Cisco's UK sales rocket 17 per cent
John Chambers singles out UK as golden child as networking giant rebounds strongly in Q2
John Chambers has hailed Cisco’s “phenomenal execution” in the UK in its Q2 as the networking giant soared to what he described as its best quarter for three years.
The UK was picked out as a particular hotspot – growing 17 per cent – as Chambers used Cisco’s Q2 conference call to talk up his firm’s success in remodeling itself for the cloud and Internet of Everything era.
Total global sales rose seven per cent to $11.9bn (£7.8bn), with Cisco achieving the best balance of growth in 12 quarters across its key geographies, product categories and customer segments, Chambers said. Non-GAAP net profit increased by nine per cent to $2.7bn.
Among the highlights was a 40 per cent jump in datacentre sales, with revenue run rate for its UCS server wares having reached $3bn, with more than 41,000 customers. There are now more than 50 partners and 400 datacentres in the ecosystem for Cisco’s 11-month-old "cloud-of-clouds" Intercloud business, Chambers added.
Chambers (pictured) had been more optimistic about EMEA than most of Cisco's peers and that optimism was vindicated as sales from the region pogoed seven per cent.
“We saw phenomenal execution in the UK, up 17 per cent,” Chambers said on the call, a transcript of which can be found here.
Chambers put the rebound of his company, which underwent some dark times a couple of years ago, to its ability to take the tough decisions early in the face of wide-reaching industry change.
"Cisco is leading where the market is going," Chambers said.
"Most companies resist changing until it's too late and their market credibility is eroded - the classic innovator's dilemma. It was our choice to move early and boldly with incredible speed to realign 40 per cent of our employees to priority areas. To be organised from product groups and to integrated solutions teams, to replace more than 30 per cent of our leaders. We are seeing the results and our relevancy with our customers and our operational excellence and that is driving our financial performance."
Cisco referenced its favourite Internet of Everything buzzphrase no fewer than 17 times on the call and Chambers likened IoE - and the role Cisco will play in it - to the opportunity surrounding the internet boom in the 1990s.
"In the 90s when companies needed to go online on the internet, Cisco was the though leader, the company with the product leadership and the best example of a company capitalising on all the transitions. Our customers wanted our help and to follow our example," he said.
"Fast-forward to today, the next generation of the internet, the Internet of Everything should generate at least five to 10 times the value of the first generation of the internet to date."