CRN reported that Cisco announced Cisco IQ for Partners as generally available at Partner Summit 2026 in Vancouver, with a white-label option. The practical route depends on the partner’s arrangement: Cisco describes one model that uses a customer’s account and another that gives the partner a separate account.
The partner extension was presented as a way to use Cisco IQ insights about customer risks and modernization needs to support managed services. Cisco IQ itself had been announced as generally available on April 29, 2026; that was a separate milestone from the partner announcement.
Start with the contract: it determines which account and customer assets a partner can access, while assigned roles set further permission boundaries.
Two routes to partner access
Cisco’s getting-started guide sets out different contract and account requirements for the two partner models.
| Access model | Contract and registration | Account | Access scope |
| Cisco Support Resale | Active resale contract with the customer; customer approval; a Delegated Administrator registers the partner user in PSS. | The customer’s existing Cisco IQ account. | Limited by the resale contract and assigned role. Covered assets under that contract are visible by default. |
| Cisco Partner Support | Active Cisco Partner Support-Basic or Cisco Partner Support-Standard contract; partner user registered in PSS. | A separate account Cisco creates based on the contract. | Depends on the partner’s contract and assigned role. Cisco Support-covered assets are not visible through this model. |
For Support Resale, a partner therefore needs approval from the customer whose account it will access. Cisco Partner Support instead ties access to the partner’s own eligible support contract. That route currently covers Basic and Standard tiers.
Roles and asset visibility set the boundaries
Partner Self-Service (PSS) is Cisco’s system for registering partner users and assigning roles. Cisco IQ applications give Partner Admin users read-and-write access and Partner Viewer users read-only access. API permissions are assigned separately. Changes to PSS users or roles can take up to 24 hours to appear in Cisco IQ.
Asset visibility also depends on the contract. Under Cisco Partner Support, assets covered by Cisco Support are not visible through this partner model. Assets covered by the partner’s Cisco Partner Support or Partner Advanced Support contracts are visible according to those contracts; assets without support coverage may appear through telemetry with limited capabilities.
The Add Partner screen displays a notice that selected partners can view products they have sold to the customer. It illustrates an access boundary in this interface; the applicable contract and assigned role determine a partner’s access.
