Cisco has unveiled a broad set of enhancements across its partner program, customer experience portfolio, and technology offerings, reinforcing its commitment to helping partners capitalize on the next wave of global connectivity and AI-driven growth.
The company announced expanded incentives within the Cisco 360 Partner Program, the general availability of Cisco IQ for Partners, and continued innovation in Cisco Cloud Control, creating a unified framework that enables partners, IT teams, and AI agents to securely connect, protect, and operate critical infrastructure in the AI era.
“Our partners are where Cisco meets the customer, and the AI era is asking more of all of us,” said Tim Coogan, SVP, Global Partner Sales, Cisco. “Customers need partners with the agility to move first and fast. By combining the strength of the Cisco 360 Partner Program with Cisco IQ and Cisco Cloud Control, we’re giving every type of partner new ways to deliver that and be rewarded for it, from the advisor who shapes a decision to the partner who delivers and supports it.”
According to Cisco, customers increasingly rely on partners to navigate complex technology environments and accelerate AI adoption. To help partners meet these evolving demands, Cisco is enhancing its ecosystem approach by introducing dedicated engagement paths for advisors, developers, and distributors as the Cisco 360 Partner Program enters its first full year. These additions recognize the growing influence that different partner types have on customer decision-making, deployment strategies, and long-term technology outcomes.
A key advancement is the introduction of ecosystem deal registration, providing advisors and developers formal recognition for their contributions throughout the customer lifecycle. Cisco is also expanding growth opportunities through new Partner Value Indexes tailored to advisors and developers, while a unified distributor framework is expected to follow in 2027. The company has further strengthened profitability opportunities by boosting annual contract value growth rewards, increasing adoption incentives, and adding new rewards linked to Cisco IQ engagement. Partners expanding customer environments into new Cisco architectures, including Splunk, will also benefit from enhanced cross-selling incentives.
To help partners operate more efficiently, Cisco has introduced new resources within its Partner Experience Platform. These enhancements provide real-time visibility into deal registrations, automated insights into pipeline health, and advanced analytics that help partners track eligibility and performance. The company has also launched the One Cisco Content Agent in beta, an AI-powered resource designed to help partner sales and marketing teams rapidly access approved Cisco content, customize value propositions, and create co-branded customer presentations in minutes. Additional resources include a new incentive deal estimator and a Cisco OT Security Practitioner certification aimed at supporting the convergence of IT, operational technology, and cybersecurity.
Cisco also announced the general availability of Cisco IQ for Partners, extending a platform that already serves more than 16,000 customers and provides visibility across nearly 20 million devices. The solution is designed to give partners deeper insight into customer environments, enabling them to deliver higher-value managed services and modernization recommendations. Through Cisco IQ, partners gain access to intelligence that helps identify risks, uncover optimization opportunities, and proactively address emerging threats before they affect business operations.
The platform introduces new opportunities for managed service providers through expanded API access and Cisco IQ MCP Server capabilities, allowing intelligence to be integrated directly into partner workflows, professional services, and AI-driven operations. Resellers also benefit from new role-based access controls that enable customers to securely share visibility into their technology environments. This access allows partners to leverage real-time insights, automate monitoring processes, identify hidden infrastructure risks, and support modernization efforts with greater precision and scale.
Cisco IQ itself is receiving several new capabilities. AI-powered quantum-safe assessments and software end-of-vulnerability-support playbooks help organizations identify security risks that go beyond routine patching activities. New software conformance assessments and bug prioritization tools assist customers and partners in identifying outage risks and planning remediation efforts. Integration with Cisco Cloud Control further streamlines operations by providing real-time risk intelligence and enabling one-click actions for at-risk devices. Enhancements to the Cisco IQ AI Assistant now combine device diagnostics with Cisco Technical Assistance Center knowledge, simplifying troubleshooting and enabling users to create, escalate, and close support cases directly within the platform.
Cisco is also significantly expanding Cisco Cloud Control to support what it calls AgenticOps, an operational model where AI agents and IT teams work together to manage infrastructure. Among the most notable innovations is Model Foundry, a new platform service that enables organizations and partners to discover, evaluate, customize, and run Cisco’s purpose-built AI models using their own data. Cisco partners will receive early access to these models and capabilities before broader market availability.
To further strengthen autonomous operations, Cisco is integrating ThousandEyes natively into eligible Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 access points. This built-in capability provides continuous visibility into application and network performance without requiring additional hardware or configuration, helping organizations validate service quality around the clock. Cisco is also introducing Model Context Protocol servers across its networking portfolio, enabling AI tools to access live network data more easily and creating new opportunities for workflow automation, troubleshooting, and performance optimization.
Security and resilience remain central to Cisco’s strategy. The company announced what it describes as the industry’s first Wi-Fi 7 access point with quantum-resilient capabilities, extending quantum readiness across wireless networks as organizations prepare for future cryptographic challenges. Built in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, Intel, and Microsoft, the solution supports post-quantum cryptography and complements Cisco’s broader quantum-safe portfolio spanning routing, switching, and wireless infrastructure.
Cisco is also extending support for Live Protect, its technology designed to reduce the gap between vulnerability disclosure and remediation. The capability now supports additional networking platforms, helping customers accelerate protection against emerging threats. Complementing these efforts is Cisco Privileged Infrastructure Access, developed with Teleport, which provides tightly controlled access to routers and switches through short-lived identity-based credentials. The solution records sessions, enforces governance controls, and automatically removes privileges when access is no longer required.
Together, these announcements highlight Cisco’s strategy of combining AI, security, automation, and ecosystem collaboration to help partners unlock new revenue opportunities, deliver differentiated services, and support customers as they modernize their infrastructure for an increasingly connected and AI-driven future.
Commenting on the latest announcements, Cisco’s long-standing global partner, Dilip Kumar, President and Global Head, Infrastructure Solutions, NTT DATA, Inc., highlighted the growing importance of intelligent, secure, and autonomous infrastructure as enterprises scale their AI initiatives:
“As our enterprise customers scale AI workloads and high-density wireless environments, the network must evolve from simple connectivity into an active, self-defending platform. Cisco’s innovations embed industry-leading security and continuous visibility directly into the physical infrastructure our customers need. Combined with NTT DATA’s Agentic Operations, this creates an intelligent operating environment that can sense, predict and act, proactively addressing experience degradation and securing mission-critical operations before disruption occurs.”