With a nearly $60B revenue run rate, growing at 14% and throwing off over $5B in operating cash last quarter, Cisco has an awesome business. But customers are vocal about the complexity of Cisco’s portfolio and if not addressed head on, the company risks encountering friction beyond just economic headwinds. We believe Cisco’s challenges are most decidedly not product breadth and depth, rather the company’s mandate is to integrate the piece parts of its intricate offerings to create more facile and seamless experiences for customers. 

In this Breaking Analysis and ahead of Cisco Live US, we dig deeper into Cisco’s business and double click on three key areas of its portfolio including: 1) Security; 2) Networking; and 3) Observability. With spending data from ETR and a guest appearance from SiliconANGLE contributor and market watcher Zeus Kerravala, principal at ZK Research. 

Is Cisco a buy? 

https://www.investors.com/news/technology/cisco-stock-buy-now/

Gartner MQ on observability & APM:

https://www.honeycomb.io/gartner-magic-quadrant-apm-observability-2022

Cisco’s most recent earnings transcript

https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2023/05/17/cisco-systems-csco-q3-2023-earnings-call-transcrip/

Cisco financial slide deck

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4605527-cisco-systems-inc-2023-q3-results-earnings-call-presentation