Cisco's fourth quarter results signal that enterprise customers and service providers are still spending - or at least still ordering equipment - but Cisco CEO John Chambers is still cautious of the challenges caused by the macroeconomic environment and its effect on IT spending over the coming few quarters.

Cisco recorded fourth quarter net sales of $10.4 billion, beating Wall Street estimates by $100 million and growing 10% from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007. Net income, excluding expenses, charges and other items, was $2.4 billion, or $0.40 per share, a penny better than analyst estimates and an increase of 11%. Q4 was the first $10 billion quarter in Cisco’s history, reports Network World's Jim Duffy.

Order growth in the enterprise/public sector segment of Cisco’s business was up 10% and up 5% in service provider. The commercial segment saw 17% order growth.

Orders for routers were up 14%, switching up 7% and Advanced Technologies up 21%, with Unified Communications orders up 51% and Application Networking Services up 36%.

Chambers is still confident that Cisco will achieve long term growth of between 12% and 17%.

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