Guest Blog Post by Krisine A. Snow, President, Cisco Capital

The pressure for businesses to quickly adapt and innovate-to capitalize on new market opportunities and stay ahead of the competition-is increasing to achieve their business goals. And it is being felt not only by IT organizations, but by entire companies as businesses rely more and more on technology. Cloud computing in particular has had a profound impact on businesses today, emerging as a key technology requirement to foster innovation and growth.

In March 2014, Cisco announced that it would invest$1 billion to expand its cloud business over the next two years. Today, in addition to the expansion of Cisco's Intercloud product offerings and partner ecosystem, Cisco Capital has earmarked$1 billion in financing for Cisco customers and partners to help them adopt the Cisco technologies they'll need to transition to the cloud.

As the financing arm of Cisco, Cisco Capital has developed a number of programs into this investment that will focus on financing Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure, facilitating technology migrations and providing flexible payment structures. As these type of transitions can require sizeable investments for companies, financing provides a cost-effective way for organizations to invest in their business.

Why finance?

By leveraging financing, organizations can align technology investments to the ever-evolving priorities of the business. Financing allows businesses to:

• Preserve cash that can then be reinvested into the business-spreading the cost of an IT investment over time conserves funds, enabling organizations to invest more heavily in departments such as R&D and ultimately speeding the pace of innovation.
• Accelerate the return on investment- aligning cash outlay to solution implementation and revenue stream generation.
• Adopt new technologies faster-with the ability to implement new technologies more quickly, businesses remain agile and ahead of the competition.
• "Green" the business - provides a vehicle to dispose of retired or under-utilized assets in an environmentally conscious manner with end-of-life strategies and migration programs or recycle programs.

Cisco Capital Financing the Cloud Suite

Cisco Capital creates tailored financial solutions and offerings for customers and partners that complement Cisco's products and technologies, and are designed to support how customers and partners buy and deploy them. As a part of the$1 billion commitment, Cisco Capital is providing four programs specifically designed to address cloud adoption and migration.

Designed for both end-user customers and cloud service providers (Cisco partners), Cisco Capital flexible payment structures offer payment deferral options of up to 12 months, affordable monthly rates and structured payment streams. These structured loans and leases finance complete solutions including hardware, software and services from both Cisco and non-Cisco complementary solution providers.

Also geared towards end-user customers and cloud service providers are low total cost of ownership (TCO) offers aimed for customers looking to adopt Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure, a foundation for Intercloud infrastructure. Developed with below market payment terms, this program enables customers to keep technology up to date and refresh when needed, ultimately lowering TCO and the long term cost of maintenance.

Specifically for qualified cloud service providers Cisco Capital has developed two tailored programs including Accelerate Loans and Monetization of Managed Services. With an Accelerate Loan, no payments are required during the first 12 months in which the cloud data center is being built, allowing the service provider to align payments to the solution deployment and revenue generation.

The Monetization of Managed Services offering allows qualified cloud service providers to acquire the technology needed to deliver managed services solutions to customers without incurring up-front cost or debt through an asset light approach.   Key benefits include alignment of expenses to revenue for optimized cash flow and potential relief from asset disposition obligations at the end of the term.

While there are a number of strategies businesses can employ when planning for such a large-scale technology investment, Cisco Capital is uniquely positioned to help Cisco customers and partners embrace the transition to the cloud. Because Cisco Capital has such a deep understanding of the products, services and overall solutions being offered by Cisco, we are able to create customized financing solutions that will help our customers and partners adopt and deploy technologies like Intercloud in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible.

For more information, visit: Financing the Cloud

Disclaimer: Eligibility for financing is subject to standard underwriting procedures.