Cisco is undertaking a major restructuring effort in order to invest in priority areas such as security and Internet of Things that includes the elimination of up to 5,500 positions.
“Restructuring [enables] us to optimize our cost base in lower growth areas of our portfolio and further invest in key priority areas such as security, IoT, collaboration, next generation data center and cloud,” said CEO Chuck Robbins, during Cisco’s fourth fiscal quarter earnings call with financial analysts on Wednesday.
Cisco will reinvest “substantially all of the cost savings” from the restructuring back into these fast-growth business areas. The 5,500 layoffs, representing about 7 percent of Cisco’s global workforce, will begin in the first quarter of fiscal year currently underway.
[Related: Sources: Cisco Privately Bashes New Nutanix Hyper-converged UCS Offering Ahead Of Debut]
Sources recently told CRN that Cisco was planning to cut between 9,000 to 14,000 positions within the next few weeks. Cisco executives on the call did not indicate if additional cuts were to be expected in the future.
Cisco declined to comment when asked by CRN if additional cuts were expected.
Channel partners cheered the San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant’s decision to restructure, saying it’s a necessity in today’s changing market.
“Freeing up dollars to accelerate market alignment is what partners would like to see,” said Kent Macdonald, vice president of converged infrastructure and network services at Long View Systems, a Calgary, Alberta-based solution provider and Cisco Gold partner. “It’s sad to see the departures, but it’s a reality that we all face. We all have to make those transitions or we lose our market relevance.”
Macdonald said the skill set needed in today’s market is forcing the industry to seek a “new generation” of talent such as data scientists and security experts.
Robert Keblusek, CTO of Downers Grove, Ill.- based Sentinel Technologies, a Cisco Gold partner, said the push in high-growth markets such as cloud security will create more growth opportunities for channel partners.
“Cisco’s got a lot of good products and a lot of good things going on, but they probably get a little bit spread out overtime,” said Keblusek. “Maybe this is the time to do some clean up, tighten up and refocus … I didn’t see Cisco take a huge hit in their capabilities during previous times when [Cisco cut] positions.”
