Cisco Partner Ecosystem

The Internet of Everything (IoE) is expected to create $19 trillion in value over the next 10 years. It’s also creating unprecedented opportunities for our partners to help customers unlock the massive potential this major market phenomenon is bringing to bear.

In order to help our partners seize these opportunities and embrace related market transitions like cloud, Cisco is announcing today, at Cisco Partner Summit 2014, the evolution of our partner program into the Cisco Partner Ecosystem. The Cisco Partner Ecosystem, which includes our existing channel program and our services program, is designed to attract a much broader set of partners, like Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), technology and Internet of Things partners as well as consulting firms.

These partners will provide solutions that address changing market conditions, enable flexible consumption models and help customers achieve desired business outcomes.

We intend to attract this vast array of “solution” partners, and potentially thousands of new solutions, through the new Cisco Solution Partner Program, a core tenant of the Cisco Partner Ecosystem. The Cisco Solution Partner Program has several components:

Giving Solution Partners and Their Solutions More Visibility: Cisco will attract solution partners by:

enabling them to develop a vast array of market leading solutions – spanning across Cisco hardware, software and services

giving them access to Cisco’s powerful world-class channel, comprised of 68,000 channel partners, where their solutions can be integrated and taken to market through the Cisco Marketplace (see below)

providing designations that enable differentiation in the market through go-to-market efforts with Cisco.

Enabling Channel Partners To Deliver Business Outcomes: Channel partners can use these new solutions to reach a broader set of customers and increase their relevance beyond IT. They can strengthen their role as trusted advisors with line of business and IT buyers who are deeply concerned about business outcomes. Channel partners can also capitalize on new market opportunities with horizontal/vertical solutions and services that can result in higher revenues and profits. And, they can deliver unique professional services for solution platforms that can enable further partner differentiation.

Connecting Solution and Channel Partners: Channel partners can easily connect with solution partners, and a rapidly growing set of solutions, in the Cisco Marketplace. Cisco Marketplace is the source for enterprise-class apps, products, solutions and services. Within the Marketplace Solutions Catalog, solutions can be searched for by technology or specific keywords.

As part of the Cisco Partner Ecosystem, we are also announcing the next-generation of the Cisco Channel Partner Program that will help partners evolve their business models to capture new opportunities with hybrid IT, have greater customer relevance and grow profitably. Specifically, we are announcing changes with Certifications, Specializations and Incentives. For more details, please read the latest blog from Edison Peres, SVP, Worldwide Channels.

In closing, I’d like to welcome all of our partners to Cisco Partner Summit 2014. The theme this year is “amazing together”, and I know we can do amazing things together that will enable our partners to have greater customer relevance, grow revenues and profits, and increase competitive differentiation. I look forward to seeing you this week in Las Vegas.

For Cisco Partners to learn more about the Ecosystem announcement, please access Partner Central. Partners can also get specific information relating to Solutions and Marketplace.  Authentication with a Cisco Partner login is required.