Cisco Hosts Partners in Boston

UCS Channel Program | Managed Services | Financial | TelePresence | VIP

Cisco Systems hosted its annual Worldwide Partner Summit during the first week of June. Approximately 1,400 partners attended the three day event in Boston to get a first hand view of forthcoming changes to the channel program as well as other major strategic adjustments. In the aftermath of the company's Unified Computing System (UCS) announcement, there were plenty of questions and concerns floating among the attendees, especially since Cisco's push into the server market lands it squarely at-odds with HP, a former technology ally of Cisco.

"Expect us to get a little bit edgier about the competition," warned executive vice president Rob Lloyd. "We've been taking too many punches in the competitive landscape and not punching back. We'll help you with the proposition on why we're better than Procurve" [the networking division of HP].

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On The Other Hand

Presence vs. Telepresence
By: Ken Presti

While this year's Cisco Partner summit had no shortage of news and information, I was probably most intrigued by increased channel involvement in Telepresence; a leading indicator that this way-cool technology is at least approaching the chasm. But my questions went beyond the ability to conduct life-like meetings from multiple locations worldwide, and beyond the implications to the channel partners and the incentives and programs that support them. Because the thing I really want to know is how much business life as we know it today will change, pending widespread deployment of these systems.

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