Cisco Restructuring: 6 Things You Need To Know

Along with Cisco’s David Goeckeler leaving the firm, the tech giant revealed a series of executive changes and several reorganized business units as Cisco zeros-in on cloud, applications, and emerging technologies.

Executive Shakeup

Cisco Systems last week announced a major change to its executive leadership team. Cisco veteran David Goeckeler, executive vice president and general manager of the Networking and Security business, revealed that he was moving on to become CEO of Western Digital. At the same time, Cisco announced his successor: Todd Nightingale, Cisco's current senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Meraki, is becoming senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's $34 billion Enterprise Networking and Cloud Business. But that's not the only major shakeup.

The San Jose, Calif.-based tech giant revealed a series of executive changes and several new and reworked business units as the firm pivots to focus on cloud, applications, and emerging technologies.

Here are six things solution providers should know about Cisco's restructuring plans.

According To Cisco

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins (pictured) in a tweet last week wished Goeckeler well in his new role leading Western Digital. "We will miss you but we will all be your biggest fans! Go make us proud as we know you will!" Robbins tweeted.

Cisco told CRN that the firm is excited to add Nightingale to its executive leadership team, especially because he's known for his work on the Cisco Meraki portfolio and the efforts Cisco is making to combine cloud and networking in keeping with customer demand around multi-cloud and simplification. Nightingale will be leading Cisco's newly combined Enterprise Networking and Cloud division.

In addition to executive leadership changes, the tech giant also revealed several re-organized business groups.

“We are always looking to build the strongest portfolio and platforms for the future. Our customers want simplicity, security, and real-time collaboration as they accelerate their cloud, 5G and AI strategies. Our new product leaders are experts in these areas, and we are thrilled to have them bring new perspectives to Cisco's executive team. Cisco's new engineering team structure aligns with our transformation strategy to drive growth and innovation,” a Cisco spokesperson said of the changes.

Collaboration Lead Amy Chang Takes Time Off

Executive Vice President and General Manager of Cisco's Collaboration business Amy Chang has decided to take time off to spend time with her family, according to the company. Cisco said that Chang is not leaving Cisco and that the firm looks forward to her return.

In the meantime, Sri Srinivasan, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Team Collaboration Group, is expanding his role to lead Cisco's Collaboration business. Unlike Chang, however, Srinivasan will not become a member of Cisco's executive leadership team.

New Security And Applications Group: Leader TBD

Cisco is combining its security and applications groups. Cisco believes that bringing these two groups together under one roof will help the company help customers with modern application development, security and the employee and customer experience.

Cisco is currently on the hunt for a lead for the new Security and Applications group, who will be a member of Cisco's executive leadership team. Senior Vice President Gee Rittenhouse will continue to lead Cisco's security group and Danny Winokur will continue to lead our AppDynamics business as the unit's general manager. Rittenhouse and Winokur will report to the soon-to-be announced leader of the Security and Applications Group. In the meantime, both are reporting to Robbins.

Liz Centoni To Lead New Future Tech Business Unit

Centoni, a 19-year Cisco veteran, served as senior vice president and general manager of IoT for Cisco for nearly two years before she was tapped as the leader of the Cloud Strategy and Compute business unit that was formed in November. Now, Centoni is being called on again to head up a brand-new business unit for Cisco, it's Future Technologies and Incubation group.

In her new capacity, Centoni will do for next-generation technologies what she did for IoT, according to Cisco. As Senior Vice President of Future Technologies and Incubation, she and her team will identify new markets for Cisco and grow these new opportunities.

The Cloud Strategy and Compute business has been moved into the new Enterprise Networking and Cloud business under Nightingale's leadership.

Core Hardware Platforms Group Brings Together Silicon, Hardware

Cisco is combining its silicon group together with its hardware platform and optics team to make sure Cisco's various business units are all on the same page with one platform. The company said hardware will be critical for the Internet of the Future, and Robbins wants one team in charge of developing that platform.

Leading the group will be Senior Vice President of Core Hardware Platform, Eyal Dagan (pictured). Up until now, Dagan served as senior vice president of Cisco's Core ASIC Group within the Common Hardware Group.

Jonathan Davidson To Lead New Mass-Scale Infrastructure Group

Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco's Service Provider Business since 2018, Jonathan Davidson has been named senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's new Mass-Scale Infrastructure Group.

The newly-formed group is focusing not only on the service provider customer segment and 5G opportunities, but webscale and very large enterprise customers, too, a big area of focus for Cisco, the company said.

Davidson's organization is focused on building silicon, optics, hardware, and software for some of the largest and advanced networks in the world, according to Cisco.