Nico Vibert is Director of Technical Advertising Engineering for Isovalent at Cisco. Isovalent, acquired by Cisco in 2024, leverages eBPF, Cilium, and Tetragon know-how, which have develop into de facto constructing blocks for cloud-native networking infrastructure.
To learn how Cisco is extending cloud-native networking performance throughout enterprise networks and cloud materials, I just lately interviewed Vibert about the advantages of Isovalent know-how and the way it matches into the Cisco portfolio of networking, observability, and safety.
Integrating the enterprise and cloud material
Vibert had many distinctive insights about how Isovalent can be utilized throughout the Cisco portfolio, from enterprise information facilities to the cloud.
First, some background. Isovalent was created after Kubernetes and containers turned customary infrastructure within the cloud. It turned clear that container networking and cloud-native networking wanted a unique community and safety mannequin.
Cisco had the foresight to buy Isovalent in 2024, buying the chief within the container and cloud networking area. Isovalent makes use of open-source eBPF know-how to construct Cilium, one of the crucial widespread instruments for container networking in cloud-native environments.
As a result of Cilium is constructed into the Linux kernel, it will probably allow engineers to leverage fine-grained safety and community properties with out impacting efficiency.
“Cilium actually took off and have become broadly adopted within the container area and Kubernetes area to the purpose the place it was utilized by all the foremost cloud suppliers, like Google, AWS, and Microsoft Azure, for Kubernetes choices,” Vibert informed me.
Vibert mentioned that Cisco now has a novel management place amongst networking information facilities and cloud infrastructure, together with AI infrastructure. By melding cloud-native software-based networking capabilities with networking underlay, the corporate can ship full-stack safety and observability for any kind of community, together with hybrid and multicloud networks.
“For me, it’s the very best of each worlds,” mentioned Vibert. “You carry Kubernetes networking experience scalable, high-performance trendy workloads. After which you could have Cisco bringing a long time of expertise Like Cisco Nexus One operating high-performance important functions within the information heart.”
A unified operational expertise
The updates to Cisco Nexus One, which I’ve highlighted on this weblog, give Cisco distinctive capabilities to construct a constant operational expertise throughout on-premises, cloud, and API-driven environments.
Vibert describes it as a layered strategy, with Nexus One doing the heavy lifting for the networking underlay and bodily infrastructure and Isovalent doing the work on the greater layers of the software program stack—with further visibility on the operating-system degree.
“You might have Nexus, which supplies the inspiration,” says Vibert. “It supplies predictable efficiency, reliability, and safety on the bodily degree. Isovalent supplies enterprise networking prolonged to containers, the cloud-native world. This supplies constant networking and safety for Kubernetes, the place you’ll be able to put repeatable code-driven operations,” continues Vibert. “We configure Nexus as infrastructure as code and it’s all coverage pushed. We’re making use of the identical mannequin in Kubernetes, and it’s pushed from code with enterprise logic to deploy networking from intent.”
What Vibert describes is the holy grail of networking know-how, utilizing a software-defined strategy to tie collectively conventional enterprise underlays with cloud-native materials.
Potential for AI environments
As AI workloads demand unprecedented scale and deterministic community efficiency, this strategy will develop into helpful for scaling the immense dimension and calls for of Kubernetes clusters, that are key to AI functions.
Kubernetes rapidly turned the common platform to face up and deploy trendy cloud functions, and AI isn’t any totally different. Whether or not it’s LLM coaching, inference, or agentic AI, Kubernetes clusters and information will proliferate within the AI world.
“There are case research of Kubernetes environments with hundreds of nodes, proper?” mentioned Vibert. “Kubernetes has develop into the platform to run AI workloads. Within the conventional world, once you run high-performance computing, you want a really sturdy networking basis, so it’s the identical in Kubernetes. That’s the place we excel. Cilium is being utilized by among the largest AI and enormous language mannequin (LLM) suppliers on this planet, and one of many causes we’ve develop into profitable is with eBPF.”
One other space the place Cisco thinks Isovalent will assist AI is by decreasing the price of managing the infrastructure to attach GPUs. With a major funding in AI infrastructure and a compressed timeline for execution, it’s necessary that AI information facilities get related rapidly, on the lowest doable price. Isovalent supplies a mechanism to attach AI and Kubernetes pods with multi-tenant safety and excessive efficiency.
“You might want to have a safe multi-tenancy platform,” mentioned Vibert.
Vibert says that eBPF and Cilium are good for this activity as a result of they’re constructed into the Linux working system on the kernel degree, offering programmability and efficiency advantages. Utilizing Cilium and eBPF, Isovalent can add networking features into Cilium with out compromising efficiency as a result of most of them develop into kernel features.
“Cilium is letting us do networking features at kernel pace,” says Vibert. “That makes an enormous distinction for LLM firms that may’t have bottlenecks within the networking.”
Addressing cloud software sprawl
Vibert mentioned that Isovalent’s Cilium and Tetragon can even assist by addressing cloud software sprawl and integration complexity. He believes software sprawl is pervasive in cloud environments and contributes to prices. The rise of AI has the potential to exacerbate the issue.
“What occurred over time is that platform groups began to undertake an increasing number of single-purpose instruments for plenty of totally different use circumstances, together with for safety, for encryption, and for observability. There can be particular person instruments deployed for service mesh and proxies.”
Isovalent has already helped many purchasers scale back software sprawl in hybrid and cloud environments, together with a significant monetary agency, based on Vibert. It provides enterprises the real-time, actionable visibility they should transfer quick with confidence, turning reactive firefighting into proactive optimization.
“What organizations should do is be capable of benefit from [their resources]. You’ll be able to spend weeks constructing an AI app to have it break. That’s why we’re going to be sturdy at Cisco round observability since you’ve received Cilium and eBPF working at a deep degree to know community efficiency to see each packet throughout the platform.”
In abstract, Cisco Isovalent affords excessive efficiency and safe cloud-native networking that connects your workloads and infrastructure throughout Kubernetes, cloud, information facilities, and legacy infrastructure.
As Vibert has outlined, Cisco is off to a robust begin with the Cisco Nexus One extension of infrastructure materials to cloud-native Isovalent networking. The usage of eBPF, Cilium, and Tetragon will present seamless connectivity with cloud-native environments, fine-grained community visibility, high-performance safety, and a streamlined operational expertise with each networking and cloud groups.