected ways: networking for AI, and AI for networking.
Networking for AI means building infrastructure that can support AI-powered work across the enterprise. AI agents, IoT systems, autonomous robots, and intelligent applications are operating in the same environments as employees and customers. In manufacturing, that can mean industrial vision systems inspecting product quality, robots and automated guided vehicles moving through production lines, and sensors coordinating safety, uptime, and efficiency. In healthcare, it can mean connected clinical devices, patient monitoring, and location-aware workflows. In retail, it can mean smart cameras, digital signage, inventory systems, and mobile point-of-sale experiences working together across the store.
These systems generate new kinds of traffic, interact with applications in unexpected ways, and take action at machine speed. The implication for IT is clear: manual, ticket-driven operations cannot keep pace. Networks need to identify what is connecting, understand context, enforce policy, maintain resilient experiences, and help teams respond before small issues interrupt the business.
AI for networking means applying intelligence to the way networks are operated. Isolated automation can only go so far. IT teams need systems that correlate signals across networking, security, applications, and digital experience, then help operators sense, reason, act, and validate with confidence across the full connectivity path.
That end-to-end view has to extend beyond the infrastructure an organization owns. It needs to provide visibility across the networks and services customers depend on, including ISP, cloud, and SaaS paths, so teams can understand experience from the user to the application and reduce blind spots outside their direct control.
This is why Cisco believes enterprises need an AI-ready secure network architecture.
Cisco’s AI-ready secure network architecture is built around three priorities: operational simplicity, security built into the fabric of the network, and infrastructure ready for AI-scale demands.
As AI becomes part of business processes, IT teams must support a broader set of users, endpoints, applications, connected environments, and AI-powered workflows. At the same time, threats move faster, operational complexity grows, and expectations for reliable digital experiences continue to rise. The network has to help teams respond with the speed, context, and confidence that the environment now demands.
Network teams need to move beyond reactive troubleshooting and fragmented workflows. It starts with a consistent platform. Cisco has brought together Catalyst and Meraki product families into a converged platform. Capabilities like Global Overview bring on-premises and cloud operating models into a single, consistent management plane. On top of this, Cisco AgenticOps is helping customers use AI-driven insights, automation, and cross-domain visibility to sense across end-to-end connectivity, reason over context, act with confidence, and validate outcomes across wired, wireless, campus, branch, industrial, and cloud-connected environments.
Security cannot be treated as an overlay. The network is a key control point because it sees traffic patterns, access behavior, application flows, device posture, and agent interactions. Cisco is embedding security into the network fabric through capabilities such as segmentation, firewall services, SASE, identity-driven access, and policy enforcement closer to where traffic flows. We are also advancing post-quantum readiness across critical layers of the network stack to help customers prepare for emerging threats.
AI-ready networks require resilient, high-performance wired and wireless infrastructure that can handle new traffic patterns, higher density, distributed workloads, and demanding digital experiences. Cisco Smart Switches create a secure networking foundation with capacity for embedded services and policy enforcement closer to the edge. Cisco Wi-Fi 7 APs deliver the throughput, latency, and reliability needed to drive AI experiences across campuses, branches, clinical environments, retail stores, and industrial sites. Across the Cisco Networking portfolio, our work gives customers a unified architecture with the flexibility to choose cloud-managed, on-premises, or hybrid operations.
Over the past year, we have made progress against this strategy: deeper integration across our wired and wireless portfolio, a consistent AI-driven operating model, end-to-end visibility with ThousandEyes, security embedded into the network, post-quantum readiness, and AI-ready infrastructure designed to support the next wave of experiences.
Together, these advancements help enterprises build, secure, and operate networks that are ready for AI.
We are grateful for Gartner’s recognition. From my perspective, it reinforces the path we are on, and it raises the bar for what we do next.
At Cisco Live, we will continue the conversation with customers and partners about how to modernize networks for AI, security, and scale. I am excited to build on this momentum and help customers take practical steps for their own environments.
Meet with us there to see the architecture in action, talk with our product teams, and explore how Cisco can help you build a network ready for AI.
Read the Gartner report
Meet us at Cisco Live
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