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Cisco To Cut Thousands of Jobs As It Seeks To Focus on High Growth Areas (reuters.com) 38

Network giant Cisco is planning to restructure its business which will include laying off thousands of employees, as it seeks to focus on high-growth areas, according to three sources familiar with the matter. From the Reuters report: The San Jose, California-based company has a total employee count of 84,900 as of fiscal 2023, according to its website.The company is still deciding on the total number of employees to be affected by the layoffs, one person said.
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Cisco To Cut Thousands of Jobs As It Seeks To Focus on High Growth Areas

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  • Another big tech company cutting, Splunk also was acquisition heavy this year Splunk/Isovalent. So got some extra bodies to cut.
    • Cut or be cut. Big co s in tech offer experience including dealing with reorgs. Survive some a little relief and in a while another shake up. Except for a few key positions in main functions where some continuity good many expendable. Dedication and devotion fades quick and gives way to survival politics. The big co need to follow the reorg legal and accounting frameworks. Would be better to not hire so many and gradually reduce thru voluntary separations but system not so accomodating.
  • So anybody not a subscription service sales person is screwed. They will have no products, just subscriptions.

    • They will have no products, just subscriptions.

      Subscriptions mean steady quarterly income with little volatility. Analysts love that.

      Many of Cisco's customers also like subscriptions because it allows them to kick the costs down the road, preferably beyond the vesting date for their stock options.

  • Advertising on Joe Rogan's Spotify podcast.
  • And follow the hypes? Yah, that will go well.

    • by Junta ( 36770 )

      Sadly, it probably will.

      Dealing with Cisco shops, they don't believe any other company on earth can so much as pass a network packet.

      It would take a *lot* of screwing up to rattle the loyalty of Cisco customers.

      The "old" brands in tech inspire incredible loyalty, even as people are misinformed. Just recently I heard someone say they always buy ThinkPads because they want to support IBM, who hasn't been involved in almost 20 years (I like ThinkPads fine, but their relation to IBM is long dead).

      • by Slayer ( 6656 )

        It will probably take a lot more than just "screwing up" in Cisco's side, because "screwing up" they've already done in the last few years - with no visible reaction from clients using their products (and continuing to do so). If a hard coded and relatively easy to find admin account password in a network security product doesn't change minds, then little else will. The Cisco customer base would probably still buy Crypto AG machines if they were on sale ...

        • by gweihir ( 88907 )

          No argument. But the pressure is rising and attackers are getting even better. With the degree of political problems we now have world-wide, people that up to now were only spying might want to do damage instead. And if you make it even easier for them...

          Obviously, Cisco, like any other crappy tech company, tries to make it is hard as possible to move away from their products, but in the end there comes a point where you cannot really sustain an enterprise based on their stuff. My guess is that over the nex

          • by Slayer ( 6656 )

            No argument. But the pressure is rising and attackers are getting even better. With the degree of political problems we now have world-wide, people that up to now were only spying might want to do damage instead. And if you make it even easier for them...

            I absolutely agree with your technical conclusion, but management in large corporations doesn't think along technical lines. I have no idea, what does drive these C level suits, but they are magically drawn to Cisco, Microsoft and all these other peddlers of shitty wares, they really act like moths drawn to a candle, and I don't see that changing one bit regardless of the number of moths getting burned in the process.

            "After this disaster with Cisco's hardcoded admin account we'll take a look at OpenBSD" sai

            • by gweihir ( 88907 )

              I absolutely agree with your technical conclusion, but management in large corporations doesn't think along technical lines. I have no idea, what does drive these C level suits, but they are magically drawn to Cisco, Microsoft and all these other peddlers of shitty wares, they really act like moths drawn to a candle, and I don't see that changing one bit regardless of the number of months getting burned in the process.

              Thanks. I think it is essentially a deep-set insecurity and lack of understanding how things work. I have heard "we do a [insert vendor] strategy" too often. Of course, that is not a strategy, that is a surrender. And at some point, it becomes unsustainable. Sure, the "managers" will just do the same stupid thing with somebody else, but that somebody else will be in an earlier phase in the enshittification cycle and have overall more mature technology. And the more mature a technology gets, the longer the c

              • by Slayer ( 6656 )

                It will. But the pressure is rising dramatically. Regulation becomes stronger because the damage becomes a massive factor. A current number from the EU is EUR 2000 per EU citizen from IT security incidents alone per year. Hence KRITIS. And look how close Microsoft came last year to absolute catastrophe. These companies do not know how to make their technology good enough when faced with rising requirements and it will just get worse and worse. It is not like Boeing that has forgotten how to install bolts and make sure the are in there by doing inspections. That is just company rot, not rising requirements. It is that Microsoft, Cisco and all the others need to be innovative and do fundamental improvements in their products that carry a ton of tech-debt. They are not set up for that at all.

                Look at this very enlightening discussion I had with an account called "Tony Isaac" here in a thread [slashdot.org] kicked off by account Opportunist. Nope, they don't learn. They go to bed every night after a day without catastrophic events thinking they're pure gold. On days with catastrophic event they still think they're pure gold, just with a dose of bad luck. In their view those of us yammering and howling about large scale data leaks are just immature kids with no perspective on the real world, "look how the big bo

                • by gweihir ( 88907 )

                  Well. I do not disagree that these evil fucks will continue as long as they can. I think they will stop being able to continue in the not too distant future because using their products will incur cost that their customers cannot sustain anymore.

                  • by Slayer ( 6656 )

                    I've seen (fortunately from a safe distance) Code Red and Nimda ravage through the corporate world. I saw (again, fortunately from a safe distance) the "I love you" and "Anna Kurnikova" Outlook virus tear corporate networks into shreds for days.

                    A few billions in lost productivity here and there won't bat anyone's eye. You'd have to sink a few large corps for good if you want corporate pointy hair to rethink their positions ... :-(

                    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

                      You'd have to sink a few large corps for good if you want corporate pointy hair to rethink their positions ... :-(

                      Yes. And that is what I expect will happen. Code Red, Nimda, etc. were annoyances. What is to come will be existential threats.

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        It would take a *lot* of screwing up to rattle the loyalty of Cisco customers.

        Yes, very likely. I have seen that form of ignorance and borderline fanaticism in action. But, guess what, the pressure from attackers is rising and rising and I do not think Cisco is prepared even as they are. It just needs one "reference catastrophe". Think "Boeing" or what happened to the MS cloud last year but with an attacker that wants to do damage.

  • More cash for the higher ups. And it's all back-doored. Approved by the US Gov. Anyone know where I can learn Chinese?

  • Potential for growth, and you cut jobs because there's no work for those people to do. Makes sense.

  • I am sure that when the Cisco stock goes up as a result the Cisco executives will receive substantial bonuses to reward a job well done.

Somebody ought to cross ball point pens with coat hangers so that the pens will multiply instead of disappear.

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