Cisco said this week that it slashed 6,500 jobs, and when you add that to other recent restructuring moves the company is losing a total of 16.5 percent of its workforce. Network World's Jim Duffy takes a look at what the paring down may mean for enterprise customers.

The manufacturer eliminated 550 jobs recently when it dumped its Flip videocam unit and re-organized its consumer business, but it is not completely clear where some of the other layoffs occurred and which products may be affected. Some business units are expected to go as Cisco attempts to return to its core expertise.

One hope is that the pared-down operation will make Cisco easier to work with, analysts said. By eliminating extraneous businesses and focusing on its main constituencies, the gear maker may make it harder for rivals to lure customers away with the prospect of an easier relationship.

At the same time, trimming non-core activities may provide opportunities for the vendor to make acquisitions that are a better fit with its primary markets. "Cisco needs a big play in storage to double down on their data center fabric architecture of compute, networking and storage integration" after the restructuring, said analyst Nick Lippis.

What's more, Cisco may just be the first vendor undergoing this kind of transition, Lippis predicted. "HP and Microsoft have found that in the last 18 months their products are on the wrong side of a massive buying curve, that being mobile and cloud computing," he said.

For more:
- see Jim Duffy's article at Network World

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