What is CDN

CDN is Cisco Developer Network program that allows a technology partner to participate at various levels with Cisco Technology groups. This is a common program across Cisco and replaces the previous CTDP program which was run individually within the BU

What is Solution Verification

Solution Verification is the AssureWave program which you are already familiar with and working with WNBU.  It provides you an opportunity to inter-op your devices with private images from WNBU

What is needed to participate in the Solution Verification program

Learn more about and  enroll in CDN using the process detailed in this weblink

http://developer.cisco.com/web/partner/join

Enroll /update appropriate products and software versions that your device will work with and interoperate with Cisco devices.

Share engineering contacts who will be part of the validation team with AssureWave/Solution verification

What are partner responsibilities for solution verification and benefits

Partner will get access to private engineering builds for current outgoing release and enable them to test those with their product. This ensures that common customers will not see any issues when they upgrade images in their wireless infrastructure. Partner can validate the interoperability of their device or application for e.g. radio, security and addition area of focus like Voice, healthcare device, multicast application.

Cisco will provide test plan as a guiding document to focus your testing on. Partner can augment their testing as needed in addition to that document.

 

What do I expect after becoming part of Solution verification program

Partner will be provided access to CDN portal as a member of CDN. They can post messages to member community. Cisco will send announcements about availability of BETA images. Partner can accept or decline to participate in a specific release.  BETA candidate builds will be provided for lab use. Partner would test and provide feedback on interactions with their device and any anomalies observed.

How do I communicate with AssureWave program team and get updated information

Solution Verification contacts would be listed and partner can communicated with them via CDN community portal for general queries and directly for specific answers. Regular updates for AssureWave program progress would be also available via CDN portal

How many releases are available to test

Typical release cycle runs from 2 Mainline releases and 2 Maintenance Releases MR per year. How many releases should I participate in

Partner is expected to participate in all mainline releases and spot check MR releases as time permits. This would be determined and communicated by Partner program manager based on perceived importance of specific image

What kind of support will be available for bug fixes

P1 bugs will be rushed to fixed in current release. P2, P3 would be included in the MR release within next 3 months of mainline. Partner product will be listed as verified on CDN partner portal appropriate release versions

What does Cisco AssureWave Solution focus on

AssureWave team certifies Maintenance Releases MR for stability longetivity focusing on customer vertical environments and applications. AsssureWave certified release is listed on Cisco CCO.com software download page and is the image of choice for most environments where stability and low downtime is of utmost importance. Most customers prefer to download only AW certified releases. Our vertical environments are representations of customer environments based on feedback from SE’s and NCE’s. They carry a flavor of devices and applications used in that vertical at customer site.

How do I get my equipment into AssureWave labs

You can visit and provide support to setup your device into AssureWave Labs and leave your setup in the lab network. This will provide opportunity to test with every release that AssureWave certifies

What is a AssureWave Certified release and how do I find out which release is certified

AssureWave certified release is listed on Cisco CCO.com software download center with AW stamp of approval . AW certification test results are available

http://www.cisco.com/go/assurewave

How does this benefit to our product.

Test Results are posted for certified releases and products tested are listed with their versions. Certified releases are heavily deployed in customer environments with high confidence. Partner that engage and participate in the test cycle would expect to see higher stability and interoperability with AssureWave releases

What kind of support is available for customer escalations involving partner product

The intent of Customer Support is to solve product and system-related problems for our mutual customers in a manner that maintains a high level of customer satisfaction. Partner should develop a level of expertise within the team and have a engineer available for escalation events.  It is recommended that if partner product is involved, the partner should follow the proper process of requesting customer to open a TAC and allow TAC team to resolve the issue first. There is significant firsthand knowledge about filed issues history that is available directly to the Wireless TAC team. Circumventing this process and directly contacting Wireless BU generates undue waste of Wireless Engineering resources.

 

If issue is critical, then it can be escalated to BU level by requesting TAC team to escalate the Case ID to BU level. Following this process ensures no historical information is lost during the transfer. Partner can provide the heads up to the BU only after TAC has agreed to escalate.