Cisco’s “Security Helps You Win: In the Network, Data Center, Workplace“ session was a highlight of the 2024 Cisco Partner Summit, held from October 28-30 in Los Angeles, California. With this year’s theme being, “Forward as One,” Cisco underscored its emphasis on collaboration and the power of working together with partners to drive shared success. In this exclusive session, key voices from Cisco leadership, including Scott Stout, Security Chief Revenue Officer; Brian Feeney, Vice President, Global Security Partner Sales; Tom Gillis, Senior Vice President and General Manager; and Mike Horn, SVP & GM of Splunk Security Products, shared their perspectives on how Cisco is delivering transformative innovations in security. These advancements driven by AI-native architectures, provide unmatched efficacy and autonomous management across firewalls, cloud environments, user protection, and breach mitigation. Their insights demonstrated Cisco’s dedication to helping partners unlock new opportunities and create meaningful customer impact.
The Growing Importance of Security
“The market is shifting,” said Stout during the session. “Customers are moving away from adding point solution after point solution and are instead looking for better efficacy, improved security outcomes, and simplicity. They’re also asking how they can start to bend the total cost of ownership curve down over time.” Cisco has determined that these three priorities – cost, simplicity, and outcomes – are the foundation of its strategy based on customer needs. Cisco is now positioning itself as a leader that can handle these changing needs by offering a platform-centric approach to security.
Partner Success Driven by Cisco’s Accomplishments
Cisco’s emphasis on collaborating with partners has delivered remarkable results. Partner-initiated deals, measured through deal registrations, increased by 19 percent over the past year, while security certifications among partners increased 188 percent. Cisco’s 16 percent year-over-year growth in the managed service area is reflective of the increasing importance of partner driven models. Cisco is dedicated to equipping partners with cutting-edge tools. This dedication is demonstrated with investments into innovative solutions like the Hypershield platform, Secure Access technologies, and advanced segmentation tools.
Platform-Based Security
“When I think about how Cisco’s security portfolio is benefiting clients right now, I could boil it down to one word, and it’s integrated,” said Robert Geis. This vision of integration is exemplified in Cisco’s integrated security platform, which is made up of three interconnected suites: the User Protection Suite, Cloud Protection, and User Protection. The goal of the User Protection Suite is to protect users across multiple environments. It includes secure access and Duo’s advanced authentication technology. The Cloud Protection Suite is designed to secure applications in both public and private clouds, while the Breach Protection Suite leverages Cisco XDR and Splunk analytics to deliver superior risk mitigation. This integrated approach streamlines the deployment and management of security while meeting customer needs.
The Intersection of AI and Identity Intelligence
To enhance its security offerings, Cisco is leveraging AI and continuous risk assessment. A notable feature is the ability to combine VPN and Zero Trust capabilities into a single client, offering customers seamless, secure access to applications. By adding identity intelligence tools, user activity can be continuously monitored allowing for proactive responses to potential threats. As Gillis explained, “With Cisco Identity Intelligence, we’re making a continuous risk assessment. We’re looking at the posture of your machine not just at the moment you connect, but all the time.” With this technology, unusual activity, like a user gaining access to sensitive systems from an unrecognized device, can be detected, triggering additional authentication to verify identity.
Growth and Profitability Opportunities
The goal of Cisco’s security solutions is to increase partner profitability. Cisco’s sales strategy revolves around customer assessments, which also identifies new opportunities, and generates $7,500 in incentives. As Feeney noted, “One area when working together collaboratively with our channel is simplicity—that’s important for you, for your sales team, for all of our partners. We’ve rolled out four specific security customer assessments, and upon your first deal registration, we’ll pay you $7,500. We’re paying your teams, your professional services teams, to go drive demand.” In addition to these incentives, some programs offer margins of up to 32 percent, further enhancing partner profitability through professional services support, competitive discount, and simplified deal registration process. These initiatives reflect Cisco’s commitment to empowering its partners to drive growth and seize market opportunities.
Driving Infrastructure Refresh
Cisco’s integrated approach encompasses infrastructure in addition to security. Cisco is supporting partners to take the lead in infrastructure refresh projects by combining security solutions and networking products. One noteworthy example is the introduction of DPU (Data Processing Unit)-based solutions, which incorporates security policies directly into hardware. “If you think about the peanut butter and jelly of XDR and enterprise security, it’s the fact that customers don’t have enterprise security visibility into that east-west data center traffic,” said Horn. Through these integrated, advanced solutions, customers will now find it easier to adopt and partners will have more opportunities to deliver value.
Cisco’s Path Forward
This session highlighted the importance of platform-based selling as a key driver for future success. While acknowledging the challenges of selling integrated solutions, Cisco emphasized the long-term rewards. Partners can extend customer engagement into comprehensive platform sales by starting with specific use cases, like secure access or segmentation, which will lead to better security outcomes and significant revenue growth. With this approach, Cisco’s integrated solutions are positioned as a strong foundation for success, allowing deals to scale from initial sales to multi-million-dollar opportunities.
With a focus on the three priorities for their strategy, Cisco is aiming for an ambitious 25 percent year-over-year growth in 2025. These pillars include capitalizing on opportunities within the security market, particularly in Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and data center segmentation; advancing platform-based security; and providing partners with the necessary tools and incentives to drive both value and profitability. Cisco’s future goals align with its dedication to platform-based selling, enabling partners to meet customer needs while achieving growth targets. As the security market evolves, Cisco is well positioned to lead the way. Gain more insight by watching the full session here.
