Cisco increases channel IoT programmes

One of the main themes coming out of the Cisco Live Europe event is the push by the vendor to take a dominant position in the IoT market as a source of products, developer tools and with a network of specialised partners.

To get the last in place Cisco has indicated that it will be building a global force of partners that have gone through training and specialisation programmes.

The vendor is looking to get resellers, ISVs, machine builders and service providers signed up to its IoT programme with Cisco pointing out that those with certifications get the highest visibility across its own sales teams as well as with customers.

“In IoT, the conversation is about business outcomes. It starts with secure connectivity as the foundation of every IoT deployment. By providing scale, flexibility and security, we’re turning the network into a secret weapon for our IoT customers,” said Liz Centoni, senior vice president and general manager, IoT at Cisco.

As well as the IoT channel programmes the firm is also adding developer tools to its DevNet programme to ensure that ISVs can get access to a range of materials that should make producing a solution easier.

"With a new DevNet IoT developer center, we’re empowering thousands of partners and developers around the world to build upon our IoT platform," added Centoni.

There are also products for the channel to get behind with Cisco using the Barcelona event to launch switches and routers that have been built for IoT environments. There have also been efforts to make it simpler for partners to hit the ground running with validated designs for the utilities, manufacturing and remote and mobile assets.

The other main set of announcements from Cisco Live was around the steps that the firm has taken to ensure it is a gateway to numerous customer cloud options. The integration with AWS and Azure has deepened, HyperFlex is going into branch offices and remote locations and there have been enhancements to the CloudCenter to help those users in a multi-cloud environment.

The firm has also issued a single enterprise agreement to make it easier for customers to manage their technology across the data centre architecture.

“Enterprises should be able to deploy applications based on the needs of their business, not the limitations of their technology,” said Roland Acra, senior vice president and general manager, Data Center Business Group, Cisco.

“Customers want to deploy applications and manage data across a range of diverse platforms, from on-premises to cloud-based. That is why we are taking the ‘center’ out of the data center. Today, Cisco is helping our customers expand their reach into every cloud, every data center, and every branch,” he added.