Kyndryl Achieves Coveted Cisco Global Gold Integrator Certification: Exclusive

Kyndryl has nabbed the highest level of Cisco’s Integrator partner program status, making it only one of now six partners to wear the crown of Global Gold Integrator designation.

Kyndryl, one of the largest global solution providers, has achieved Cisco Global Gold Integrator status, the highest level available for partners and only held by five other companies.

The sought-after Global Gold status highlights Kyndryl’s ability to sell, deliver and support Cisco solutions worldwide, Jeff Gatz, director of Global Cisco Alliance at Kyndryl, told CRN.

“It’s important to us because it shows we have the experience and the expertise consistently globally, and we have the global scale. Our customers and Cisco, our cornerstone partner, can trust us to deliver solutions to market,” he said.

Kyndryl is joining a small pool of fellow Global Gold Integrator status holders, which include service providers NTT, IBM, BT and Orange Business Services, and solution provider Logicalis.

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The former managed infrastructure business that spun out of IBM in 2021 has become, essentially, one of the largest IT solution provider startups with about 90,000 employees and about $19 billion in revenue.

Kyndryl and Cisco in June revealed a partnership that brought together Cisco’s products and Kyndryl’s managed services prowess. The two companies are co-developing new private cloud services, network and edge computing solutions, software defined networking (SDN) solutions and multi-network WAN offerings with advanced security capabilities to target enterprise customers.

The new partner designation, which the firm achieved in just about nine months, builds on the existing partnership between the two companies already forged. Kyndryl and Cisco have a lot of overlap in their customer bases, Gatz said.

“This is really the continuation of that [partnership]. It’s part of that foundation for us in that it proves that we have the capabilities, that we participate in all the programs and that Cisco has a seat at the table with us as we look to enhance our business together evolve over time, as the industry demands that we do,” he said. “This was the next logical step that we had to take.”

To achieve Global Gold Integrator, Kyndryl had to earn individual certifications among its team, as well as country-specific specializations and advanced specializations across every Cisco technology area, and then going through the required global commerce and technical audit process by Cisco. Kyndryl holds more than 100 country-specific specializations and has nearly 8,000 Cisco-certified individuals.

The upleveled partner status will give Kyndryl Gold-level Cisco partner benefits and incentives and gives end customers access to Kyndryl’s resources and practitioners across all geographies supported by Cisco. The company will also be able to showcase Cisco Solutions to customers at Cisco Experience Centers across the Americas, EMEAR, and APJC, the two companies said.

Gatz said Kyndryl is now pursuing its Provider Gold designation.

“We’re excited about our expanding partnership with Kyndryl. They’re providing solutions across multiple technology pillars with a focus on network and edge, security and wireless and are investing with Cisco to build offers across the portfolio to benefit our customers,” Nick Holden, vice president of Cisco global strategic partners and co-sell, told CRN in an email.

The Cisco Partner Program, which was revamped in 2020, is centered on the four roles that partners are playing for customers: Integrator, Provider, Developer, and Advisor. Each role offers Cisco’s Gold, Premier and Select tiers.