Cisco's Trollope Leading The Way

Leading Cisco's Internet of Things and collaboration charge is Rowan Trollope, who partners say is breaking down innovation barriers with solutions such as Cisco Spark and strategic partnerships with companies including Apple and IBM.

"You'll see us do lots of partnerships in IoT because there's a brand-new stack that's emerging to basically enable IoT, and that new stack touches everybody -- it touches Microsoft, Cisco, GE, everyone," said Trollope in an interview with CRN.

As to the role of channel partners in IoT, all of the new technologies being developed mean that "you have to go vertical. … So channel partners become more important, not less."

Trollope, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's new IoT and Collaboration Technology Group, spoke with CRN about the future of IoT, building Cisco Spark and revolutionizing Cisco's collaboration organization. Following are excerpts of the conversation.