Cisco's head of enterprise networking bails

Cisco's senior veep for Enterprise Products and Solutions has left the company.

Robert Soderbery posted news of his departure on LinkedIn, where he attributed his move to a seven year itch.

“Seven has always been the magic number in my career,” he wrote, as “after 7 years, new callings beckon, new adventures to be sought. Whether being thrust from the nest, lured to new opportunities or plunging off on my own, it has always been the same seven years. It is a sufficient time to make a contribution of significance, while not so long that you forget how to do new things. And thus it is again as I depart from Cisco.”

But there's perhaps a little more to this than meets the eye, as Cisco re-organised its affairs in March 2016. While Sorderbery was a member of Cisco's executive leadership team, in early June June his position atop the Borg's networking unit was taken by David Goeckeler, who also runs Cisco's security products.

Let's do some math: Goeckeler became Sorderbery's boss and/or supplanted his gig atop Cisco networking in early June, or One … two … three months – 90 days – ago. Which seems a decent amount of time for Goeckeler to get his plans rolling and for a quiet exit for Soderbery.

He seems unfussed by his departure from Cisco, with his LinkedIn post full of his plans to surf his Cisco experience into all manner of disruptive buzzwordery.

Goeckeler, meanwhile, now has about half of Cisco's revenue in his care. No pressure, then … ®