There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes in cloud. This makes it difficult to know how reliable a provider’s cloud is going to be. Many are best-effort implementations, meaning you only have the provider’s word for it that their cloud is reliable. These providers also often employ a white-box infrastructure so you don’t know what kind of equipment your data is running over or how well integrated that infrastructure is. You have no guarantees, not even an SLA. It’s your business on the line if the cloud goes down. That’s a lot for a cloud provider to ask when they promise, “Trust me.”
And therein lies the power behind Cisco Powered. The promise that a cloud provider who offers Cisco Powered services makes is not just words. It’s a promise with teeth. To use the Cisco Powered ingredient brand, providers must first go through a comprehensive certification process. Then, each and every one of their Cisco Powered services must pass a rigorous third-party audit.
This audit isn’t just a formality. Many of our partners have been surprised at how hard the audit is to pass. But it’s hard for a reason. There’s a lot that can go wrong in the cloud. A provider new to cloud may not be familiar with many of the pitfalls that await them. The audit is there to verify that the provider can and will deliver superior service, security, and support. And they only pass the audit when they are able to prove to a third-party that they can do this.
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Many of these same vendors are the ones who praise the audit once it’s completed. They see the value of making sure that they can deliver. They understand that because the audit is so comprehensive and difficult, they are able to immediately offer a level of service unparalleled in the industry.
The final facet of the reliability of Cisco Powered services is the fact that they run on Cisco equipment. You trust Cisco in your data center and the network. Now you can trust Cisco in the cloud. In addition, because your data and applications are running on Cisco architectures, you’ll know your data is safe with end-to-end security.
The promise of Cisco Powered is that you can connect with confidence. It isn’t a promise our partners make lightly. They’ve worked hard and made a substantial investment in time and money to prove that they can deliver.
There’s a reason Cisco Powered is the industry standard for cloud and managed services. It’s a promise that stands up to its name.
Learn more about the promise of Cisco Powered and the Partners offering these services
We’re proud of our Cisco Powered brand because it assures our partners and their customers that they’re running on a validated enterprise-class cloud. Becoming Cisco Powered was consistent with our approach to security and compliance. We sought certifications beyond the norm (1st in US to get Cloud Security Alliance Security Trust and Assurance Registry certification, AICPA SOC II Type 2 attestation for our cloud operations on top of our datacenter’s SOC II Type 2, and ISO/IEC 27001 certification). Being 100% channel, we leverage Cisco Powered and our other certifications to make it easy for our partners to sell cloud services to their customers.
Thanks Gerry, and it is great that Cirrity has not only Cisco’s endorsement but also industry certifications like AICPA SOC II etc. For more details on Cirrity check out: https://marketplace.cisco.com/cloud/companies/cirrity-llc
https://marketplace.cisco.com/cloud/companies/cirrity-llc
Great work @Xander – “There’s a reason Cisco Powered is the industry standard for cloud and managed services. It’s a promise that stands up to its name.” As you say, the work goes far beyond “Trust me”.
#WeAreCisco
The Cisco powered designation for our organization validates both the rigor and the best in class platform we provide our customers and partners. The program is a core part of our growth strategy and engine to ensure that there is great confidence in our offering and the Concerto experience.
We look forward to continuing to strive for excellence in this program….
@FreudenbergITde is CMSP since end of 2013. The preparation for the audit, which takes place once a year, is comparable with our ISO and ISAE certification. Especially the process audit is a huge challenge for companies which are not already process driven. I know companies which underestimate the process and documentation criterias and concentrate on the technical side only, it´s much more! But not only the content of the certification, also the fact that external auditors are driving the audit is a proof of neutrality and commitment. Our customers do understand very well where the difference in cloud services is. It´s a pity that the meaning of cloud is so big in the market, people are confused. All, check for the details you need to rely on. Cisco is about quality, and every Partner has to meet these quality criterias. “Fair Trade” from our point of view.
Thanks Denis. Truly appreciate your comment on “fair trade”. FIT has the Cisco Powered designation for SAP HANA which was achieved in record time and a testament to your pre-existing, strong process driven and technically competent environment. For more details on FIT check out: https://marketplace.cisco.com/cloud/companies/freudenberg-it-se-co-kg
Cisco’s CMSP channel program and audit sets a high standard to achieve and maintain. Although a very significant investment, for those partners who make this commitment to this challenge are rewarded with a world class brand and market recognition. Not all clouds are created equal – “what is under the hood matters” Cisco CMSP assures enterprise class people, process and technology
Thanks Kent, you are right on the mark as it relates to the Cisco Powered differentiation. Its so good to have a partner such as yours that can not only articulate that but can execute well against the principles also. Thanks for your continued support.
Well said Xander. Not only are we proud to have completed the stringent Cisco Powered audit, we understand that our channel partners and customers must also be able to pass industry and corporate audits. Companies looking to adopt cloud should ask their providers to show them – and I mean demo here – the transparency they offer. What are the native tools that will let them monitor, manage and report on everything from overall costs to detailed security? What support is offered? It means the difference between minutes and months of compliance work. Our director of cloud compliance says more here http://blog.iland.com/cloud/government-fisma-draas
Cameo Global has been a Cisco partner for a long time and we can safely say that no previous certification or audit matched the value and the return that a Cisco CMSP does for our internal processes and our customers piece of mind. It also made a huge difference in our ability to satisfy the important PCI and HIPPA certification
Thank you partners for your partnership and great feedback. To customers especially those who are looking for more security, service level agreements, availability, proven performance , audits and certifications are definitely a great value add that raises their level of comfort when considering services.
When I explain to customers why “What’s under the hood matters” they get it, by adopting certified services they understand they can get them a lot faster to meet the increasing demand of their line of business leaders, simply, it saves them evaluation and testing time as well as resources without compromising security, Data Sovereignty etc.
Well stated, Xander! I completely agree that the Cisco-powered audit process leads to a sort of virtuous cycle. It verifies excellent infrastructure and operational practices and because of this is a clear sign of service providers who can deliver the outcomes that our customers need. This process, as well as the PCI, HIPAA, SOC, ISO 27001 programs, is a way of life for us.
Thank you partners for your great feedback on CMSP and Cisco Powered! Thank you for adopting Cisco as the standard for your cloud and managed business. The 3rd party audits are focused to showcase / brand the best from partners. And reduce the customers’ risk, cost & time of adopting your Cisco Powered managed/cloud offers.
I collaborate hand-in-hand with partners that are going through the audit process to become CMSP/Cisco Powered. I’ve seen first hand, the great level of partner commitment from operations to engineering and marketing teams to collect all the information needed to successfully pass the audit. Once completed, CMSP partners shared that the pre-audit process actually uncovered processes that needed improvement, or revealed potential strengths that could easily be highlighted as a market differentiators.
All in all, the in-depth inspection of the cloud platform and underlying architecture as well as product delivery processes (marketing, billing, operations, etc) adds great value to the provider and confidence to the end customer. Cisco Powered is nothing but Enterprise Cloud solutions!
Finally, all the CMSP go-to-market benefits are just the next step in which Cisco supports/collaborates with providers that invested in becoming Cisco Powered. Great tangible benefits to accelerate time to market, ignite innovation, tap into Cisco’s partner ecosystem, and capture more market share..
No doubt, the Cisco Powered audits are rigorous. This type of accountability is ever so important as customers place their trust and confidence in cloud providers, like Quest, to deliver performance, security, and reliability. Bottom line, Cisco Powered = Enterprise-class cloud IT capabilities. Why should customers expect anything less from their cloud provider?
Absolutely, A promise that stands up to its name ! Our customers in China just love it after they rolled out the services enabled by Cisco Powered. It is very powerful to ensure the “SLA” a really promise to deliver.
We are asked by our customers to extend their appreciations to Cisco and Cisco Powered team. Great Job, Xander.
So much of the hype around cloud has been around public cloud. A standard, best-effort cloud with minimum SLAs fill an important market need, and have been adopted widely. However successful, this is only part of the picture. Customers also want options for private cloud solutions: dedicated, customized, highly reliable, high performance, secure clouds, with on- and off-premise options.
According to an independent study from IDC, 39% of annual IT budgets will be for implementations of private cloud solutions by 2017 (versus public cloud services at 18%). Spending on private cloud services overall are expected to grow at 35% per year – that’s twice as high as public cloud at 19%!
We’re seeing key players shift towards private cloud as a foundation of their IT strategy. However, they offer limited options for private cloud, usually offering only a single cloud provider. Cisco’s differentiation includes choice of service provider, along with choice of management platform and of storage partner. Cisco Powered offers customers “a world of many clouds” based on choice and integration, the kind of flexibility that is fundamental to a network-based approach.
Cisco Powered certification is a great certification. Having come from a Cisco Powered service provider and now working for a manufacturer I can see the power that this designation has when customers are looking for a service provider to choose for their DR and Cloud computing needs.
Great blog post Xander. I agree that there is a great opportunity ahead for Cisco Powered partners to serve our customer well. Particularly because of what they stand for and how Cisco stands behind them.
I am in particular excited about how they can extend the value of Cisco Spark. I am looking forward to seeing how they bring together their unique and differentiated capabilities (delivered from their clouds) with those from Spark (and the Cisco Collaboration Cloud). HCS partners in particular have made markets around specific UC, Mobility, and Contact Center services. Now with Spark Hybrid Services they can extend their ‘voice & video’ capabilities with messaging and meeting capabilities from Cisco Spark. …even more differentiated services for our customers
I strongly agree with Marcus Gallo was nice.