Will Cisco partners be better or worse off when 360 finally launches on 25 January 2026?
They moved one step closer to discovering the answer to this question last week after Cisco launched an ‘estimator’ enabling them to model their profitability under the new programme.
Cisco 360 is being characterised as the biggest change to how the networking giant rewards its partners in nearly three decades.
Mirroring Microsoft’s recent partner programme shake-up, partners will now be rewarded more for the value they add throughout the entire customer lifecycle, and less for simply landing deals.
And it’s famous Gold badge will soon be a distant memory.
But how ready are partners for the overhaul, and will it mean they ultimately make more or less money?
Partner leaders IT Channel Oxygen spoke to harboured mixed views, with one characterising it as “an absolute disaster for European partners” due partly to Cisco’s decision to can its notoriously generous Cisco Services Partner Programme (CSPP).
“Quite frankly, this has driven a hole in European Gold partner profitability,” they said, talking under the condition of anonymity.
“It’s all very well signposting to partners that things are going to change, but the problem is the signposts are pointed towards products that aren’t ready,” meaning the “holidays have come early for HPE and Arista”, they added.
Others generally painted the arrival of 360 as a short-term-pain-for-long-term-gain scenario, with one partner leader insisting they could even be better off under the new programme after the dust settles.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen last week, Cisco’s UK&I channel leader Joachim Mason stressed that the vendor is “spending the same, if not more” on the new programme.
But how will it all play out at an individual partner level?
Here’s what five partner leaders brave enough to go on record said…
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