Cisco has long been known for its vast partner ecosystem, encompassing resellers, integrators, consultants, and many more from around the globe. But one year ago today, we announced a completely new and, for many in the industry, an unexpected type of partnership.

On November 9^th, 2015, Ericsson and Cisco -two industry leaders in networking, mobility, and cloud technologies -formed a next-generation strategic partnership to create the networks of the future.

That dark autumn morning in Sweden, I was sitting in a conference room at Ericsson's Kista headquarters with new colleagues (including Ulf Ewaldsson, Ericsson's Chief Strategy and Technical Officer, who is as humorous and friendly as he is smart), as we spoke in call after call about our companies' unique comprehensive end-to-end portfolio, global market presence, and a strong cultural fit. How, together, we would be focused on speed, innovation, and growth, and how such a partnership could benefit our customers.

Over the past 365 days, our companies have worked hard to deliver on this vision. We have jointly engaged with more than 250 customers in every region of the globe and have doubled the number of wins each of the last two quarters, most of which we couldn't have won on our own. We've extended the partnership from its original service provider focus to now also include the enterprise and public sector segments with particular demand in transportation, Smart City, and utility areas, as well as into the web segment.

Our global coverage is now complete after recently receiving regulatory approval to now operate in Brazil, and we have increased the scope of technologies being included in the partnership with the addition of security, WiFi and datacenter switching portfolios. Ericsson has also worked aggressively to extend their leading services capability by achieving more than 2,500 Cisco networking certifications or qualifications to better address the IP Transformation needs of customers worldwide.
There is much more that has been accomplished this past year, and while we certainly have still much more to do and have much more still planned, , I didn't want this milestone to pass without thanking our Ericsson colleagues for their partnership, collaboration, and shared desire to help our customers thrive.

LINKS

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/service-provider/cisco-ericsson-partnership.html

PARTNERSHIP PROGRESS

• Winning more than 60 deals across all regions, doubling the number of wins each of the last two quarters-with majority of those deals not possible to win without the partnership
• Expanding number of active customer engagements to more than 250 to showcase activity across all regions
• Extending the partnership into the enterprise and public sector segments with particular demand in transportation, Smart City, and utility areas, as well as into the web segment
• Completing global coverage after receiving regulatory approval to now operate in Brazil
• Increasing the scope of technologies being included in the partnership with the addition of security, WiFi and datacenter switching portfolios
• Delivering Ericsson-certified solutions in different areas, as Mobile Backhaul, IP Core, and SP WiFi where certification is ongoing, with additional solutions on the way, where Cisco is contributing with products, expertise and use cases.
• Developing a joint services portfolio based on Ericsson's scale and skill in systems integration and managed services and Cisco's IP competence. The portfolio is developed in the areas of Networks, Enterprise, SP WiFi and small cells, Data Center and Cloud and Security.
• Achieving around 2,500 Cisco networking certifications or qualifications by Ericsson sales and service engineers

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