Connect. Secure. Manage.
AI Infrastructure Networking
Assess Cisco Ethernet networks for AI workloads, concentrating on traffic patterns, supported hardware, congestion behaviour and measurable acceptance criteria.
Devices supported
across the UK
Client locations
supported
Traffic handled
at peak time
Average
response time
Average response is not a resolution time or a contractual guarantee. Support scope and response commitments are agreed for each engagement.
AI infrastructure networking links the compute, storage and management systems used by an AI platform. A small service and a large training cluster may need very different networks. We assess Cisco Ethernet against the work you plan to run. That gives you a basis for choosing capacity, fabric design and traffic controls.
Workload-led design
Start with application, compute and storage dependencies rather than the switch model.
Clear failure domains
Understand which links, devices and sites can fail together.
Operational clarity
Make fabrics, external routing and management responsibilities supportable.
Separate the networks behind the application
An AI platform can contain several traffic patterns. Users reach an app through ordinary service networks. Compute nodes exchange data with storage. Distributed jobs may also exchange large amounts of information between accelerators, while administrators need a protected management path. Combining these needs into a single bandwidth estimate hides important design decisions.
We check which networks are shared and which need dedicated capacity or separation. The assessment records endpoint interfaces, traffic direction, expected concurrency and the consequences of a failed path. It also distinguishes the networking scope from model development, accelerator setup and storage administration, so each dependency has an accountable owner.
Standards & partnerships
Confidence in the team behind your network.
Cisco Partner
Cisco Meraki
Cyber Essentials
Cyber Essentials PlusMCI Network Services is operated by Proxar Ltd. Certifications apply to the certified legal entity and the scope of its certificates. View accreditation information
Work from representative workload evidence
A proposed cluster size does not prove the network need by itself. Job structure, dataset location, checkpoint activity and communication libraries influence how traffic arrives at the switches. A fabric that performs well for isolated transfers may behave differently when several jobs synchronise or write checkpoints together.
Our starting point is a workload description and, where available, measurements from a pilot. We ask the platform team to identify the slowest acceptable job completion or app response and the conditions under which that target matters. These measures are more useful than promising performance from a nominal interface speed alone.
A useful starting point
Not sure where to start?
Bring the requirement. We will help you define the engineering work.
Assess the Cisco platform and topology
We review the proposed switches, software, optics, endpoint adapters and physical layout as a supported combination. Port availability, forwarding resources, cabling distances and upgrade paths all affect the design. A high-speed interface on a product sheet does not prove that every required feature operates together on the chosen platform.
The topology should explain how capacity is distributed and what remains after a link or device fails. Oversubscription may be acceptable for one workload and unsuitable for another. We document the trade-off rather than automatically specifying a fully provisioned fabric or presenting a cheaper design as equivalent under all conditions.
Different environments. The same care.
Built around the work
your network supports.
Finance, banking and the wider private sector. We start with the systems and people that depend on your connections.
Finance & banking
Market-data paths, routing and provider coordination on clients’ behalf.
Financial-market services ↗Offices & multi-site teams
Reliable access between people, workplaces and business applications.
Office network design ↗Data centres & cloud
Network boundaries, workload connections and operational ownership.
Data centre networks ↗Treat congestion as a workload problem
Some rollouts use ordinary TCP; others require RDMA over Converged Ethernet, or RoCE. Those choices influence endpoint behaviour, queuing and the relevance of mechanisms such as priority flow control and clear congestion notification. They should not be enabled as a generic collection of performance options.
For Cisco RoCE network design, we coordinate the endpoint and network settings and test their interaction. The aim is controlled congestion behaviour for the agreed traffic, not an unsupported promise of a universally lossless network. Other apps sharing the fabric must remain observable and protected from unintended effects.
Keep management and security practical
The platform still needs identity, DNS, time services, monitoring and admin access. We map these dependencies separately from high-volume workload traffic. Access to switches, controllers and management interfaces should follow defined roles, with credentials protected and changes attributable to the responsible operator.
Tenant or app separation also needs evidence. Different VLANs or routing instances may help organise traffic, but approved communication must be enforced at the appropriate boundaries. Where infrastructure is shared between teams, we agree who can introduce a new job, alter an endpoint setup or change the network policy supporting it.
Validate the complete service
Acceptance combines physical checks, network measurements and representative workload tests. We examine errors, drops, queue behaviour, path usage and the ability of the app to complete its work. Testing one pair of endpoints is a useful starting point, not proof that the cluster behaves correctly at the intended concurrency.
Failure tests are agreed with the platform team and performed within safe limits. The record names the tested software and hardware, traffic conditions, results and unresolved constraints. This makes later comparisons meaningful when extra nodes, new workloads or different endpoint drivers change the operating conditions.
Plan an evidence-led engagement
MCI can provide a readiness assessment, a detailed design, rollout support or a focused performance investigation. The proposal states which systems we will configure and which tests require participation from compute, storage or app specialists. Procurement and licence fulfilment remain separate from the engineering assessment.
Our Cisco and Meraki network services support organisations throughout the UK. For an initial discussion, share the intended workload, current topology and expansion plans without sending credentials. A defined performance validation scope then gives the project a measurable finish rather than relying on the apparent health of individual switches.
Talk to a specialist
What does your network need next?
Tell us what you are planning, changing or trying to improve. We will help define a practical next step and the engineering scope.
+44 203 196 6566Choose option 1
sales@proxar.co.ukUK-wide service.
Most of our engineers are based in Kent, with a focus on London, Sussex, Essex and Berkshire.
Existing customers should use their agreed support and escalation channels. This form is for service enquiries, not a monitored emergency ticket.
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