On January 26, Cisco flipped the switch on 360. Fifteen months of development, co-designed with partners, built around one idea: the old model of reselling boxes is dead. Cisco knows it. Now we get to see if they actually mean it.
The numbers are hard to argue with. Close to 90% of Cisco's revenue flows through partners, according to CRN. Chuck Robbins told CRN as much: "We just have to get it right." That's not a tagline. That's a CEO who knows his business model depends on people who don't work for him.
The real difference with 360 isn't the new specializations or the tiered bonuses. Those are table stakes. It's the philosophical shift. Cisco is finally admitting that partner value isn't measured in product throughput. It's measured in what happens after the sale. Whether that actually translates to better margins for mid-market partners? Too early to tell. But the direction is clear. If you're still running a break-fix Cisco practice in 2026, you're not a partner anymore. You're overhead they haven't gotten around to cutting.