Each week, we'll highlight the most important Cisco partner news and stories, as well as point you to important, Cisco-related partner content you may have missed along the way. Here's what you might have missed this week:

Kickoff for Partner Summit 2014

This year's Cisco Partner Summit starts in just a few short weeks in Las Vegas. This past week brought our first Partner Summit 2014 blog post, which included some great information for those of you that will attend this year, and for those who will be attending via Virtual Partner Summit (VPS).

Check out my blog post to get information on:

• Registering for VPS
• Using our hashtag (#ciscops14) for this year's event
• A tutorial on social media listening and other information to keep in your back pocket for March 24

We will see you there!

CRN Channel Chiefs for 2014

Great news for us this week as CRN named 6 Cisco executives as Channel Chiefs! Channel Chiefs are considered the "who's who" of channel management.

Bruce Klein and Edison Peres were also named as two of the 50 most influential.

Bruce dropped by the Channels Blog to congratulate:

• Wendy Bahr -SVP, Americas Partner Organization
• Debbie Dunnam -SVP, Americas Services Sales
• Julie Hens -VP, Worldwide Distribution
• Edison Peres -SVP, Worldwide Channels
• Raja Sundaram -VP, Worldwide Services

Stop by, check out Bruce's blog and join him in congratulating his colleagues on CRN's Channel Chiefs for 2014!

New Security Products and Software Enhancements

Chris Young discussed the focus of this week's RSA Conference. Included at this week's conference was an announcement from Cisco on adding the Advanced Malware Protection (AMP), originally developed by Sourcefire, into its Content Security Portfolio.

Chris does a great job calling out how the AMP, Cognitive Threat Analytics and FirePOWER 8300 series appliances included in this announcement can benefit your clients.

Come read Chris' blog and let us know your thoughts on the latest security announcement.

Cisco Partner Talent

To help partners with their entry-level hiring. Cisco Partner Talent has been working with Networking Academy to promote Networking Academy graduates to partners. This helps partners fill their entry-level openings with candidates who hold Cisco certifications and business skills.

Stop by the Cisco Partner Talent page to learn more, watch a video on how to source career talent and find out more about the benefits of hiring talent from Networking Academy.

Good Reads

• Ranjit Nayak examines the management implications of large scale data centers
• Vishakha Radia looks at how collaboration solutions power citizen experiences
• Kevin Davenport explores the new manufacturing renaissance
• Mike Mitchell talks converging communications in the cloud

Keep An Eye Out

• Cisco now offers partner training for the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) Enterprise Module. Download the sales or the technical training briefs for a better understanding of APIC's customer benefits.
• Learn more about new Cisco collaboration technologies at the partner webcast March 11
• Swing by the Cisco Partner Event calendar for the latest information on Cisco partner gatherings