What do Jack and the Beanstalk, Gulliver's Travels, and A Christmas Carol all have in common? Not only are they popular works of fiction (that my three sons really enjoyed), but they all focus on one of the core elements of Cisco's strategy-transformation to drive growth. Whether the goal is driving growth in top line revenue, margin, or earnings per share (EPS), the key is finding the right catalyst for growth and managing it effectively once it takes off.

Just like the primary characters in these stories, our Strategic Partners have accelerated their transformation to drive growth and I'm delighted that growth is coming through their partnership with Cisco. Here are some examples of partners who are managing growth and driving material outcomes for customers.

Cohesity

Cohesity architected a solution using their data management software on Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) that enables customers to boost operational efficiency, reduce their costs, and defend backup data against ransomware attacks in their data centers. After just one year, the solution delivered an overall return on investment of 150%.

Citrix

With so many of us working from home during the pandemic, there is a growing demand for remote security solutions. Enterprise network attacks are on the rise as well. In fact, 62% of data breaches involve the use of stolen credentials, brute force, or phishing. Citrix has responded to this rise in attacks by integrating Cisco Duo's MFA capabilities for end user access with its Citrix Gateway and Citrix Workspace to bolster customer organizations' security postures. Customers can choose the authentication methods for Citrix Gateway and Citrix Workspace that best fit their security strategy. Today more than 8 million Citrix users, including customers like MarinHealth Medical Center, are being protected by the joint solution. And since the beginning of the pandemic the growth of this number has accelerated dramatically.

Pure Storage

Pure Storage is another great example of a partner whose complementary best-of-breed technology and Cisco IT synergy has resulted in our jointly developing FlashStack?, an integrated converged infrastructure solution for flash storage that has been popular with customers. FlashStack combines Pure Storage's FlashArray with Cisco UCS, Cisco Nexus network and MDS switching to help customers automate the workflow between applications and infrastructure. In just four years, we have amassed over 3,000 FlashStack customers around the world. Read Eric Blonda's recent blog to learn more about Cisco and Pure Storage's current innovations in storage and virtualization.

NTT

As organizations adopt cloud-first, or even cloud-only strategies for new and existing applications, there are challenges associated with network performance, security, and availability. This is why the demand for a software-defined network-to securely connect customers' end users to applications, customer branches, and clouds-has exploded. NTT provides Managed Network Service for Cisco SD-WAN and Managed Security Services to facilitate a secure return to work. It offers flexible engagement models and a complete lifecycle of services that support clients through their WAN transformation and Secure workplace journeys. As a result of NTT's significant growth, they have been recognized as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Services, Global and a leader in IDC's MarketScape: Worldwide Managed Security Services.

As you can see, our Strategic Partners have cracked the code on harnessing change and managing growth of their joint solutions with Cisco. In doing so, they are delivering incredible business value to customers and experiencing amazing returns on their investment.

Like the characters in my kids' favorite books, these organizations have all gone through their own transformation journey to achieve their "happily ever after" (or, in our world, real business outcomes). But their stories are just beginning. We anticipate many more chapters in the future.

Learn more about these and other Cisco Global Strategic Partners