Monday Morning Impact – November 27

Cisco Announces $1 Billion Program for Smart Cities

In an effort to expand the market opportunity around “smart cities,” Cisco has introduced a $1 billion infrastructure financing acceleration program designed to help bring the costs of smart cities within reach of a wider range of municipalities. The funding will be provided through Cisco Capital in partnership with private equity firm Digital Alpha Advisors and pension fund investors APG Asset Management (APG) and Whitehelm Capital.

“Funding is a major stumbling block for municipalities beginning their smart city transformation,” said Anil Menon, Global President of Cisco’s Smart+Connected Communities. “With our partners, Cisco will bring the capital and expertise it takes to make smart city projects a reality.”

The program is intended to help cities assemble the right type or suite of finance instruments to fund and deploy innovative technology with minimal initial investment. Depending upon the specific project, benefits may include reduced energy usage, eased traffic congestion, simplified parking, or increased public transportation ridership and revenues. Revenue-share financing, for instance, even allows a city to tie financing to desired outcomes and extend future operating budgets through revenue streams from the new services that a digitized infrastructure makes possible.

Cisco has also announced added functionality for its connected digital platform, “Cisco Kinetic for Cities.” The new features provide enhanced support for public safety, including an improved dashboard with integrated video.

Channel Impact^®
Although smart city features can provide a wide variety of benefits, depending upon the chosen applications, many municipalities simply lack the resources to take the opportunity to the next level. Programs such as this one can move the smart cities discussion into a nearer-term time frame, thereby delivering value to the cities as well as sales opportunities for Cisco and its partners.

SonicWall Launches New Partner Enabled Services Program

SonicWall, a Santa Clara, California-based security vendor, has launched a new lineup of professional security services to help customers implement and operate security solutions. The new professional security services — distributed by the new Partner Enabled Services Program — are delivered in partnership with the company’s network of channel partners.

“SonicWall technology and the new professional security services delivered by SonicWall’s channel partners present a powerful defense against advanced malware and ransomware that threaten enterprises of all sizes,” said SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner. “These new services help customers accelerate the time-to-value of their SonicWall security solution investments.”

The new services span three critical competencies:

Implementation Services include compliance audit prep and remote and onsite implementation services. Solution Services include security health checks, wireless security deployments, campus networks and distributed network solutions. In addition, Architecture Services are offered for complex or large-scale solutions and customer environments, such as DPI-SSL deployment or high-end firewall implementations.

The new SonicWall Partner Enabled Services Program is the platform for delivery of these channel-delivered services, providing the necessary training, tools, sales, marketing and technical resources.

The program is now available to qualified partners in North America and EMEA. The company plans to expand the program to APJ and LATAM in Q1 FY2019.

Channel Impact^®
The program provides a new opportunity for channel partners to extend their offers in the extremely important, and lucrative security space. It is also intended to facilitate partners working with one another to meet the comprehensive needs of shared customers.

Optiv Security Acquires Conexsys

Optiv Security, a Denver-based provider of end-to-end cybersecurity solutions, has announced its acquisition of Conexsys, a Toronto-based security and networking solutions provider. The transaction allows Optiv to serve private and public entities in Canada with more local resources and immediate access to Optiv’s service offerings. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Many Canadian organizations have magnified their investment and focus on cybersecurity but are finding it increasingly challenging to protect against the sophisticated threat landscape,” said Cheryl McGrath, Optiv’s country general manager for Canada. “Together, Optiv and Conexsys provide expansive local coverage in Canada to help organizations navigate a myriad of products and technologies, and evaluate their infrastructures and operations to develop safer, saner and more strategic paths forward.”

“Conexsys has been committed to serving the Canadian government and large Canadian companies with exceptional technical expertise and high-quality services for more than 30 years,” said Michael Yassin, president of Conexsys. “By joining Optiv, we are gaining access to a number of holistic service offerings that enable us to perform comprehensive security optimization—from strategy and planning straight through to implementation and management.”

Channel Impact^®
This acquisition increases Optiv’s ability to serve Canadian, U.S. and global clients while also enhancing the company’s vertical presence in government markets.