Strong Partners Make Strong Solutions

Authored by Tracy Geist, Head of Global Partner Strategy – Service Provider Video

It’s been 9 months since I joined Cisco to lead efforts around partner strategy for video.  Having spent more than 25 years in the world of digital television, pay-tv, and the evolution of video distribution and consumption, I understand the complexity of the ecosystem required to deliver solutions that work.  Even more so, it has always been clear to me that no one company can deliver an end-to-end solution without benefit of strong alignment with strategic partners.

The market is continuously changing.  Consumers have choice – often times an overwhelming amount of choice – of content, devices, and services.  Consequently the role of the video service provider is changing to adapt and deliver to this consumer demand.

Creating a winning platform in this market is complex. At Cisco, we are building the next generation cloud video platform, our Infinite Video Platform, that will enable service providers to more quickly adapt to changes in consumer behavior, deliver new and engaging features into the market, and realize the benefit of advancement in technology making IP video that is better than broadcast.

We are focused on what we do best – the core platform, the video aware network, IP expertise, digital transformation, and scale.  The future of video is certainly in the Network.  To compliment our areas of strength, we have identified technology areas that are not within our core competency and are prime for partnership – CPE hardware and middleware, advertising technology, content metadata, SMS/billing, and others.

Our partner philosophy is simple; be open and integrated, and form strategic alliances to create the best cloud video platform in the video market. To that end, we have identified best-of-breed partners for pre-integration into the Infinite Video Platform service, while also exposing APIs for others to integrate as needed.

Our strategy is purposeful and focused. We spend regularly schedule time with our partners to coordinate roadmaps, joint development, customer engagements, and ongoing support.

One prime example of Cisco’s partnership strategy in action is our relationship with Adobe in aligning our cloud video platform with the Adobe Experience Cloud architecture. Together, we are helping service providers and media companies around the world unify their video workflows to deliver a consistent playback experience for live, linear and on-demand content across all screens.

Through the Cisco-Adobe partnership, we can offer a scalable monetization solution, with integrated digital advertising insertion capabilities and advanced operational and viewer analytics. As a result, we are helping our customers extend their reach and drive incremental revenue.

To learn more about how our Infinite Video Platform partner strategy has produced a cloud-video platform built for winners, including Cisco-Adobe partnership, join us at IBC at stand 1.A71.