4 Ways Cisco Partners Are Navigating Brutal Supply Chain Delays

Supply chain issues are the elephant in the room that IT departments and the partners that service them can’t afford to ignore.

Last week’s Cisco Live conference in Las Vegas brought together customers and partners of the networking giant. The company unveiled multiple integrations to its portfolio, including cloud management of its Catalyst switches on the Meraki cloud portal. The company’s executives also spoke about their vision for hybrid work and their goal of delivering their products in whatever form their customers want.

Yet the topic of supply chain issues loomed large for attendees, and it was particularly felt in conversations with partners.

Matt Ogden is the chief technology officer for Illinois-based MNJ Technologies, a partner that has evolved from a pure-VAR to adding managed services. The company generates about $50 million dollars with Cisco annually, and Ogden said the partnership is growing.

Joe Berger is the senior director of World Wide Technology’s (WWT) digital workspace practice. WWT drives between $5 billion and $6 billion annually with Cisco, making it one of the vendor’s largest partners.

Berger and Ogden spoke to Channel Futures about how their experience partnering with Cisco has evolved, especially over the last year. They touched on the evolution of Cisco’s portfolio, particularly around its Meraki and SASE offerings.

Scroll through the slideshow above to see 10 observations from partners about supply chain issues as well as the evolution of the Cisco portfolio.