Picture this scene, which took place last month at Cisco's Partner Summit in Las Vegas. I had been talking for a few minutes in the lobby of the Venetian with a long-time Cisco partner when he suddenly asked, "Raja, how are you guys at Cisco going to help us use services to capitalize on cloud and hybrid IT?" I answered: "Plenty...and rapidly expanding."

First the back story, then the details.

By now, we all know that new technology consumption patterns have shifted the business model that customers are demanding. Much of this has to do with the increased influence that line of business decision makers now have on IT buying decisions. Consider this. In just two years, 35 percent of IT spend will reside in the business - outside the control of IT -according to a recent study.¹A whopping 90 percent of IT spend will be controlled by the business in 2020. As the saying goes, "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto."

Then there's the lightning-quick shift to a variety of new cloud models.  In just two years, cloud spending will account for the majority of new IT spending, according to Gartner.²That same research also predicts that by the end of 2017, nearly half of large enterprises will have hybrid cloud deployments.

In a world like this -where important market and technology transitions are occurring simultaneously - what is the key to partner success? The answer is a frequent theme in my blog series:  Adopt a hybrid IT business model that includes the right mix of services.

"Easier said than done," you might be thinking. And you would be correct. Success in this new world requires traditional on-premise IT solutions, managed services, private/public/hybrid cloud services, security, data sovereignty, and more.

The good news for partners is that at Cisco we have been busy creating numerous new ways you can capitalize on the seismic shift to cloud and hybrid IT. 

How Cisco Is Helping

Our cloud offerings took a big step forward at Cisco Live Milan in late January. You can find the whole story here, including details on our new hybrid cloud solution, Cisco InterCloud.

At Partner Summit in Las Vegas, we upped our ante by announcing that we will invest$1 billion to build the Cisco Global Intercloud, which will be the world's first truly open, hybrid cloud.

We are also expanding the Cisco Powered program to include Cisco Cloud Services to help partners offer more cloud offerings faster and benefit from lower up-front development costs while operating at cloud speed and scale.

This year, we've introduced a host of other new partner cloud services to help you embrace -and profit from -the world of many clouds.

• The Cisco Cloud Consumption Assessment Service is available for resale or it can be delivered collaboratively to help your customers understand how public cloud services are being used in their business and help reduce risks and costs.
• If you are a cloud provider, you can launch new revenue streams with enterprise multi-cloud solutions  offered as a service to help your customers blend cloud and managed services with premises-based solutions.
• The cloud builders among you can implement Cisco InterCloud software into private clouds, into your own public cloud offering, or third-party public clouds.
• If you are a cloud reseller, you can take advantage of resources to capture new revenue opportunities for hybrid IT and have more strategic conversations with your customers about their cloud business. As a start, download our Partner Cloud Sales Accelerator and several partner cloud white papers.
• We realize you are facing a tall amount of change to transform a portion of your business to a recurring cloud revenue model. That's why we created a Business Transformation Resource Center  with access to partner resources like transformation videos and workshops.

Tempus Fugit

This world of many clouds is moving quickly, and we invite you to join us on this journey. To monetize the move to cloud, explore the resources in this blog, contact your account rep, or continue the conversation with us at Cisco Live San Francisco next month.

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¹Multiple analyst data plus Cisco Strategy and Planning research

²Gartner Says Cloud Computing Will Become the Bulk of New IT Spend by 2016," Oct. 23, 2013.