Oliver Tuszik (Cisco)
Cisco has recognised its top performing partners for 2019 at its global awards reception during its annual Partner Summit held in Las Vegas.
Cisco senior vice president of global partner organisation, Oliver Tuszik, said there were 19 global partners receiving top honours at this year’s event, with the selection based on their innovation and business growth, while continuing to differentiate themselves in the market.
Specifically in A/NZ Telstra achieved security architectural excellence partner of the year while Data#3 scored the enterprise networks architectural excellence partner of the year award.
NTT Australia took home the software partner of the year award.
“I’m very proud to receive this award in a global forum. Software-defined networking is key to supporting our customers digital transformation,” Data#3 group practice manager, Graham Robinson, said.
“The core focus of our Cisco practice is to leverage software to automate network processes, which aligns closely to Cisco’s overall strategy. Together we are helping our customers optimise their networks to achieve their business and technology objectives.”
Furthermore Data#3 CEO and managing director, Laurence Baynham, added it had experienced significant business growth due to its deep alignment with Cisco’s growth strategy.
“The network is one of the foundational layers for digital transformation and is key for supporting our customer’s investments in emerging technologies,” he said.
Dicker Data was awarded distributor of the year, beating a host of global players for the top award.
“This award is testament to our hybrid approach to distribution and specialised focus within the Cisco portfolio,” said Vladimir Mitnovetski, COO of Dicker Data. “Lots of distributors grew as much as we did globally through enterprise deals but we targeted tier-2 partners at mid-market and SMB levels.”
Speaking to ARN on the sidelines of Cisco Partner Summit 2019 in Las Vegas, Mitnovetski said tier-2 growth during the past 12 months has been roughly 50 per cent year-on-year.
“Cisco has a strong heritage at the high-end enterprise level and lots of distributors play in that space from a transactional perspective,” he added. “But we can deliver enterprise-grade solutions into these key markets, across all of Australia, and that’s our unique value proposition.”
