Notre Dame’s network refresh shows the AI era starts with paying down technical debt

Every organization I talk to wants to be “AI-ready,” but few want to discuss what that entails. It’s rarely a new model or agent. More often, it’s the unglamorous work of ripping out a decade’s worth of infrastructure debt so the network can deliver the bandwidth, consistency and data that artificial intelligence depends on. That’s the real story behind the recently announced multiyear partnership between Cisco Systems Inc. and Notre Dame Athletics. The more interesting part is what the University of Notre Dame’s information technology team already accomplished: It replaced 955 switches across roughly 170 buildings in about five months, all while the campus never went offline. Notre Dame has standardized its wired campus with Cisco Catalyst 9300X multigigabit switches, managed via Cisco Catalyst Center with zero-touch provisioning. The deal also includes Cisco Professional…