Cisco Partner Summit: Six Questions for the Cisco Team

Cisco’s Managed Services Partner Program: Surinder Brar, how’s that going? You were part of the core team that overhauled Cisco’s managed services partner program a few years ago. Perhaps you’ve moved on to focus on new initiatives at Cisco. But as you look back on your MSP partner efforts, anything new to report?

Cisco Partner Program vs. Partner-Led Strategy: Sanjay Jindal, what’s the difference? Yes, we’re all familiar with the overall Cisco partner program. But please explain to me in a bit more detail how the partner-led effort fits into the bigger strategy.

Cisco Cloud Partner Program: Susheel Chitre, I know about the three components that make up the program (Cloud Resellers, Cloud Builders and Cloud Services Providers), and Edison Peres told our sister site Talkin’ Cloud the Cloud Builders piece is off to the fastest start. Is that what you’re seeing? Any other trends emerging from the program?

Cisco OnPlus: Andrew Sage, How deep is Cisco expecting to move into the managed services space with Cisco OnPlus, and how successful has this service offering been thus far?

Cisco UCS: I saw great things at the recent Avnet + Cisco Executive Symposium in February, but I want to know more. Is Cisco banking on its Unified Computing System to be the technology that puts Cisco again at the top of the networking heap? Anyone?

Everything Else: Cisco has its fingers in so many pies (albeit not as many as this time last year), I know I’m forgetting something. Clue me in.