Cisco turns to partners for Intercloud push

Networking giant appoints 14 cloud providers to take Intercloud message to customers

Cisco has said its decision to welcome a handful of new cloud partners to its Intercloud programme proves its commitment to the channel community.

From today, 14 cloud providers from across the world will join the Intercloud programme, which aims to become a global network of interconnected cloud technology.

UK firm Skyscape is one of the new Intercloud partners, along with QTS, Viawest, Iland, Telefonica, Proximus, Telecom Italia, Fit, Bezea, Nantian, Trolia, CCI Systems, CTC and QSS, which are based around the globe.

The newly appointed companies brings the total number of Intercloud partners to 60. The firms' services span 350 datacentres in 50 countries.

"Now that's momentum!" said Edison Peres, Cisco's senior vice president for cloud and managed services partners. "Most cloud players are driving a vendor-centric model, whereas ours is a model based on collaboration and a truly global reach.

"This demonstrates not only Cisco's continued commitment to a partner-centric model, but also increases opportunities for our partners to bring Intercloud to life for your own customers."

He said partnering is the only option when it comes to the cloud.

"When it comes to the world of Intercloud, it really does take an ecosystem," he said.

"A single vendor with limited options... is no match for a robust and expanding network-centric partner ecosystem providing vast choices and data sovereignty to customers.

"It's the model that is going to win in the marketplace because no one vendor can tackle cloud alone and singlehandedly meet all the needs of today's organisations. They need the global Intercloud for the breadth of cloud innovation."