Cisco is pulling back the curtain on how one of the world’s largest and most respected technology companies is modernizing its enterprise data strategy. With operations in over 100 countries and a reputation for powering global connectivity, Cisco is no stranger to complexity or innovation.

In a time when agility and AI readiness are key to competitive advantage, Cisco is setting the bar by breaking down data silos, accelerating real-time insights, and uniting global teams around a modern, scalable platform. Their story isn’t just about data; it’s about building an AI-ready foundation that supports self-service and innovation.

A global enterprise: When growth outpaces the stack

With 4 decades of innovation and global growth behind them, Cisco’s data environment had naturally grown vast and complex. Critical systems like Oracle ERP ran on-premises, while more than 50 SaaS platforms — including Salesforce, Workday, and Jira — powered business functions across the enterprise. Most integrations were hand-coded using Python, and every new data source meant a multi-week development process, adding to operational overhead of pipeline maintenance and delaying access to insights.

As business needs accelerated, so did the challenges. Teams built redundant pipelines, relied on conflicting metrics, and created siloed dashboards — making it difficult to align on a single source of truth. Governance was also a challenge; without a standardized approach, decentralized ownership wasn’t feasible.

Data at the speed of the business with Fivetran, Snowflake, and dbt

To enable faster access to data — without compromising security or governance — Cisco rearchitected its data stack around 3 core technologies:

• Fivetran for automated data movement
• Snowflake for centralized, scalable storage and compute
• dbt for transformation and modeling

They started small with Salesforce and quickly expanded. “Now we’re using Fivetran to ingest data from over 50 SaaS systems, with just 1 person easily managing it all,” notes Virendra Singh, Director of Data Analytics Platforms at Cisco. “It’s truly seamless. We haven’t had to touch a single pipeline since.”

With Fivetran’s fully managed data platform, the team eliminated manual scripts, reduced the time to onboard new sources from weeks to hours, and gained more control over how data was delivered and secured.

By standardizing ingestion with Fivetran and consolidating data in Snowflake, Cisco created a trusted foundation for business intelligence, AI, and operational efficiency. The team unlocked:

• Faster time to insights: With real-time pipelines, data is ready for use across the business without engineering delays.
• Elimination of redundant work: A single source of truth in Snowflake eliminates duplication across teams.
• Enterprise-grade security: Fivetran supports Cisco’s security needs with features like row-level security, data masking, and role-based access.
• AI-ready infrastructure: Reliable, governed data feeds internal AI platforms like Cortex and Guided Enterprise Chat AI (CIRCUIT) — supporting Cisco’s next wave of innovation.

One of Cisco’s biggest wins wasn’t just technical; it was cultural. By centralizing data in Snowflake and standardizing ingestion with Fivetran, they made it possible for teams to own and explore data independently.

They launched an internal “data marketplace” that acts as a catalog of trusted data sets. Business users can now discover and use data without needing to know where it came from or how it was integrated. “A shared marketplace is what makes decentralization successful,” Singh said. “People can explore, find what they need, and work from the same foundation.”

Empowering AI innovation with fast, trusted, and secure data

Cisco is now exploring Fivetran’s Hybrid Deployment capability to bring on-prem data sources into the same framework — all while maintaining control and compliance.

“Our vision is simple: one unified platform for all data movement, from SaaS to on-prem. Fivetran gives us the scale, speed, and simplicity to make that possible, without ever compromising on control or compliance. It’s the backbone of our data strategy.”
— Virendra Singh, Director of Data Analytics Platforms at Cisco

As Cisco continues to advance its AI strategy, having a modern data infrastructure isn’t just a technical foundation — it’s a business enabler. And with partners like Fivetran and Snowflake, Cisco isn’t just building dashboards. They’re building a data ecosystem that supports AI, empowers teams, and scales with the business.

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