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Cisco awards first Master services badges

BT completes full set of Master accreditations and Verizon Business is also given managed services stamp

Top marks: BT is now the only UK partner to have been awarded all three Cisco Master accreditations

Networking giant Cisco has crowned its first Managed Services Master partners, just three months after the accreditation's launch.

The vendor's online partner locator confirms that carriers BT and Verizon Business have both been awarded the badge. BT now has the full complement of Master certifications, having been awarded the security and unified communications (UC) garlands last month.

The carrier became the first UK firm to be given the security thumbs up since the accreditation was unveiled in 2006. The firm also joined VARs Logicalis, 2e2, Dimension Data, Touchbase Communications and KCOM as a UC Master.

The Managed Services Master badge was launched at Cisco's partner conference in Boston in June. It was quickly greeted with some fervour by UK partners, with Logicalis declaring its intention to gain the accreditation.