Cisco rides the second wave
by Valeria Camerino
valeria.camerino@iteuropa.com
Hawaii’s breathtaking scenery was the setting of
the 2008 Cisco partner Summit, which took place in
Honolulu last week. IT Europa was there to find out
what the giant networking vendor had to say to its
partner community and work out why it is predicting
a second wave of the Internet...
t the 2008 Cisco Partner Summit, one of the true giants of the As he explains, this will be possible through a transition to Cisco’s new
A
business welcomed the thousands of attendees and press with unified fabric: “Think about what VMware, a very strong partner of Cisco did.
a few big announcements, including how much money it wants We are doing to the data centre what VMware did to the server.”
them to earn for it. At the opening conference, Cisco VP Worldwide Channels The company believes that a unified fabric will dramatically change the
Edison Peres made it clear what the strategy will be focusing on for the next way IT organisations operate by simplifying cabling infrastructure, reducing the
twelve months: “We are going to rely on our partners more than ever before,” number of required adapters, lowering costs and their carbon footprint.
he declares, before setting an ambitious target for 2008: In order to build its data centre practice, the vendor has decided to
“We expect to double our profits in the next 12 months and increase them reinforce the relationship with its partner community by increasing their
to $14bn (€8.9bn) within the next five years.” support through a number of initiatives.
It seems apparent then, that partners will be paramount to achieve such Among them, there is the evolution of the Data Centre Networking
a challenging goal. Indeed, partner services revenue will account for $4bn Infrastructure (DCNI) Specialisation to DCNI 2.0 which recognises partners with
(€2.51bn) of those $14bn (€8.8bn). As the network becomes more relevant, one a highly qualified data centre practice, the Partner Practice Builder and the
fundamental point is to take into account a number of factors affecting data Data Centre Value Incentive Programme (VIP), running from August 2008 to
centre development, Peres points out. January 2009 for those holding a Cisco specialisation.
His words are supported by Doug Gourlay, senior director for Cisco Data “With a full portfolio of data centre solutions, channel programmes and
Centre Solutions, who mentions government regulations, business continuance, enhanced financial initiatives through Data Center VIP, we are helping to
cost efficiency and the “green issue” as the main ones. create extraordinary opportunities for our partners to accelerate their growth,
This is why, in his opinion, “consolidate, virtualise and automate” become differentiation and profitability”, Peres says.
paramount to increase efficiency and simplify global operations, as well as Additionally, language localisation will be implemented in order to allow
reduce overall power consumption. partners to access to Cisco’s offerings in local languages.
12 18 apr 2008
It0807 - 12-13_cisco.indd 12 2008-04-16 10:53
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