microsoft-ignite

0

By Alexandria Sage and Arathy S Nair SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Cisco Systems Inc said it would cut nearly 7 percent of its workforce, posting charges of up to $400 million in its first quarter, as the world's largest networking gear maker shifts focus from its legacy hardware towards higher-margin software. The gradual move to fast-growing sectors such as security, the Internet of Things and the cloud is a response to sluggish demand for Cisco's traditional lineup of switches and routers from telecom carriers and enterprise customers, amid intense competition from companies such as Huawei and Juniper Networks Inc. Savings from up to 5,500 job cuts would be reinvested into key growth areas, Cisco said. “We think this is partly an effort by (CEO) Chuck Robbins to put a stake in the ground and send a message that this is going to be a leaner, meaner Cisco that is focused on driving software and recurring revenue business,” said Guggenheim Securities analyst Ryan Hutchinson.

0

In the attacks, a highly sophisticated form of malicious software, dubbed SYNful Knock, has been implanted in routers made by Cisco , the world's top supplier, U.S. security research firm FireEye said on Tuesday. “If you own (seize control of) the router, you own the data of all the companies and government organizations that sit behind that router,” FireEye Chief Executive Dave DeWalt told Reuters of his company's discovery. Cisco confirmed it had alerted customers to the attacks in August and said they were not due to any vulnerability in its own software.