However, moving promising AI initiatives from initial pilots to enterprise-wide production requires more than adopting advanced software—it demands resilient infrastructure, robust governance, and integrated operations.
This strategic mandate took center stage at a recent industry forum titled "Thriving in the AI Era: Future-Proofing Your Data Center for What Comes Next."
Jointly organized by solutions provider Trends & Technologies Inc. and global technology leader Cisco, the event gathered public and private sector technology leaders to address the challenges of enterprise AI adoption.
"We understand the risks organizations face when deploying AI without the right foundation in place. Our focus has always been helping customers adopt emerging technologies with confidence—from modernizing data centers to strengthening cloud and cybersecurity environments and achieving measurable outcomes," said Trends Group Inc. COO Christine Fard.
Fard added that Trends leverages a two-decade partnership with Cisco to help organizations build resilient, AI-ready environments.
Foundations of a secure AI factory
To help enterprises build reliable "AI factories," Trends and Cisco highlighted six interconnected technology foundations required to run AI at scale:
Network: High-speed connectivity, switches, infrastructure processing units (IPUs), and transceivers to support data flow between GPUs, storage, and AI applications.
Compute: Scalable processing power—including CPUs, GPUs, AI accelerators, and specialized cooling—necessary for model training and inference.
Storage: High-performance, low-latency storage platforms built to deliver large datasets to GPU clusters while maintaining governance and retention protocols.
Security: Embedded software and hardware-enforced protections to prevent data exposure, safeguard strategic models, and maintain compliance.
Observability: System-wide monitoring capabilities that offer end-to-end visibility into data flows, workloads, and security postures to ensure operational resilience.
Software: Management and orchestration frameworks, MLOps tools, and development platforms that unify infrastructure into a cohesive AI ecosystem.
"As organizations begin their AI journey, many discover that moving from a successful pilot to a production-grade AI solution is far more challenging than expected," noted Trends’ technology management group manager James Jimeno.
He cited emerging security risks, network strain, and complex integration as common friction points for scaling organizations.
Building Organizational AI Readiness
Transitioning to an AI-driven enterprise also requires holistic organizational alignment. Jimeno emphasized that companies must evaluate their maturity across six key pillars: Strategy, infrastructure, data, governance, talent, and culture and change readiness.
"A scalable and successful AI factory is achieved by ensuring that your entire organization is prepared across these six pillars," Jimeno said. "Because the tech has already been created by Cisco and validated in design, it’s now a matter of knowing the right mix of network, compute, and security for any application. Trends brings the expertise to implement that mix effectively." —Ed: Corrie S. Narisma
