DiData Australia wins Cisco Asia-Pac partner of the year

The Australian arm of Dimension Data has won Cisco’s Asia-Pacific partner of the year.

The solutions provider will accept the honour in San Diego, USA on Wednesday afternoon Australian time at an invitation-only event for Cisco’s global partner award winners.

Chief executive Rodd Cunico and business unit operations director Pete Murray are currently in San Diego representing Dimension Data Australia at the annual Cisco Partner Summit.

"We've just celebreated being in partnership with Cisco for 25 years in Australia," Murray told CRN. "So there's a long, solid history of continued growth between the two organisations."

"We structure our solutions business through five verticals. And with the exception of our Microsoft vertical, the other four are strongly influenced by - if not dominated by - Cisco architectural framework."

Dimension Data also scored a second gong when its Asia-Pacific security unit took out the architectural excellence partner of the year award for security.

On Tuesday Australian time, Dimension Data global security group executive Matt Gyde - an Australian now based in Singapore - spoke of a previously “tense” relationship between his company and Cisco, and its recent thawing and goodwill.

“It was a tense relationship. I think we have worked through a lot of those issues together,” he said on a panel at the partner conference.

"Once again, that’s one of the great things about working with Cisco. We can sit down and have an argument, but get it sorted out for the betterment of both organisations," Gyde added.

No other Australian companies scored a Cisco global award, with two Chinese resellers and two Indian companies making up the rest of the Asia-Pacific contingent. Cisco’s Asia-Pacific partner award winners will be revealed early Thursday morning Australian time.

The journalist travelled to San Diego courtesy of Cisco.