Tech Data has partnered with Cisco to enable solution providers to address a wide range of branch office networking use cases by deploying an instance of a Cisco Meraki wireless networks managed via the cloud.
The Branch Interconnect offering from Tech Data provides solution providers with access to a Web-based dashboard with single sign-on for monitoring, troubleshooting, alerting and ticketing through a single management interface. Tech Data has also expanded that management platform to integrate billing, service and support functions.
Wrapped around the base, Cisco Meraki wireless network is a series of additional Cisco technologies, including Cisco’s Meraki Advanced Security, Cisco Umbrella Open DNS, Advanced Malware Protection (AMP), AMP for Endpoints and Cloud Email Security. Tech Data is also making available instances of unified collaboration and digital whiteboarding services and applications in the form of Cisco Webex Teams and Cisco Webex Board.
Finally, Tech Data is also making an instance of Branch Connect specifically for the healthcare sector. Dubbed Clinic Interconnect, the offering adds a cloud service for processing claims data developed by Accreon on top of the base set of Branch Interconnect networking and security technologies.
Solution providers have the option of either selling the solution under the Cisco brand or rebrand it under their own logo, says , vice president for Cisco solutions at Tech Data.
“It’s designed to support an unlimited number of devices,” adds Privett.
Longer terms, Privett says Tech Data expects solutions providers will bundle Branch Interconnect with a variety of third-party applications to address the needs of, for example, law firms or small local banks that tend to have a lot of branch offices.
In general, demand for branch networking solutions is rapidly increasing as organization first look to replace physical networks with wireless networks and then connect remote offices to cloud applications over public Internet services using software-defined wide area networking technologies. Cisco offers both a standalone SD-WAN in addition to recently moving to embed SD-WAN software it gained with the acquisition of Viptela into Cisco routers.
Privett also notes that one of the reasons that branch office networking is growing so much can also be attributed to how simple it has become to set up a company with multiple locations.
There are, of course, no shortage of options these days when it comes to connecting branch offices to a network. But in the case of the collaboration with Tech Data, it’s clear Cisco still understands how much of a difference a strong offering sold through the channel can make.
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