Cisco Live EMEA 2026: Cisco repositions as a full-stack AI platform

Analyst: Nick Payens
Publication date: February 16, 2026

At Cisco Live EMEA 2026, the networking giant repositioned itself as a full-stack AI platform company, with key announcements centered around sovereign critical infrastructure, AI Canvas integration interfaces, and ambitious expansions of Splunk’s data fabric platform. While the event highlighted significant cultural and organizational changes toward platform integration, supported by strong financial results in Q2 FY26, risks center on the execution timeline for the data fabric component.

In this article:

• Cisco repositions itself from networking vendor to full-stack AI platform company
• Sovereign critical infrastructure portfolio and its commercial availability
• Theory of AI Canvas, Data Fabric, and Platform Integration
• AI Defense and Emerging Agents Security Market
• Energy and power supply is an under-recognized infrastructure differentiator
• Cisco Second Quarter 2026 Results

Events — Key themes and vendor movements: Cisco Live EMEA 2026 took place in Amsterdam from February 10th to 12th, bringing together 21,000 customers, partners, analysts, and media for three days of executive briefings, product demonstrations, and strategy sessions. The central message of the event was Cisco’s repositioning from a networking equipment vendor to what has been described as a full-stack AI platform company.

Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel organized the story around three structural gaps: infrastructure shortages driven by AI’s compute and energy demands, lack of trust constraining enterprise AI adoption, and data gaps between operational telemetry and business decision-making. This framework was consistently reflected in all the sessions and briefings we attended.

Several product developments have strengthened that direction. First announced in September 2025, the Sovereign Critical Infrastructure (SCI) portfolio is expected to take several weeks to enter commercial use in Europe and will be priced at a 15-25% premium over a five- to seven-year term. AI Canvas is Cisco’s unified analyst interface built on a proprietary small language model (SLM) trained on 30 years of networking data and positioned as the unifying surface for cross-domain operations. Data Fabric, which extends the Splunk platform to enable federated cross-domain data management, is now in alpha. AI defense continues to gain traction, and Cisco is reporting rapid order cycles from CISOs who view AI security assessments as accelerators of deployment rather than brakes. And Cisco announced comprehensive updates to its AI infrastructure portfolio, starting with the Silicon One G300, which we detailed here.

On the organizational front, Patel described the transition from a holding company that has made around 250 acquisitions and operated as separate fiefdoms to a functional structure with four GMs, where integration into the platform is the most important indicator.

Cisco Live EMEA 2026: Can networking giants become AI platform companies?

Analyst’s view: Internal alignment at Cisco Live EMEA was remarkable. All the executives we spoke to, even more so than at other vendor events we attend, were working from the same framework, using a similar vocabulary, and connecting their product areas to the same platform narrative. This marks a meaningful cultural shift under Patel’s leadership for a company that has traditionally operated as a loose collection of semi-autonomous business units. Of course, words are just words. The proof will be in Cisco’s actions over the next few years.

Sovereignty is timely

Sovereign critical infrastructure initiatives are timely. The November 2025 Berlin Summit Declaration on European Digital Sovereignty, physical threats to undersea cables, and growing concerns about cloud dependence have created a demand environment where Cisco’s 40 years of experience in on-premises, air-gapped deployments is a real asset. Legal obligations for perpetual licenses in crisis scenarios provide a differentiator that cloud-native competitors cannot easily imitate. In fact, Cisco is in the unique position of having cloud hyperscalers as its primary customers, while also being in a strong position to supply on-premises equipment to enterprises that require greater control.

AI defense is looking for a buyer

AI Defense appears to have found product-market fit through unusual buying behavior. Cisco executives say CISOs and line-of-business leaders, not network architects, are driving purchasing decisions. This expands Cisco’s buyer base in ways not possible with traditional networking portfolios. The framework for security as an accelerator for AI adoption, rather than a compliance requirement, resonates with companies that have agent applications in place but aren’t confident about moving them into production.

Data fabric carries the greatest risk

Risk is concentrated in the data fabric. Extending Splunk from a machine data indexer to a cross-domain data platform with federation, semantic layers, knowledge graphs, and activity-based pricing is an ambitious series of bets, all currently in alpha. While Cisco is correct in saying they need a data layer between their infrastructure and AI applications, it’s the execution timeline that matters. Companies like Snowflake, Databricks, Datadog, and Dynatrace aren’t standing still, and some of them may follow Snowflake’s lead and partner with Cisco in their data fabric efforts.

Cisco currently competes in networking, security, observability, and data management simultaneously. Platform theory argues that integration creates value that point solutions cannot match. History has shown that breadth of ambition and depth of execution are difficult to maintain at the same time. Proving the Cisco AI Platform’s theory requires transforming your organization’s alignment into a shipped recruitment product at a pace that keeps pace with domain experts.

The numbers behind the story

Cisco’s Q2 2026 financial results, reported on February 11 on Cisco Live EMEA, hampered what management could discuss and gave financial weight to the platform narrative being presented. Revenue reached $15.35 billion, up 10% year over year and beating consensus. Core Networking revenue increased 21% to $8.3 billion, and networking product orders accelerated more than 20% year-over-year. AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers reached $2.1 billion in the quarter, matching the total for all of fiscal 2025. Cisco raised its full-year revenue outlook to $61.2 billion to $61.7 billion, representing 8.5% growth.

On the earnings call, there were signs that the platform’s message was more than just a stage story. CFO Mark Patterson noted that enterprise customers are refreshing their entire operational stacks rather than buying individual switches, suggesting platform bundling is influencing purchasing behavior. CEO Chuck Robbins called the corporate shakeup the “culmination of the first inning” of a multi-year, multibillion-dollar cycle. Beyond hyperscalers, Cisco has booked $350 million in AI orders from Neocloud, Sovereign, and Enterprise customers, with a pipeline of $2.5 billion, but Robbins acknowledged that material revenue for Sovereign and Neocloud will primarily start in fiscal 2027, i.e., the second half of 2026. One challenge is that Splunk’s continued migration from on-premises to cloud subscriptions has reduced security revenue. 4%, and the growth burden is expected to continue until the second half of 2026.

Notable content:

• Data Fabric production deployment: Moving from alpha to customer-validated production provides the clearest signal that Cisco’s data platform goals are achievable. Look out for the availability of Snowflake federation and the adoption of activity-based pricing.
• Sovereign Critical Infrastructure Attachment Rate: With commercial launch imminent, the question shifts from demand validation to revenue contribution. Track the impact of policy term and premium on deal size across European accounts.
• Cross-domain adoption of AI Canvas: Integration across all business units, especially less mature business units where agents are automatically generated, will test whether platform theory translates into a unified operational experience.
• Competitive Response in AI Security: AI Defense’s early traction will attract the attention of Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, and emerging AI security startups. Look out for comparable AI supply chain assessment capabilities.
• Enterprise interest in Cisco as a model building platform: Mentions of the top 10 banks considering AI Canvas for domain-specific model development may indicate notable market expansion that is worth tracking.

You can read more about Cisco’s announcement on the Cisco Live EMEA website.

Disclosure: Futurum is a research and advisory firm that engages in or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author has no equity relationships with any companies mentioned in this article.

The analyzes and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst and the data and other information that may be provided for verification, and not to Futurum as a whole.

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