Cisco has reorganized in an effort to reshape the company into a network applications management firm.

As revenue from its traditional network plumbing gear shrivels, the company intends to reshape the network and make it the core platform for all enterprise IT. That includes embedding more software and service functions into the network that today reside on servers, high-end computing systems, desktop PCs and special-purpose computing appliances, such as application accelerators and load balancers, according to a story in Network World by Jim Duffy.

Four groups will be overseen by the Cisco Development Organization, headed by Charlie Giancarlo, Cisco’s executive vice president and chief development officer. The groups are (more details about each group in Duffy's story):

* The Access Networking and Services Group

* The Consumer and Small Business Group

* The Data Center, Switching & Services Group

* The Software Group

Along with this restructuring, Cisco announced the establishment of a development council made up of CDO management and chaired by Giancarlo. This council will be chartered to oversee Cisco's ability to deliver more integrated products to customers.

Integration is good for existing customers but how attractive is it for potential ones? See the timely Cisco Subnet Community discussion around this week's Wide Area Network Alert newsletter: Why it's time to break out of the 'Cisco-is-the-only-vendor-for-me' mindset, in which Nortel slams a Cisco lock-in and argues for best-of-breed vendors.

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