Cisco Systems Inc at Raymond James Systems, Semiconductors, Software & Supply Chain Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : Great. Why don't we move into a couple of questions? And I've thought of a few new ones as we've been talking, but one of the things maybe just help set a little bit of context is if you could help the audience understand the domain of your role as Chief Architect, what products specifically you worry about within Cisco.

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : And there's a small elephant in the back of the room; I want to shoo the elephant out. So let me ask you real quick, last Friday Cisco filed a lawsuit against Arista. To have you not have to answer the question over and over today in your one-on-one sessions, any comments you can offer on what this lawsuit means to Cisco?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : Okay. One of the things that you're focusing on that I think is interesting is we've all been lost in the weeds I think in the financial community network analysts about what happens to routers and switches. And you're talking about what's happening to the business. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 08, 2014 / 2:35PM, CSCO.OQ - Cisco Systems Inc at Raymond James Systems, Semiconductors, Software & Supply Chain Conference One of the aspects I've watched is Cisco's really focused on applications. And so I've grown actually a little bit more confused between ACI and intercloud, two terms that Cisco has been using, where I think of ACI as of the launch back in November of application-centric infrastructure and now we're hearing more about intercloud. Help people understand the relationships between these concepts.

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : So when we think about how the industry is evolving Cisco has clearly got its position. Can you help us understand the competitive landscape and the trade-offs in that other companies are offering different strategies and different solutions? What are the trade-offs for either Cisco or for the customer that they are considering when making a decision? Do they choose Cisco? Do they simply outsource to somebody like AWS? Or do they choose another supplier to help them build an architecture?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : To me that sounds very similar to the situation I've observed with the security market where -- and, please, tell me if I'm getting this wrong. But I've looked at Cisco when it comes to security sales solutions; approaches the Company and sells a security solution, where some of the competitors will be very focused and they will win deals when they are trying to point product to a single person who's making a single decision. And the market has sort of split. It sounds similar that you're describing a situation where the market may split where Cisco will do well with customers who want to buy a solution and may not do as well with customers who are looking for certain point products.

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : And one of the messages I'm taking from your presentation is that for your customer or your customers customer it's tremendous savings in operations. The IT staff, you don't need to keep throwing bodies at the network to do things because the network is easier to use. So this sounds pretty compelling. What's your thought on the timeline of adoption? Is this something that you're seeing adoption today or is there a one-year evaluation, two years? When does this become mainstream?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : I think the earliest examples of these kinds of architectures were really home built by guys like Google. They built their own sort of SDN architectures as proof-of-concept. When you look at the market you're seeing emerging today, how would you characterize that customer base? Are there certain market verticals or certain characteristics that would separate early adopters and what type of customer would you see as a later adopter?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : I don't know; can you give me an example? I would think like a retail business --.

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : And historically banks have been experts in terms of new technologies as well as federal government agencies. Where do you see the financial vertical and the government verticals fitting in?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : Financials, big banks. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 08, 2014 / 2:35PM, CSCO.OQ - Cisco Systems Inc at Raymond James Systems, Semiconductors, Software & Supply Chain Conference

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : I guess I just worry about banks and government agencies tend to be real belt-and-suspenders cultures and so change is something that's difficult to really go through. It's always disruptive and presents new risk, but they are usually experimenting early. And I'm just wondering what are the implications for security for government agencies and banks who are extra careful on those fronts?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : Almost out of time. I've got a couple more, but let me just check with the audience if anybody has got questions. In the back. I'll repeat it if -- Unidentified Audience Member Can you talk about the emerging competition with VMware and Palo Alto's collaboration (inaudible) going after the service providers?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : I don't want to get in trouble and run us all behind schedule, but I want to ask one last question. In terms of what are the future things that you're thinking about, what you looking at beyond the acronyms of NfV and SDN? What kind of cool stuff should we be paying attention to?

Question: Simon Leopold - Raymond James - Analyst : David, I want to thank you very much. Folks, I want to thank you for joining us. It was very enlightening. Always a lot of neat stuff. I'll never figure it all out, but it's fun to keep learning.