Cisco, IBM Expand Alliance

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Cisco(R) (NASDAQ: CSCO) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the expansion oftheir Global Services Alliance and their collaboration to provide productmaintenance services for mutual enterprise customers in 46 new countries.This collaboration builds on the success that IBM and Cisco have seen withinthe United States and means that IBM customers who purchase Cisco networkingtechnology solutions will now get a globally consistent level of ITinfrastructure support. The collaboration includes IBM's extensiveservice-delivery capabilities and Cisco's technical expertise in oneintegrated support offering.

"This is a significant evolution in our Global Services Alliance,"said Karl Meulema vice president, Cisco services marketing and channels."Providing a collaborative maintenance service offering means our mutualcustomers will no longer need to choose between Cisco networking skills orIBM multivendor systems integrator capabilities. Instead customers get thecollective expertise of both companies, combining the best of both worlds."

"We have been working together on these service offerings in the UnitedStates for the past three years and are excited to offer a broader globalcustomer experience by expanding our efforts into additional markets aroundthe world," said Robert Kritzer, vice president, IBM-Cisco StrategicAlliance, IBM Global Technology Services. "Our relationship with Ciscoallows us to provide our customers with a single resource to seamlessly andrapidly integrate business processes, industry knowledge, informationtechnologies and the intelligence of the network."

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO)

IBM Corp.