(This is part 5 of a 7-part series sharing insights from Cisco partners about the Future of Cloud.)

"A lot of things go into building out a cloud practice that most people don't realize until they get into it.  Because we have been a systems integrator, we know the on-premises environment very well.  That gives us an advantage over some cloud providers who may be more like service providers.  They just don't understand the integration piece. "

This was just one of the insights Chris Ludwig, SVP GTM Cloud and Hosted Solutions from NWN Corporation, shared with me at Cisco Live!  NWN is a provider of Cisco Powered cloud and managed services.  Their first service offering, hosted collaboration, has created substantial pull-through for the later IaaS services they have added.

Integration is an important part of a successful migration to cloud, according to Ludwig. Cisco has a whole ecosystem that has built applications to integrate with on-premises equipment.  When moving to cloud, all of these integrations still have to work.  "That was something we did a lot of research on, to make sure that all of the third party companies that we work with on-premises are going to work in the cloud."

For NWN, the value of the Cisco partner ecosystem cannot be underestimated.  Regarding which partners to work with, Ludwig said, "We certainly look to Cisco for guidance.  We don't want to pick a partner and then find out something doesn't work right.

"It's very helpful knowing that if they're part of the ecosystem, we know that they are going to be a good partner.  That they are going to be around.  That they know how to work with the Cisco team and technology."

You can also learn more about how providers are addressing the need for enterprise class services in the latest edition of Unleashing IT.