Annese Achieves Advanced Data Center Specialization From Cisco

Online, March 7, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Annese & Associates, Inc. announced today that it has achieved the Advanced Data Center Networking Infrastructure (DCNI) Specialization from Cisco. This specialization recognizes Annese as having fulfilled the training requirements and program prerequisites to sell, deliver, and support comprehensive Cisco® data center solutions.

"As part of our rapidly growing data center practice, Annese has set goals to achieve higher levels of partnership with each of our key data center partners," comments Annese's Chief Technology Officer, Rus Healy. "We're moving up the ladder with Cisco by achieving the DCNI specialization, and we'll follow shortly with the Data Center Storage Networking and Data Center Unified Computing specializations. These achievements provide us with more credibility in the data center market, and send a clear message about our commitment to our data center practice to our customers and our partners. We're excited about our future in data center business and we're making the investments we need to be a strong player in that space."

"As a Cisco Advanced DCNI Specialized Partner, Annese's investment in the training required to provide integrated, collaborative and adaptive data center networking solutions ranks it among the industry's most qualified," said John Growdon, Director of Marketing for Worldwide Channels at Cisco.

The Cisco Advanced DCNI Specialization is designed to help enable partners to address the requirements that enterprise and commercial customers face in deploying a wide range of data center technologies and applications. Cisco Advanced DCNI Specialized Partners are specialists in building end-to-end data center solutions based on the industry-leading Cisco data center networking products, including the Nexus Family of data center switching products, Catalyst® 4900 and 6500 Series Switches, Catalyst Blade switches, Firewall Services Module, Network Analysis Module, Application Control Engine module and appliance, Global Site Selector appliance, and Application Networking Manager.

The Cisco Resale Partner Program provides partners with the training required to build sales, technical and Cisco Lifecycle Services skills, and then validates their skills through a third-party audit. As a certified Silver Partner to Cisco, achieving the Cisco Advanced DCNI Specialization will also provide Annese with access to comprehensive sales, technical, and lifecycle services training and support available from Cisco to better support their customers.