Every Friday, we'll highlight the most important Cisco partner news and stories of the week, 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:

Off the Top

The big news for us this week was the launch of the Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI). This new approach to data center infrastructure brings simplicity, security and agility for applications. The plan, as presented by Chairman and CEO John Chambers, will reduce the time it take to provision, change or remove applications from months to minutes.

Be sure to review the John Chambers' blog, join the conversation, and get up to speed on everything related to the ACI announcement from this week through these other informative blogs:

• Redefining the Power of IT with Application Centric Infrastructure by Shashi Kiran
• Is Your Data Center Ready for ACI Transformation? by Scott Clark
• Security Drives Major Transition in the Network and Data Center by Chris Young
• Introducing Cisco Application Virtual Switch: Extending Virtual Networking Applications by Balaji Sivasubramanian
• Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI): Application Network Profiles for Security and Network Services by Gary Kinghorn
•  Automation and Application Centric Infrastructure by Joann Starke

Watch this space for updates on ACI in the future. We hope you'll take the time to see what many other technology leaders think about Cisco's ACI announcement, and feel free to join the ACI conversation in our comments here as well. We always welcome your feedback!

Good Reads

• Marie Hattar discussed secure BYOD for midsize business
• Sheila Jordan posted about how a powerful network simplifies the adoption of new mobile devices
• John Stewart provided insight on the Internet of Everything, including security
• Bob Friday points out how mobility means new business opportunities

Keep An Eye Out

• The next two Wednesdays feature ACI as part of the Voice of the Engineer series. Drop in and register for one, or both, sessions now.
• Swing by the Cisco Partner Event calendar for the latest information on Cisco partner gatherings.