Joint Channel Initiative to Streamline and Accelerate FlexPod Sales for Top Partners

FlexPod Passes 1,000th Customer Milestone

India, Bangalore – JUNE 11, 2012 – Cisco and NetApp today announced the launch of a global channel initiative to accelerate the market momentum of the popular FlexPod converged infrastructure solution. The FlexPod Premium Partner Framework will reward elite FlexPod channel partners for investing in sophisticated sales capabilities and services practices.
The companies also announced that more than 1,000 customers have deployed the FlexPod solution since it was launched in November 2010. The FlexPod series combines computing, networking and storage solutions from Cisco and NetApp into a flexible, scalable, shared infrastructure. Nearly 100 percent of FlexPod solutions are now sold through Cisco-NetApp channel partners.

On the joint channel inititative,Peter Howard, Senior Director, Data Center Alliances, NetApp said,
“Our partners play a critical, consultative role helping customers understand and achieve the financial and operational benefits of moving from inefficient infrastructure silos to converged, virtualized environments built on FlexPod. The FlexPod Premium Partner Framework reflects Cisco’s and NetApp’s commitment to recognizing partners who have achieved the highest levels of sales, technical, and professional services capability. It builds upon our consistent and shared vision to accelerate customer success through strong, profitable channel partners”.

Brian Allison, Director, Data Center Go-To-Market Solutions, Cisco said,“Cisco and NetApp have heard from many of our joint channel partners that they want us to reduce complexity and streamline multi-vendor interactions, all while continuing to drive profitability. Through the FlexPod Premium Partner initiative we’re rewarding partners for investing in elite sales, technical and services capabilities necessary to capture the rapidly growing market for converged infrastructure solutions.”

Highlighting FlexPod’s position Paul Lidsky, President & CEO, Datalink, FlexPod Premium Partner said, “FlexPod continues to play a foundational role in the future of data centers and private cloud environments. For that reason, it is a linchpin of the converged infrastructure consulting, analysis, design, deployment and support services that we offer to midmarket and enterprise customers. We are the first channel partner to achieve the requirements of the FlexPod Premium Partner Framework because we have been training our engineers in cross-discipline architectures since the inception of FlexPod and have completed dozens of deployments. This new designation from Cisco and NetApp will help organizations identify the most qualified providers to ensure successful implementations that transform their data centers.”