Cisco: Managed Service Program Coming In October
Cisco Systems plans to roll out a worldwide managed services program in October, according to Keith Goodwin, the company’s worldwide channel chief. Goodwin made the statement during a press briefing in Dublin, Ireland, today.
“The concept is to recognize the requirement to deliver a managed service rather than an on-premise solution,” said Goodwin. “For a managed service, it’s more about a network operation center, a service level agreement” rather than traditional reseller buying incentives.
Although Goodwin was short on details on the MSP program, but he clarified a few key points. The company does not plan to offer an MSP platform, nor does Cisco plan to compete with MSP platforms/services from companies like Autotask, ConnectWise, N-able, Kaseya and other platform providers. Also, Cisco has no plans to compete with the Symantec Protection Network, which is a platform that VARs can use to offer to SMBs.
So, what will Cisco’s Manged Service Program look like? Details are sketchy, but Goodwin hinted the offering will help VARs to better managed their network operation centers.
In a related software-as-a-service move, Cisco is rolling out some new initiatives related to its WebEx acquisition. WebEx will soon be offered through an agent model–“a completely different architectural model” for Cisco, according to Cisco VP Edison Peres. The goal, according to Peres, is for all of Cisco’s unified communications partners to have WebEx in their toolkit.
Interesting move by Cisco.
Dell has purchased SilverBack recently to offer their managed services plans, it’s not clear yet what exactly their plans are but it does look like, unlike Cisco, they are going to offer MSP tools/services…
Besides, another IT Services management tool that worth mentioning is the package we offer – Commit CRM ( http://www.CommitCRM.com ). It provides a complete management platform for computer related and IT services businesses.
I can’t help but wonder if Cisco will have a change of heart at some point and dive into managed security services, perhaps delivered through VARs. The company was very clear during a briefing earlier this week that it had no such plans. But it seems to me the MSP market needs order…
-jp
[…] will announce the MSP pricing program in October. Some of the early details about the program popped up on TechIQ on September 12. When pressed about the managed services strategy, Cisco executives said they had no plans to […]
[…] will announce the MSP pricing program in October. Some of the early details about the program popped up on TechIQ on September 12. When pressed about the managed services strategy, Cisco executives said they had no plans to […]
[…] I would expect Cisco to announce the strategy within a couple of weeks. Originally, I had expected an announcement in mid-October. But apparently, the announcement slipped a few […]