Cisco Seeks 10,000 New Certified Partners in Small Business Push

Cisco has upped its focus on the small business space in recent years, disclosing plans in 2004 for a two-year $2 billion investment to boost the vendor's product portfolio, enhance its channel programs and build market awareness around its SMB offerings. Since then, Cisco has added more than 50 purpose-built products for the commercial market, which includes the small business and mid-market segments spanning 5 to 1,000 users.

It's an investment that's paying off. Commercial sales accounted for 24 percent of Cisco's roughly $7 billion in product sales last fiscal year and has been Cisco's fastest growing segment for seven of the past eight quarters, Cisco's Alexander said, adding that commercial sales for the first half of fiscal 2007 have grown 20 percent year over year.

"This is the beginning of a big push in the SMB and further down to make sure we have the right solution for the 'S' in SMB," Alexander said.