New Cisco 360 Partner Program Expected to Accelerate Value and Innovation

Cisco has rolled out the next iteration of its partner program, promising an $80 million investment in how Cisco and its partners create and deliver value.

Three-fourths of that investment is expected to support partners with various benefits, including all-access Cisco U. subscriptions for skill development and certification. The remainder is earmarked to fund quarterly training events for all partners, focusing on AI, security, and networking through self-paced learning, hands-on labs, and continuing education credits.

The new program promises a simplified framework for measuring partner value within specific portfolios or across multiple portfolios, leading to categorizing channel companies as “Partners” or “Preferred Partners.” Partners can earn these designations for each portfolio, such as Security or Networking.

The new program will continue to shift from traditional architecture specializations to solution-based specializations, and ultimately to next generation specializations that will be accessible to Preferred Partners only.

Cisco also announced its first specialization focused on AI—the Cisco AI-Ready Infrastructure Solution Specialization—to position partners as experts in delivering AI-ready infrastructure, security, and observability solutions and services to customers throughout their AI adoption journey.

The transition is expected to be completed in February 2026.

Channel Impact^®
The revised program is expected to transform how Cisco and its Partners create, deliver, and capture value in the age of AI.