Cisco Bets Big on India as a Key Growth Market: Splunk Adoption, Cybersecurity Push, and Agentic AI Strategy
India is rapidly becoming a focal point for global technology companies, and Cisco is making sure it stays ahead of the curve. Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s President and Chief Product Officer, underscored the company’s commitment to India while speaking at Splunk’s annual conference in Boston, Massachusetts. Patel made it clear that India is not just another market—it is among the company’s top growth priorities.
“Looking at India, given its growth and development, it’s natural that the country faces cybersecurity risks like every other nation,” Patel said, pointing to the dual challenge of scaling digital infrastructure while tackling security threats. “The kinds of problems we are solving in security, connectivity, and observability, along with the shift to AI, align well with what India needs to do economically.”
This synergy between India’s digital ambitions and Cisco’s expertise is the driving force behind its push to expand the adoption of Splunk, the $28 billion data analytics and observability company Cisco acquired in 2023.
Splunk’s Untapped Potential in India
Patel highlighted that while Splunk is a globally recognized brand in data management and observability, its penetration in India remains limited. That is where Cisco sees an immediate opportunity.
“I would say that India is one of our top growth markets, and we believe that will continue. Now, where the opportunity for Splunk lies is that it hasn’t been very well penetrated in India and they didn’t have the distribution and go-to-market presence. That’s where we can really help, because we happen to have a pretty large footprint in India. We will participate quite heavily,” Patel told reporters at the roundtable.
Cisco’s extensive distribution channels, strong corporate relationships, and established market presence in India give Splunk the kind of platform it never had before. This makes India a natural testing ground for what Patel described as the “fruits of Cisco’s acquisition strategy” starting to take shape.
Cybersecurity at the Heart of Cisco’s Indian Strategy
The rapid pace of digitization in India—ranging from fintech and healthcare to e-commerce and public infrastructure—has created new vulnerabilities to cyberattacks. Cisco sees this as both a challenge and an opportunity.
“Whenever there’s a lot of development, you are going to have exposures to cyber threats,” Patel said. “I think India is going to have exposures to that front and we believe we can help.”
With cybersecurity threats escalating globally, Cisco and Splunk together are offering enterprises the ability to manage, monitor, and protect critical data systems at scale. By combining Cisco’s traditional strengths in network security—such as firewalls and secure access systems—with Splunk’s expertise in security operations and observability, the company aims to provide end-to-end solutions that match India’s growing needs.
From Networking Hardware to AI-Driven Services
San Jose–headquartered Cisco has long been known as the world’s leading supplier of networking hardware. Its routers and switches are the backbone of internet infrastructure across the globe. But in recent years, the company has actively diversified into software and services.
That transformation accelerated with the acquisition of Splunk, which specializes in data management, analytics, and observability tools. For Cisco, Splunk provides not just a new product line but also a gateway into AI-driven services.
Patel explained that Cisco and Splunk are now working together to address the infrastructure, data, and trust gaps that have slowed down the adoption of advanced AI technologies, particularly agentic AI.
Agentic AI: The Next Frontier
One of the most discussed themes at the Boston event was agentic AI—a concept that envisions AI systems acting as proactive, decision-making agents rather than just passive tools. Cisco and Splunk showcased how their combined technologies will enable enterprises to leverage agentic AI for IT operations and security management.
On stage, executives demonstrated the integration of Cisco AI Canvas, a system unveiled earlier this year at Cisco Live, with the Splunk Cloud Platform. This integration allows businesses to use AI-driven decision-making within their IT systems, improving efficiency and resilience.
Another development announced at the event was that Splunk customers can now ingest security data from Cisco’s firewall systems at no additional cost, highlighting the growing synergy between the two companies.
Complementary Sales Models
Despite the integration, Patel stressed that Cisco and Splunk would continue to operate with distinct sales approaches.
“Cisco’s buying center tends to be focused on network security—think firewalls and secure access. Splunk’s buying center, on the other hand, is typically more aligned with the SOC analysts. While both of us sell to the CISOs, the buying motions are distinctly different. Sometimes we might sell the network security component as a feature of the network, while Splunk might approach the CISOs directly. So, there will continue to be separate buying motions, and I don’t see that changing much,” he explained.
This approach allows Cisco to leverage Splunk’s strengths without diluting its own core identity, while still offering complementary solutions to enterprise clients.
The Asia Pacific Playbook
While much of Cisco’s global focus is on North America and Europe, Patel emphasized that the Asia Pacific region is key to Splunk’s future growth. According to him, one of the primary reasons behind the acquisition was Splunk’s relative underperformance in markets like India and Southeast Asia, where Cisco already has a strong presence.
“We have massive distribution in certain areas and geographies where Splunk had actually either underinvested or not prioritised at all. That was one of the key reasons behind the acquisition. And now, what you are starting to see are the fruits of that strategy beginning to come together,” Patel said.
Professional Closing
Cisco’s $28 billion bet on Splunk is beginning to show its strategic intent: combine Cisco’s networking dominance with Splunk’s data expertise and AI potential to create a new era of integrated IT and security solutions. India, with its rapid digital transformation, rising cybersecurity needs, and growing IT investments, is at the center of this strategy.
As Patel made clear, India is not just a growth market—it is a proving ground for Cisco’s broader global ambitions. With Splunk adoption on the rise, agentic AI integration underway, and cybersecurity challenges mounting, Cisco’s ability to deliver value in India could well define the next chapter of its transformation into a software-and-services powerhouse.
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