New Leader Of Cisco Americas Channels Focuses On Software, Security

/**/ /**/

Cisco Vice President Rick Snyder plans to bolster partner business in the Americas around software and security, building on what he said is already a very strong program.

Three months ago Snyder took over the reins from Wendy Bahr, who became global channel chief. Snyder said Bahr left the program in great condition.

’At the time I inherited it, it was running well: "Twelve percent growth, very partner-centric business, over 80 percent of our business goes through channels,’ he said.

Snyder said the No. 1 priority right now is to continue the momentum behind that growth, but he named software and security as top considerations as well.

’Enabling Cisco ONE through our partners is absolutely key,’ he said.

’Security is an area we’ve focused on over the last three years, we’ve been investing over $5 billion and really making sure that customers are hearing our security story and that our partners are really optimized to deliver that story,’ Snyder added.

Snyder also addressed the recent Dell-EMC deal, which he said was no surprise to Cisco.

’As far as EMC, they’re a great partner with us,’ he said, citing VCE. He did not expect customer experience around VCE to change following the deal.

PUBLISHED OCT. 15, 2015