Cisco announced the new Cisco 360 Partner Program designed to accelerate the value partners bring to customers by better addressing their rapidly evolving and complex needs — modernizing infrastructure, powering AI workloads anywhere, and keeping customers' organizations secure, resilient, and high-performing.
Developed in collaboration with partners and customers, Cisco will guide them through a 15-month transition period leading up to the program's launch in February 2026.
The new program reflects a strategic shift in how Cisco and its partners create and deliver value for their customers in today's fast-paced, competitive market. The program will redefine what it means to be a successful Cisco partner measuring value over transactions: how partners serve the needs and ambitions of their customers while harnessing the collective strength of Cisco's partner ecosystem in ways that drives growth. The program will elevate partners' stature with customers and upgrade the partner experience with simplified processes and new ways to plan and track performance.
Cisco announces the first of its tangible enhancements to the partner experience with a $80 million investment into new partner initiatives to boost skills and provide the tools needed to compete in the market. $60 million of that investment will support qualified partners with benefits including all-access Cisco U. subscriptions for skill development and certification. An additional $20 million will fund quarterly training events for all partners, focusing on AI, security, and networking through self-paced learning, hands-on labs, and continuing education credits.
"Today, it's about helping customers unlock the power of technology to achieve their business outcomes. That's the foundation of the Cisco 360 Partner Program. Whether through lifecycle practices, technical capabilities, or managed services, partners can drive profitable growth with our new value-based program. With a 15-month transition, partners have time to prepare and maximize their potential in Cisco 360 Partner Program," said Rodney Clark, Senior Vice President of Partnerships and Small and Medium Business at Cisco.
Cisco 360 Partner Program will include:
- Redefining Partner Value: a simplified framework that recognizes the diverse ways partners add value to customers. This approach will measure the value partners deliver within specific portfolios or across multiple portfolios, rewarding partners on how their business model supports lifecycle and managed services, skills investment, customer base expansion, and engagement across the customer journey and partner ecosystem. Qualified partners will gain access to a broad range of benefits like the Cisco Partner Incentive and other non-financial benefits.
- Elevating Partner Stature: to simplify and improve our partners' value proposition and awareness with customers, Cisco is moving to two designations: Cisco Partner and Cisco Preferred Partner. Partners can earn these designations for each portfolio, such as Security or Networking, giving partners the ability to be recognized and market themselves as a Cisco Preferred Security Partner or a Cisco Preferred Networking Partner.
- Future of Specializations: Cisco will continue to help partners differentiate their market position by developing deep expertise in specific or across multiple portfolios. The new program will continue to shift from traditional Architecture Specializations to Solution-Based Specializations, and ultimately to next generation specializations that will be accessible to Preferred Partners only.
Cisco also announced its first specialization focused on AI—the Cisco AI-Ready Infrastructure Solution Specialization—to position partners as experts in delivering AI-ready infrastructure, security, and observability solutions and services to customers throughout their AI adoption journey.
The Cisco 360 Partner Program will fully transition in February 2026. The rollout will be gradual, with new elements introduced and piloted to keep partners and distributors informed and supported throughout the process. Current levels, roles, and lifecycle practice investments will be recognized until the program is fully implemented, ensuring partner investments are protected.
The Latest
In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ...
In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...
In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...
In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...
In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...
From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...
Today, organizations are generating and processing more data than ever before. From training AI models to running complex analytics, massive datasets have become the backbone of innovation. However, as businesses embrace the cloud for its scalability and flexibility, a new challenge arises: managing the soaring costs of storing and processing this data ...
Despite the frustrations, every engineer we spoke with ultimately affirmed the value and power of OpenTelemetry. The "sucks" moments are often the flip side of its greatest strengths ... Part 2 of this blog covers the powerful advantages and breakthroughs — the "OTel Rocks" moments ...
OpenTelemetry (OTel) arrived with a grand promise: a unified, vendor-neutral standard for observability data (traces, metrics, logs) that would free engineers from vendor lock-in and provide deeper insights into complex systems ... No powerful technology comes without its challenges, and OpenTelemetry is no exception. The engineers we spoke with were frank about the friction points they've encountered ...
Enterprises are turning to AI-powered software platforms to make IT management more intelligent and ensure their systems and technology meet business needs for efficiency, lowers costs and innovation, according to new research from Information Services Group ...