Cisco expands partner AI tools and rolls out quantum-ready Wi-Fi 7 hardware

At its annual Partner Summit in Vancouver, Cisco announced the general availability of Cisco IQ for partners alongside a major expansion of its hardware and automation portfolio. The vendor rolled out the Cisco Wireless CW9176ISEC, described as the first Wi-Fi 7 access point with quantum-resilient protections aligned to CNSA 2.0 standards, with client support initially targeting Intel-based Windows devices in January. Cisco reports that the Cisco IQ platform has already reached more than 16,000 customers and 19 million devices. [1][2]

The release integrates Cisco IQ telemetry directly into partner environments using an MCP Server, expanded APIs, and granular access controls. Inside the Cisco Cloud Control console, an AgenticOps feature called Model Foundry enters controlled availability, allowing partners to evaluate and fine-tune models such as Deep Network 1.4 and Antares-3B using dedicated GPU pipelines. ThousandEyes testing agents are now natively integrated into Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 hardware at no extra cost under eligible Essentials and Advantage licenses, and Cisco widened its Live Protect patching system to include Catalyst SD-WAN and C9000 Smart Switches. [2]

To align with shifts in enterprise software consumption, Cisco overhauled its Cisco 360 Partner Program to reward services beyond transactional hardware sales. The updated Cisco Partner Incentive structure raises annual contract value growth rewards by 50 percent, doubles adoption incentives across all use cases, and introduces a 2 percent cross-sell bonus for partners expanding customer footprints into new architectures such as Splunk. [1][2]