And when it comes to cloud there's a lot to talk about.  According to a new IDC white paper, sponsored by Cisco, "Enabling Partner Value in the Cloud Economy", 68 percent of companies with more than 1,000 employees are using some form of cloud or plan to implement cloud within the next 12 months.  In addition, companies adopting cloud expect to spend 54 percent of their IT budgets on cloud within the next two years.

For the white paper, IDC contacted 23 providers from among the more than 200 cloud providers offering Cisco Powered services. What makes the white paper unique is that these partners are sharing their perspective on the value of the Cloud and Managed Services Program and how CMSP has helped them expand their business.  These companies are investing substantial resources into building out their infrastructure to offer customers cloud services as they need them.  They are making their investments based on what they believe are customers' primary needs and key concerns.

Specifically, the white paper explores which perceived factors are the most important to cloud providers in reaching their customer.  It also reveals how partners seek to differentiate themselves and where they see the best value in their cloud infrastructure investments.

According to the CMSP partners interviewed, key benefits of CMSP that have helped drive their cloud business include:

• Accrual of cloud Marketing Development Funds (MDF) to help partners drive market outreach
• Access to Cisco's sizable reseller channel to actively accelerate channel-based sales of Cisco Powered cloud services along with Cisco sales teams helping to drive demand
• Opportunity to choose higher up-front discounts for predictability or back-end rebates to increase profitability and to compete more aggressively, with deal by deal flexibility
• Verify enterprise-class standards for creation and delivery of Cisco Powered services through third-party audits

You can read the full IDC white paper (a Cisco Partner login is required) for yourself and learn how to expand your business through Cisco's Cloud and Managed Services Program.