Avnet Government Solutions, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), a leading global technology distributor, announced that it has expanded its General Services Administration (GSA) schedule to include Cisco products and solutions. Avnet partners will now be able to provide Cisco data center, storage and networking solutions to government organizations for their application, virtualized and cloud environments. This will allow Avnet Government Solutions to better serve its U.S. government (federal, state, local and education) partners, and broaden their offerings for the public sector.

The addition of Cisco to Avnet Government Solutions’ GSA schedule provides partners with access to the federal government’s largest Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), which agencies use to purchase innovative solutions for their IT needs. Avnet Government Solutions’ partners will now be able to provide Cisco products, without making the expensive investments to maintain their own contracts.

“Avnet made a public commitment to participation and growth in the government vertical market when Avnet Government Solutions was established in July 2014,” said Pete Rzonca, president of Avnet Government Solutions. “Adding major manufacturers like Cisco to the Avnet GSA schedule is further evidence of Avnet’s commitment to this market.”

In 2015, Avnet, Inc. and Cisco marked their fifth anniversary of partnership in the data center market. Avnet has built and developed a community of highly specialized solution provider partners during this time that have supported Cisco through its entry into the data center server market and played an integral role in Cisco becoming one of the technology leaders in this space. In turn, this relationship has provided Avnet’s partners with access to innovative technologies to create next-generation data centers for their customers, especially through the use of Cisco-based integrated infrastructure systems.

“As an early adopter of Cisco’s data center technologies, IronBrick has been a key advocate to Cisco in delivering converged infrastructure technologies, including FlexPod, to numerous government customers,” said Jeff Morrow, co-founder of IronBrick, an Avnet Government Solutions partner and a leading provider of data center solutions. “Our partnership with Avnet Government Solutions will benefit our government clients by helping to provide the most agile and efficient Cisco data center solutions ready to solve complex information technology challenges.”

Avnet Government Solutions offers services to partners specifically designed to provide a comprehensive approach to pursuing federal and state, local and education contracts, including capture assistance, compliance and process management. Partners are also able to access additional resources to help further accelerate their capabilities in the government market.

Avnet, Inc.’s ability to help Cisco successfully grow its data center business has been well recognized throughout the industry. As a result, Avnet has received multiple awards, including Cisco’s Global Distribution Partner of the Year in 2013; Cisco’s Americas Distribution Partner of the Year in 2015; Cisco’s Worldwide Distribution Data Center Distributor of the Year in 2012, 2013 and 2014; and Cisco’s Data Center Distribution Partner of the Year in 2014.