Join us for a#CiscoChat on February 8th at 11 a.m. PT to discuss the reality of multivendor IT support.

Imagine you're the IT director of a global bank. You recently implemented a variety of digital solutions: virtualization, IoT, data analytics. You get the picture. Your company is under pressure to compete and deliver experiences to increasingly demanding tech-savvy customers, and IT is on the hook for making it work seamlessly. Never mind the complexity and the 10-20 vendors you now have to manage.

One day it all comes crashing down. Panic sets in. Was it a bug in the software from vendor A? Is

something wrong with your data analytics platform from vendor B? The unthinkable: could it be a cyber-attack? How do you begin to narrow down where or what the problem is? Which vendor do your customers call? If it's an interoperability issue, how do they troubleshoot across vendors? And while you're thinking through this, the bank is losing almost 3 million dollars an hour in downtime alone.

As digital transformation takes hold and IT infrastructure becomes hyper-converged, this is the new "blood, sweat, and tears" reality of IT. But it doesn't have to be. New support models and technical services have emerged than can help simplify the complexity, while achieving ROI from digital investments.

Join us on February 8^that 11am Pacific time (2pm Eastern time) for the#CiscoChat, 'Blood, Sweat and Tears: The Reality of Multivendor IT Support.' During the chat, we'll discuss the challenges IT faces in today's multivendor environment and how Solution Support can help.

The chat will be moderated by @CiscoServices and co-hosted by @CiscoPartners and @Cisco_Support. Jack Gold @jckgld, Principal analyst and founder at J. Gold Associations, will also join the discussion to provide additional industry insight.

To participate in the chat:

• Make sure you're logged into your Twitter account.
• Follow @CiscoServices on Twitter.
• Search for the#CiscoChat hashtag and click on the Latest tab.
• Add to the conversation by using the#CiscoChat hashtag in your tweets. This way, others can find your contributions to the discussion.
• When replying to specific participants, add a "." at the beginning of the tweet so your question or comment will appear in your public twitter feed.
• If you need multiple tweets to answer a question, preface each tweet with "1A," "2A," etc. This will make it easier for others to follow along with the conversation.

Welcome introductions and questions will begin at 11am PST (2pm EST). Don't forget to bring your own questions to the discussion, too. See you there!