Twenty-six years ago, I walked into my first customer meeting as a Cisco field representative. The conversation was about routers, switches, bandwidth, and network uptime. Problems with clear solutions.
A few weeks ago in London, a CIO asked me something completely different: “How do I secure AI workloads across hybrid infrastructure? How do I prove ROI on generative AI to my board? And how do I move fast enough that competitors don’t eat my lunch?”
Generative AI went from science fiction to boardroom priority in 2023. Today, every executive conversation includes AI. Not as a future possibility, but as a present-tense imperative.
The numbers prove it: according to Omdia, the IT market is growing at 10.2% in 2026, the fastest pace in over a decade. Seventy-three percent of customers are increasing IT budgets. Infrastructure spending is up 29%.
Companies aren’t asking if they should invest in AI. They’re asking how fast and who can we trust.
Meeting these needs requires expert partners who can deliver secure AI infrastructure, drive software adoption, and prove measurable outcomes. It requires agility and velocity from both Cisco and our partners.
Today, the Cisco 360 Partner Program is live. It’s a fundamental shift in how we recognize capabilities, reward performance, and enable partners to deliver business outcomes that our customers are looking for.
Built on Partnership
Cisco’s success has always been built on partnership. Roughly 90% of our revenue flows with and through partners. Our customers count on that.
But the market demanded we rethink everything. Partners told us our multiple legacy incentive programs were complex, at times unpredictable, and rewarded the wrong things. They were spending more time navigating Cisco’s programs than solving customer problems.
So we reinvented the way we partner to adapt to the era of AI and the agility and speed that comes with it.
We co-designed this program with our partners to help them differentiate themselves and scale with confidence. And we made it easier for our customers to find the right partner for their needs across key Cisco portfolios like Security, Networking, Collaboration, Services, Splunk, Cloud and AI Infrastructure.
The Cisco 360 Partner Program incentivizes partners on total contract value: predictably, quarterly, from the first dollar. And it rewards what creates durable customer value: software adoption, managed services, renewals, and lifecycle engagement.
More importantly, it recognizes not all partnerships are created equal. Partners who can adapt quickly to customer needs, deploy reliably at speed, and prove value continuously will find success in this new program.
Trust, Earned Daily
The Cisco 360 Partner Program is a commitment that when customers work with our partner ecosystem, they’re working with proven expertise, demonstrated performance, and a commitment to their success.
Every day we ask ourselves: 1) Did we move a deal forward? 2) Did we make our partners profitable? If the Cisco 360 Partner Program isn’t helping partners move deals and become more profitable, we’ll fix it.
We’ll keep listening. As the market evolves, we’ll evolve with our partners. We’ll measure ourselves by partner success. Not by how many partners we have, but by how many are helping our customers and building durable businesses.
Take Action
To our customers: the Cisco 360 Partner Program makes it easier to identify partners with the capabilities you need. Our new Partner Locator, launching today, gives you transparency into partner expertise like never before. No matter what industry you’re in, this is a crucial moment to rethink how to create value and find efficiencies in your business. We’re committed to working alongside our partners so that choosing Cisco is the best decision you ever made.
To our partners: You challenged us to be better. You co-designed this program. The Cisco 360 Partner Program rewards your investment in capabilities, performance, and customer success. Now let’s prove what’s possible when we move at the same speed.
The market is moving. The opportunity is unprecedented. Let’s lead the way in the new era of AI.
The Cisco 360 Partner Program is live. Let’s show what this ecosystem can do.
