Each week, we'll highlight the most important Cisco partner news and stories, as well as point you to important, Cisco-related partner content you may have missed along the way. Here's what you might have missed this week:

Well it's cold. The Polar Vortex strikes the US again and as I sit here in North Carolina, it is 29 degrees outside! But it already feels like communications and events are heating up now that we are on a collision course with spring. As we all bide our time for warmer weather, let's take a look back at this week.

Off the Top

We had the honor this week of working with Senior Director of Cisco Global Adoption and Seller Readiness Thomas Winter on posting a great blog that should be of interest to a lot of our partners. Thomas' blog about our Cisco Commerce Workspace (CCW) transformation highlights how we took 21 disparate tools and pared them all down into one. The focus here is on ease of doing business with Cisco but there is also fantastic information on large-scale IT implementation and Thomas does a great job showing what worked for us.

Be sure to check out the blog from Thomas and join in the conversation. Let us know what you think of the new CCW.

Global IT Security Professional Shortage

We often take the time to highlight important blogs from other areas within Cisco, and we had one this week that should raise an eyebrow for all of our partners. John Stewart posted that, according to the Cisco Annual Security Report (CASR), we could be facing a global shortage of 500,000 to 1,000,000 security professionals in the near future.

How do you deal with that shortage? Read John's blog for some insight and check out his included video on addressing the security skills gap.

First Customer Shipment for Customer Collaboration Software Release 10.0

Release 10.0 of the Customer Collaboration product portfolio has reached first customer shipment (FCS). The Customer Collaboration 10.0 release introduces consistency across the contact center portfolio, further simplification and continuous innovation.

Good Reads

• Ian Pudney looks at how Cisco IT got from legacy PBX to Unified Communications
• Harry Petty reviews a report on the Cisco Nexus 9000
• Joseph Bradley talks about the Internet of Everything (IoE) retailer
• Gary Klinghorn clarifies one point on ACI versus SDN
• Ravi Balakrishnan looks ahead to Cisco Live Milan
• Mark Yoltan proves it's not too late to make your digital resolutions
• Marcus Phipps rings in the new year with FlexPod
• Russ Smoak reviews the 2014 Cisco Annual Security Report
• Lauren Friedman asks if you're ready for the next step in the Smart Grid

Keep An Eye Out

• Register to attend the Security Global Partner launch webcast on February 18 or 19 to hear more about our new Security Model Strategy.
• Swing by the Cisco Partner Event calendar for the latest information on Cisco partner gatherings.