Cisco has announced a new CEO to take over from John Chambers when he steps down this summer, ending a 20-year tenure at the helm of the networking giant.
Incoming boss and the current senior vice president, Chuck Robbins, has been with the company for nearly two decades himself, in which time he's focused largely on global sales.
Cisco board members Roderick McGeary and Francine Katsoudas said in a blog post that Robbins "will both accelerate what makes Cisco an undeniably great company and also drive the transformation to carry the company to a whole new level".
The move comes just days after Chambers recommitted the company to pursuing the Internet of Things (IoT) - or Internet of Everything in Cisco parlance - market.
Gartner believes there will be 25 billion connected devices by 2020, and Cisco predicts the IoT could generate $19 trillion for the US economy alone over the next 10 years.
Bola Rotibi, research director at analyst group Creative Intellect Consulting, told IT Pro that the firm's change in direction means it's a good time to make a change at the top.
"It makes sense for Cisco to do this," she said. "Chambers has grown the company from $1.7 billion to $49 billion and taken it incredibly far forward over the past 20 years.
"But if you look at the marketplace now, there's a lot of competition and Cisco's growth over the past few years has started to slow down."
"We're entering a new era in technology that requires a new way of thinking," she added. "Robbins has a very good record inside Cisco and pushing sales is going to be really important going forward, so this appointment makes a lot of sense."
When he takes over in late July, Robbins has said he will use the first three months of his time as CEO to "listen" to others in the company, according to Reuters.
"The market is moving too rapidly for any one individual to think they have all the answers," Robbins told the publication.
Picture: Chuck Robbins
