Every Friday, we'll highlight the most important Cisco partner news and stories of the week, 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:

Off the Top

In the latest Partner Voices blog post, Scott Alexander of Alexander Open Systems (AOS) offered insights on leveraging the SMB market with managed service offerings.

Alexander offers some background on the move by AOS, in 2011, to expand managed service offerings as a means to grow business and expand technology portfolios with current customers. By sharing that information with other Cisco partners he hopes to start a dialogue on your experiences in this space.

Come join the conversation.

Good Reads

• Michael Fuhrman asks if mobility is still risky business
• James Mescall gives a Generation X perspective on Collaboration
• Tony Antony talks about transforming the datacenter with Software Defined Storage
• Prashanth Shenoy discusses how enterprise mobility enables long-term growth

Keep An Eye Out

• Join one of the upcomingCisco Marketing Velocity webcasts on Social Media planning. There are sessions for beginners and advanced users in November. As an added bonus, if you attend a session and complete the survey, you'll be entered to win a one-hour 1:1 meeting with Cisco social media subject matter experts to chat about your specific social media goals.
• Register for theSecuring the NetworkSecurity Partner Webcast on October 29 at 8:00 a.m. PDT. Learn about the latest Cisco Security innovations and how Security Solutions are going to change the conversations you have with your customers.
• Swing by the Cisco Partner Event calendar for the latest information on Cisco partner gatherings.