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…