This meter represents your reputation at a 100% scale based on your level of participation on the site. Find out more
Comments Off
As 2011 comes to a close, what do you think 2012 will bring? We predict it will be the Year of the Cloud!
In this last episode of Partner Update for 2011, Andrew attempts to communicate with the entire CloudVerse, until he learns what it actually is (a set of cloud capabilities that helps our partners build public, private, and hybrid clouds for customers).
What else made the news over the past couple of weeks? We crowned two partners winners of the 25 Words contest for their witty entries, look closely at how Cisco partners are helping to build a fast and secure network to help customer Doss Aviation power fighter jets, learn best practices around Smart Care Services and building better customer relationships, find out how OnPlus can help partners diagnose and fix network issues from virtually anywhere on any device, a services cheat sheet to help build relationships and increase profits, and more.
Tune in and watch our latest newscast covering the top Cisco partner headlines, as always, in under 5 minutes.
Keep reading for links to the top headlines, time stamps so you can find each news item within the video, and more details on each of the stories we covered.
It seems like you can’t open an IT magazine these days without being bombarded by cloud, cloud, cloud. Going to tradeshows you see traditional vendors that have taken their existing solution packages and rebranded them as cloud. For Cisco partners and customers this can be confusing; especially since cloud comes in so many types/flavors: IaaS, SaaS, PaaS, and however people are positioning themselves. When I think of cloud I think it fundamentally boils down to an industrialization/simplification of IT. You focus and clearly define what you as a solution provider are providing, and by doing so, drive out the cost. Look at MS office for email etc. has literally thousands of options or ways to use it, but has a high cost/user/month. Gmail limits those options and by offering it free to everyone, it costs Google an ever decreasing fraction of a dollar/month. The economics are compelling. Customers like economics in their favor and partners get excited when customers want to make a transition.
On Dec 6th Cisco announced CloudVerse – an integrated set of capabilities combining Unified Data Center with Cloud Intelligent Network to deliver Cloud Applications and Services. The beauty of this position is that we aren’t telling our partners, “Thanks, we’ll take it from here!” We’re looking to them to offer this integrated Cisco vision to their customers.
“We’re putting our partners in the position to offer CloudVerse as a portfolio and new cloud capabilities.” As Ralph Nimmergood, VP of WW Channels at Cisco, stated in a CRN article published last week.
Partners are key to our cloud strategy and we’re excited to be on this journey with them.
This meter represents your reputation at a 100% scale based on your level of participation on the site. Find out more
Comments Off
Last week, we held a TweetChat with Cisco’s new Global Partner Marketing VP Amanda Jobbins.
During the hour-long Twitter session, we covered a lot of ground--Amanda’s Partner Marketing priorities, new campaigns for partners, what she heard on her listening tour with partners, and ways that Cisco is helping partners use social media.
We also learned some interesting factoids about Amanda and how she’s adjusting to life in the United States after living in the U.K.
If you missed the chat, we’ve got a recap of what was discussed, including Amanda’s answers to some great audience questions. This is the first of many discussions Amanda plans to have with partners and wants to continue the dialog to ensure that marketing programs reflect what partners need. You can send along questions and comments to her directly @amandajobbins.
We started the chat off with a few interview questions for Amanda to warm up, then answered audience questions:
Q1: What are your key priorities for Cisco Partner Marketing?
@amandajobbins: I have 5 goals: brand/value, online/social communities, marketing enablement, demand marketing, & ecosystem.
Two additional driving principles: communications & partner insight.
Q2: Cloud is the word on everyone’s lips…how are you helping partners market cloud? Read More »
During the broadcast, he offered an overview of how services are a key differentiator for Cisco partners, and he explained how services can drive partner profitability. Here’s a replay in case you missed it.
Cisco’s services strategy places the partner at the center, according to Bob, because partners are critical to Cisco’s go-to market strategy, whether a partner is selling professional services, managed services, or technical services.
In terms of sales, it used to be that products generated far more revenue for partners than services. Five years ago, 80% of partners’ business was product-based, and 20% was generated by services. Now, partners’ business is almost split evenly between product and services. Bob then told viewers that services help an end-customer see how technology can really generate business outcomes.
Want to learn more? In addition to the video replay above, we’ve got a text summary of the broadcast, along with time stamps to identify sections in which Bob addresses key topics, such as market opportunities around architectures, success stories, and how Cisco’s services are different from those competitors offer.
It’s Friday now (in much of the world) and while we may not have a catchy tune to go with this blog post, we do have a catchy video for you to watch before you head off to enjoy the weekend. So pull up a chair and watch the latest from the TalkinCloud site.
The video captures Cisco CEO John Chambers and Cisco Executive VP Rob Lloyd talking frankly about Cisco’s cloud computing strategy and Cloud Partner Program.
