Cisco Systems continue to trim the fat before Chuck Robbins steps in as CEO next week after longtime leader, John Chambers, steps down.
The networking titan will no longer sell storage hardware, a line of business it inherited with its $415 million acquisition of storage startup Whiptail in 2013. The company will still sell a line of servers that has storage capabilities, but not a product that’s sole purpose it to store data.
Analysts told the Wall Street Journal that Cisco’s move to selling storage equipment put it at odds with some of its longtime partners, like EMC (EMC) and NetApp (NTAP).
“Cisco is prioritizing the elements of our portfolio to drive the most value for our customers both now and in the future, and today, we are announcing the End of Life (EoL) for the Invicta Appliance and Scaling System products,” a company spokesperson told CRN.
The decision to shed the business makes sense considering Cisco (CSCO) just sold off its set-top box business Thursday for $600 million to remove one more less-profitable product line that drag down the company’s core networking technology business.
On Monday, Robbins, Cisco’s senior vice president of worldwide field operations, will begin his first day on the job as the company’s CEO. Chambers will remain as chairman.
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