Why the right Cisco 360 Preferred Partner matters now more than ever

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It usually starts small.  

A team schedules a routine network change after hours. The maintenance window is tight, the rollout plan looks solid, and everyone expects a quiet night. Then something unexpected happens. Authentication fails for a subset of users, a security policy behaves in a way no one predicted, and collaboration tools light up with support tickets by morning.  

Now you’re stuck untangling the overlap between networking, security, identity, and user experience all at once. And in that moment, the difference between a partner who knows one slice of Cisco and a partner who can triage your full environment becomes very real. 

That’s the thinking behind Cisco’s shift to the Cisco 360 Partner Program, and it’s why the Cisco 360 Preferred Partner designation matters. Cisco is giving customers clearer ways to identify partners with validated expertise across critical portfolios, so it’s easier to build the right partner team for outcomes like AI-ready data centers, future-proofed workspaces, and digital resilience.  

Here’s an overview of what changed, what “Preferred” signals, and how choosing a Cisco Preferred Partner can help you get more consistency from planning through day-two support.  

What Cisco 360 changed (and why customers should care)   

For years, customers leaned on broad partner tiers to gauge capability. The challenge is that modern environments no longer behave like a single stack. Solutions span multiple portfolios, and strength in one area doesn’t automatically translate to another.  

Cisco’s answer is the Cisco 360 Partner Program: a portfolio-based approach that helps customers easily identify partners with the right expertise. The program replaces legacy tiers with designations tied directly to Cisco’s major portfolios, supported by specific competencies and practice maturity requirements.  

Under Cisco 360, customers will see two core designations:  

• Cisco Portfolio Partner — Indicates demonstrated investment in customer engagement, sales and technical capabilities, and foundational practice maturity within a specific Cisco portfolio, including networking, cloud and AI infrastructure, security, Splunk, collaboration, or services. 

• Cisco Preferred Partner — Signals advanced technical expertise, deeper customer engagement, and established, scalable practices within a given Cisco portfolio. 

Cisco also confirmed that legacy levels (including Gold, Premier, and Select) were retired on January 25, 2026, with new designations effective January 26, 2026.  

It’s now easier than ever to see where a partner is strong and where they’re not, based on the Cisco portfolios that map to real-world needs.  

Why choosing a Cisco 360 Preferred Partner matters  

While a Preferred designation won’t run your project for you, it can reduce guesswork when you’re deciding who to trust with critical parts of your environment. Here’s why it matters.  

It helps you avoid “great at one thing” partnerships 

A common pain point in Cisco environments isn’t the technology itself — it’s the seams. The overlap where ownership becomes unclear. 

Preferred status provides an early signal that a partner has validated strength within a portfolio. That matters when outcomes depend on multiple portfolios working together, not individual components performing well in isolation. 

It supports a smoother path from planning to day-two operations 

Most organizations can get through a deployment. The harder part is what follows: adoption, performance tuning, change management, renewals, and keeping everything stable while the business keeps moving.  

Cisco’s Preferred criteria emphasizes deeper engagement and practices, which is why Preferred is especially valuable after go-live, when you need consistency and follow-through, not just install support.  

It makes it easier to align partner capability to your priorities 

Not every environment needs the same kind of help. Some teams are modernizing core networking. Others are tightening security and visibility.  

Portfolio-based designations help you align partner capability to what matters most right now. Instead of relying on broad tiers, you can look for validated expertise where you need it most.  

It reduces friction when problems don’t neatly fit into one lane 

When environments span portfolios, coordination matters as much as technical depth. Anyone who’s watched multiple vendors debate responsibility knows how quickly progress can stall. 

Cisco’s intent with the Cisco 360 model is to make it easier to identify partners equipped to support cross‑portfolio needs — without forcing you to interpret legacy tiers and hope they translate into real‑world execution. 

What working with SHI as a Cisco Preferred Partner looks like 

 A Preferred designation carries the most weight in moments when a project plan doesn’t neatly fit, when environments overlap, priorities shift, and long-term decisions matter more than the initial deployment.   

SHI helps organizations design, validate, and scale Cisco solutions that support the full journey, from early planning through production and long-term care of the environment.  

Here’s what that looks like in practice:  

• Guidance before you buy. SHI starts by understanding your environment and priorities, then brings strategic assessments, infrastructure design, and operational readiness guidance to help reduce risk before a project is in motion.  

• Proof, not promises. Architecture support, proof-of-concept work, and validation labs allow teams to test assumptions early and move forward with fewer surprises. 

• Depth across the Cisco portfolio. With more than 500 badged SHI engineers and over 100 Cisco-dedicated resources, SHI brings hands-on expertise to support environments that span multiple domains.  

• Lifecycle support that keeps environments healthy. SHI brings lifecycle governance and practical optimization support — including health-check style analysis that can identify stranded assets, inconsistent support levels, and five-year lifecycle planning needs. 

• Operational clarity around assets and outcomes. Install‑base analysis and asset visibility, supported by tools like SHI One, give teams clearer insight into their Cisco environments — helping reduce last‑minute renewals, coverage gaps, and reactive decision‑making. 

A clearer path forward under Cisco 360 

The Cisco 360 Partner Program gives you more visibility into partner strengths but also puts more responsibility on the decision. Portfolio-based validation means partner choice now directly shapes how well environments are planned, supported, and sustained over time.  

SHI holds Cisco Preferred Partner status across every Cisco 360 portfolio, including networking, cloud and AI infrastructure, security, collaboration, services, and Splunk.  

Whether you’re modernizing a single domain or managing change across the entire environment, working with a partner that brings Preferred‑level expertise across the board helps reduce fragmentation, improve continuity, and keep long‑term outcomes in focus. 

NEXT STEPS

If you’re evaluating what the Cisco 360 model means for your organization, connect with one of our experts to see how SHI can help you translate partner designations into practical next steps.