ANS claims Cisco cloud first

Manchester-based VAR says it is first in Europe to bag Cloud Infrastructure Partner status with vendor

Mancunian VAR ANS Group claims to be the first Cisco partner across Europe to attain the Cloud Infrastructure Partner status under the vendor's recently launched cloud channel scheme.

The competency badge is the foundation for becoming a cloud provider or cloud builder – the top two tiers of the Cisco cloud channel programme launched at the vendor's 2011 partner summit in New Orleans. ANS managing director Paul Sweeney told ChannelWeb his firm intends to grab Cloud Builder status in the not too distant future.

The VAR plans to lean on its existing datacentre and infrastructure expertise around Cisco's technology, as well as that of its ecosystem vendor partners, including NetApp and VMware.

"To be the first partner in Europe to be accepted to this programme is another sign from within the industry that we are moving in an exciting direction," said Sweeney. "We are very excited about the potential of this latest programme from Cisco to further increase our share of the datacentre market."