According to the chairman and CEO, Cisco stays ahead by, among other things, simplifying the way it does business with partners, while maintaining its focus on a partner-centric business model. "We have to be simpler to do business win. Barriers slow you down. Our task and mission was to simplify ways of doing business. We are just partway through that journey."

Chambers ended his presentation to partners in San Diego asking partners to understand Cisco's commitment to the channel community. "We have to earn your trust and confidence every day."

Senior vice president of worldwide channels Edison Peres also presented at the keynote and echoed the same commitment to partners. "Our loyalty scores are at an all time high but we don't take your business for granted," Peres says to partners. He says the next step is to take Cisco's relationship with its channel "up one level" and create "even greater value".

Among this morning's announcements, Cisco has also launched EASE (Enabling Architecture Sales Excellence), a new training offer that partners with at least one architecture specialisation can take advantage of and through which the company will provide free training to sales people.

Cisco has also created a new Master specialisation -- the Master Cloud Builder Partner, a "one stop shop for competencies around data centre and cloud solutions", one of the ways the company is putting a stronger focus on the cloud.