The Cisco MSP Partner Summit is the destination for Cisco partners to hear about the vision from Cisco on how they are planning to expand and grow their Managed Services propositions and market reach. As a Managed Services Cisco Gold Provider, it was a fantastic experience to be part of. I was also fortunate to be asked to be invited as a guest speaker and interviewee.
This blog covers a number of the topics we discussed in our conversation at the event, specifically how we at IPTel have integrated and applied our Cisco Powered Managed Services. The video above is just a small snapshot of an extended conversation.
Technology Selection
A. For our Managed Services offering, we have deployed MSP grade monitoring software through LogicMonitor. This application allows us to monitor and manage multiple clients at once and produce reports on network KPIs.
Our evaluation was based on a few factors – the biggest of which is functionality. The platform we have installed has agents, which can be used to connect to a wide array of systems locally on a customer's network. The monitoring capabilities are endless from a device and component point of view, and it also has in-built AIOPS and forecast models for predicting future performance of a device - very cool!
ASSOCIATED BLOGS:
Internal Support Strategy
Q. Talk to us about the role of platforms and how you are developing your internal strategy around it. What are its key needs and objectives that it needs to deliver?
A. We have a monitoring platform, ticketing platform and some additional software for customised alerting, such as text messages on events.
For us, the preference is to buy off the shelf monitoring and management software and then integrate the components – that way we can buy best of breed for each component – and if need be, swap out a part of the system if required.
Working alongside this though is our internal DevOps team which we are passionate about here at IPTel. We are continually seeking ways to improve our customer experience and internal support through the power of Python and its ability to integrate with the API on many of the Cisco platforms. An example here is creating a bespoke and specialised customer status and alerting dashboard for one of our Meraki customers.
ASSOCIATED BLOGS:
Observability
Q. Can you talk through the evolution of your operations and the journey to AIOPS and its impact on your business?).gif?width=258&height=258&name=X2%20-%20Managed%20Services%20(Instagram%20Post%20(Square)).gif)
The monitoring software we have does include AIOPS, which in this case means we are not limited to a basic ‘threshold’ style of alert. The AIOPS aspect allows us to alert on the departure from baseline – so if the network performs in a certain way, we don’t have to wait until it breaches a threshold, but can alert once it starts to do something different from the norm.
ThousandEyes is another product we have invested in. Achieving the ThousandEyes Cisco Powered Services, we were audited by Cisco on our ability to provide ThousandEyes as a service to customers. This was an important step for us as a business to step into the increasing important world of Full Stack Observability for customers and their networks and applications.
ASSOCIATED BLOGS:
- Managed Services - Change Management
- Managed Services: Top 5 Benefits
- Managed Services - D3 Meraki Access
Future Technologies
Q. What are the top 2 technology trends that you’ll building for and how do you see yourself building for it and what’s your expectation from Cisco?
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I would say it depends if you’re talking Cisco or Meraki. For Cisco, its SDA Fabric. These were sporadic to start with, but have been getting more frequent recently, so we are working with a larger number of customers. The good thing with us being an early adopter is we have been there for the journey and so understand the technology well – each new install brings more procedures, and new use cases, which is great.
The second major technology trend is Meraki in general. We have had a major increase in Meraki sales, which in turn fuels our professional services. Depending on the customer use case, we also try and align our Managed Services offering, to give the customer peace of mind for the first year or more of the service operation. If the customer relies on their network – especially if they need great Wi-Fi – our Managed Service offering is a great fit.
ASSOCIATED BLOGS:
- Managed Services - Change Management
- Managed Services: Top 5 Benefits
- Managed Services - D3 Meraki Access
Cisco MSP Partner Summit Summary
It was a fantastic experience to be at the summit and to hear all about the amazing things Cisco are doing in the MSP space.
It was also a very proud experience to be asked to be on a panel and be part of an MSP Q&A session.
Remember if you are interested in hearing more about our Managed Services offerings please contact a member of the Sales team.
