Muralikrishna (Murali) Gandluru is the Senior Vice President of Cisco's Data Center Networking Product Management organization. In this role Murali is responsible for leading the strategy to define and implement Cisco's Data Center Networking portfolio driving a $4B business. His focus is on providing customers and partners with leading-edge networking solutions that integrate AI/ML to reduce operational complexity and enhance the business value, security, and agility of data center operations.
Murali rejoined Cisco in 2024 after working at IBM Software, where he served as the vice president of product in the Hybrid Cloud Automation Group. His experience includes leading strategic acquisitions (NS1, Pliant, Volta, and others) and launching multiple SaaS products. He has also had experience leading community-led, open-source initiatives at the Linux Foundation Edge, such as Open Horizon and OpenBao (Vault fork).
Starting his career at Cisco in 2000, Murali has extensive experience across various product lines in engineering and product management, across Cisco 7000 and ASR series routers. He left Cisco to work for startup Insieme Networks and was re-joined with Cisco as the company was acquired, leading data center software product management for Cisco ACI/Nexus software.
From 2017 to 2021, Murali played a key role in the successful growth of startups like Arrcus and co-founded Duplocloud, delivering significant results for both companies and investors.
Outside of work, Murali enjoys spending time with his family, supporting the Liverpool Football Club, cheering for the Ohio State Buckeyes, and pursuing his hobbies of singing, playing the guitar, and hiking.
Data center networking has transformed dramatically with AI, and Cisco is at the forefront by creating flexible, scalable networks to enhance bandwidth, reduce latency, and improve energy efficiency. It’s our view that Cisco’s recognition in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Switching recognizes its innovative solutions in high-performance networking, simplified operations, security integration, and cloud management.
Cisco announces Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switches with embedded DPUs that integrate stateful services into the data center fabric at scale for greater simplicity, increased service throughput, and cost efficiency.
Powered by Cisco Silicon One G200 technology and capable of delivering high-density 800G fabrics, Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches are engineered to meet the demands of next-generation leaf-and-spine network designs for cloud architecture, high-performance computing (HPC), and large-scale AI/ML workloads. The Cisco Nexus 9364E-SG2 switches, in particular, introduce high-density 800G aggregation for data center fabrics, with support for numerous port speeds and densities, including 400, 200, and 100 Gbps.
Harnessing data is crucial for success in today's data-driven world, and the surge in AI/ML workloads is accelerating the need for data centers that can deliver it with operational simplicity and future sustainability.
