The AI opportunity for partners

There’s been lots of news announcements from Cisco in the AI sphere from Hypershield to the recent expansion of the partnership with NVIDIA announced just this week. One exciting update includes AI defence, and our partners will be at the front of this AI revolution for our customers. There are several ways in which we’ll be working to leverage this opportunity, together.

It’s especially important as 98% of companies feel increased urgency over the past year (according to the AI Readiness Index).

Enablement + education

Through enablement and education, our approach aims to equip partners with the necessary skills and tools to meet the growing demand for AI solutions, positioning them for success in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Cisco is investing in its new Cisco 360 Partner Program, which includes partner benefits, including all-access Cisco U subscriptions for skill development and certification. As well, this includes quarterly self-paced learning, hands-on labs, and continuing education credits, focusing on AI, security, and networking.

There has been the Introduction of AI-specific award categories in the annual Global Partner Innovation Challenge, with a $200K USD prize. As well, we have expanded training with advanced concepts to help partners develop more complex AI solutions; as well as specialised tools and early access to Cisco’s AI-based products.

New technologies: to fight machine scale attacks you need machine scale defence

By offering Cisco AI Defense, partners can position themselves as trusted advisors in AI security, helping customers innovate with confidence while addressing the complex security challenges of enterprise AI adoption.

Cisco AI Defense is uniquely integrated into the fabric of the network, leveraging Cisco’s extensive network visibility and control capabilities. This deep integration allows for comprehensive visibility across distributed cloud environments, enforcement of security policies at the network level and seamless integration with existing Cisco security products and infrastructure.

Unlike point solutions, AI Defense provides comprehensive security across the entire AI lifecycle helping with the development and deployment of AI applications, runtime protection for AI models in production and ongoing monitoring and validation of AI systems.

AI defence also provides advanced threat intelligence by integrating with Cisco Talos, one of the largest commercial threat intelligence teams globally. This, coupled with machine learning models powered and algorithmic security validation, provides a unique offering in market.

AI defence: in support of partners

Cisco Partners play a crucial role in helping customers build, operate, and secure their AI environments. Trust and security are significant concerns for the deployment of AI in enterprises, stemming from several key factors such as data vulnerability, lack of transparency, bias and discrimination, privacy concerns, operational risks, and regulatory compliance. Partners are essential in addressing these concerns and ensuring the responsible and secure deployment of AI technologies. Partners who excel in this area will not only influence the adoption of AI but also facilitate its acceleration.