BANGALORE
SEPTEMBER 15, 2006

Building on its commitment to enable its channel partners to align with changing security market dynamics and customer needs, Cisco Systems today unveiled the Master Security Specialization in India. Master Specialization is a new brand that represents the highest level of partner specialization and depth of expertise. Cisco channel partners can achieve the Master Security Specialization for proven and sophisticated security expertise in the areas of technology solution integration and lifecycle services. It offers further differentiation, growth opportunities and economic incentives, including higher Value Incentive Program rebates as a reward for building sophisticated security capabilities and for being committed to customer success.

The Indian network security market experienced a healthy growth in 2005 to reach $116 million, up 70 percent compared to 2004 (Source: Frost & Sullivan). With the increasing integration of technology into business processes, companies increasingly see network security as a critical part of their core business, offering an opportunity to Cisco's channel partners.

"Network security continues to be a business-critical technology and a top-ranked concern of business leaders. As more customers require increasingly sophisticated security solutions, effective architectural design and implementation is paramount for success," said Pramodh Menon, VP-Channels, Cisco Systems, India & SAARC. "Cisco's go-to-market strategy in India is through its channel partners. We have evolved our channel program so customers can identify the type of channel partner to best meet their needs. Adding a third tier to our specialization offering allows us to address the full spectrum of customer requirements and creates channel partner opportunities for growth and differentiation, two critical elements of partner profitability."

The Master Specialization was created to support the enhanced Channel Partner Program launched at the Cisco Partner Summit earlier this year. The award-winning Cisco Channel Partner Program continues to be value-based, with Cisco Certifications at the gold, silver and premier levels representing integrated technology skills breadth and Cisco Specializations representing technology skills depth. Cisco offers three specialization levels, allowing its channel partners to develop different business models while addressing the wide range of customer needs. At each specialization level (Express, Advanced and Master), a partner must demonstrate greater sales, technical and service capabilities.

As a prerequisite to becoming a Master Security Specialized Partner, channel partners must first meet the Advanced Security Specialization requirements. The Advanced Security Specialization provides channel partners with the training and knowledge to successfully prepare, plan, design, implement, operate and optimize Cisco security solutions. To achieve the Advanced Security Technology Specialization, channel partners must fill the following job roles: an account manager, a pre-sales engineer, and a post-sales engineer. There are many other stringent Cisco audits that channel partners have to pass such as: Technology capabilities, services capabilities and selling capabilities.

More information can be found at: http://www.cisco.com/web/partners/program/specializations/security/master/index.html

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