Cisco 360 Launches: 5 Things To Know

The long-awaited, fully reimagined Cisco 360 Partner Program is live. Here’s what Cisco partners need to know.

The launch is official: the Cisco 360 Partner Program, a next‑generation partner framework built in collaboration with Cisco’s global ecosystem, is now live.

Designed for the AI era, the program brings simplicity, incentives, and easier ways for customers to find the right expertise across security, networking, collaboration, services, Splunk, cloud, and AI infrastructure. Cisco 360 comes complete with updated partner designations, an enhanced Partner Locator tool, and a focus on AI‑ready data centers, future‑proofed workplaces, and digital resilience to help partners deliver impressive and predictable customer outcomes, according to the San Jose, Calif.-based company.

Cisco first unveiled the new program in October 2024, a full 15 months ahead of Cisco 360 going into effect. In the meantime, Cisco’s channel executives spent “thousands” of hours collecting feedback from partners on the new program, channel executives told CRN ahead of Cisco 360’s launch.

Partners are gaining access to new resources and features, including Partner Value Indexes and an upgraded Cisco AI Assistant within the Partner Experience Platform. The program will help partners differentiate, grow their practices, and showcase proven technical and lifecycle expertise. Cisco says that its new program strengthens an already world‑class ecosystem by rewarding value creation and aligning partner capabilities with the accelerating demand for AI‑native solutions.

Check out the finer details of Cisco 360 and read more about the launch of the new program here.

The Partner Value Index

Cisco 360 is boiling down the previously complex program structure with the Partner Value Index (PVI) as its main measurement framework. Partners will receive a PVI measurement or score in each of the core architectures that Cisco has identified: security, networking, collaboration, services, Splunk, cloud, and AI infrastructure.

Soon to be added to the PVI will be dedicated indexes for Developers/Advisors, Distributors, and Mass Scale Infrastructure. These indexes will come along with tailored learning paths and opportunities for these different types of partners to boost value and profitability, Cisco said.

The Cisco Partner Incentive

One of the headlines of Cisco 360 is simplicity. The new program will eliminate the once separate partner programs and incentives such as VIP—the company’s flagship rebate incentive program—Perform Plus and the Cisco Services Partner Program, or CSPP. These will instead be folded into a single structure, the Cisco Partner Incentive, or CPI, which will measure partners across four areas: foundational, capabilities, performance, and engagement.

Now live, the CPI will simplify past program elements while offering partners clearer, more predictable earnings across Cisco’s portfolio. The CPI structure will help partners plan for growth by aligning forecasts and strategies with Cisco’s roadmap, according to the company.

No More Cisco Gold

A significant and originally controversial decision, according to partners, was that Cisco 360 would see the elimination of the illustrious Cisco Gold partner designation, an identification that partners would tout because it signified the highest level of technical expertise.

In its place within the new program are two new designations: Cisco Portfolio Partner and Cisco Preferred Partner. Cisco partners are able to earn these designations for each technology portfolio. Additionally, Cisco Preferred partners will be eligible to earn two new specializations, Secure AI Infrastructure and Secure Networking, according to Cisco.

New Resources and Tools

Cisco doesn’t just want to help its partners pursue AI opportunities. The company also is arming the channel with AI-powered tools to make their jobs easier and help them differentiate their businesses.

First up is an enhanced Cisco AI Assistant. According to Cisco, this “more intuitive” Assistant for the Partner Experience Platform (PXP) will help partners work smarter and focus on delivering value to customers.

Announced alongside the program is the new Cisco Partner Locator tool that will let customers search across the various Cisco portfolios, such as security, networking, or Splunk, to identify the right partner for their job, according to Cisco.

“With our partners, we’ve strengthened what is already a world-class ecosystem to deliver even greater value and help our mutual customers connect, protect and thrive,” Tim Coogan, Cisco’s senior vice president of global partner sales, said in a statement.

Revealed in November was the long-awaited Cisco Partner Incentive Estimator, which offers a way for partners to model their earnings. Cisco said that partners can use the Estimator to unlock two additional bonuses—the Cross Sell Bonus, which rewards portfolio breadth, and a Next Generation Specialization Bonus, which rewards deep expertise or greater value and predictable growth.

Why Now?

Cisco hasn’t been shy about the mission that’s driving the need for a reimagined partner program. Cisco 360 was built to attract more MSPs in the age of AI with a focus on the value partners bring over transactions. The revamp represents a marked break from the biggest payouts going to partners landing large, capex infrastructure deals.

The new program aims to strike a balance between rewarding partners that want to build businesses across the company’s entire portfolio and “boutique” partners that specialize in one specific area, Cisco’s CEO Chuck Robbins (pictured) told CRN in a recent interview.

“You’ve got partners who are going to roll across the portfolio, [and] you have partners who are going to go deep with [something like] security, for example, and the program has to recognize both of those are valuable without creating conflict,” he said. “That’s part of the magic of what [Cisco’s channel leadership team is] trying to accomplish.”

The program redesign also comes approximately seven months after Cisco’s closest networking competitor, HPE, closed its $14 billion acquisition of fellow networking leader Juniper Networks. The megamerger is being seen as a strategic move to strengthen HPE’s competitive stance against networking giant Cisco, especially given the addition of Juniper’s AI-native Mist management platform into HPE’s portfolio.

Robbins called out AI as the biggest IT opportunity in his career and possibly of his lifetime. His wish is for partners to understand the monumental opportunity—and responsibility—in front of them to create a new vision for their customers, all with the help of Cisco and its freshly revamped partner program.