Chambers: Cisco will be more of a software and services company

The company's not just about boxes anymore, CEO tells financial analysts.

Cisco, the quintessential IT hardware maker, wants you to start thinking about it as software and services company.

CEO John Chambers told analysts in New York today that the switch/router manufacturer that is also heavily invested in video and server gear that the company plans to double its revenues from software over the next five years from $6 billion to $12 billion, according to a Reuters report.

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The unified Cisco infrastructure the applications will ride on includes unified data centers, core networking, access networks and security.

In his presentation Chambers addressed the company's future under the banner "Why We Will Win."

The reasons:

- Cisco is at the center of a world moving to IP

- A transition is ongoing toward network-based IT

- The combination of Cisco ASICs, hardware, software and services yield required intelligent IP networks

- Cisco unifies networking, computing and storage

- Cisco's culture, track record, size, installed base, financial stability and innovation are all strengths.

(Tim Greene covers Microsoft for Network World and writes the Mostly Microsoft blog. Reach him at tgreene@nww.com and follow him on Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/Tim_Greene.)

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