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Cisco Systems helps businesses, governments, telecom operators and cloud providers build and run the networks connecting their users, applications and data centers. Networking products generate most of its revenue: switches, routers, wireless equipment and servers, including Cisco Silicon One-based systems for AI infrastructure. It also sells security tools, Webex collaboration products and software that monitors network and application performance.
Customers pay for equipment, software licenses and subscriptions, and services that support and help implement these systems. Technical support accounts for most service revenue. A substantial share of sales goes through distributors and other channel partners rather than directly to users; one global channel partner accounts for a significant share of total revenue. Cisco has also shifted toward recurring software and subscription offerings, which depend on customers renewing and expanding their contracts.
Its cloud and service-provider business depends on infrastructure spending and deployment decisions by a limited group of large buyers, including hyperscalers. Cisco relies on suppliers and contract manufacturers to deliver equipment, and some supply commitments cover customer-specific components with limited alternative uses. Export controls and sanctions restrict where it can sell and support products, while data-handling laws and government procurement requirements can limit which offerings customers may buy or use.
The risk section is the longest, dullest part of the filing. This keeps only what can really hurt you: where it hits, how hard, when it plays out.
Every company claims an edge. Each one is checked against hard numbers like margins and returns: which hold, and which line gives way first.
Cisco’s results hinge on enterprise network upgrades and growing AI infrastructure investment, with Huawei an important networking rival to watch even though it is absent from this list.
Arista Networks challenges Cisco for cloud operators’ and enterprises’ spending on Ethernet switches, routers and campus networks. Watch its cloud and AI networking business alongside campus sales to gauge competition across Cisco’s data-center and enterprise networking products.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise competes with Cisco for enterprise and cloud customers buying networking and data-center infrastructure. Its Networking and Cloud & AI results offer separate views of the markets where Cisco sells network equipment and servers.
Extreme Networks competes with Cisco for enterprise purchases of wired and wireless networks and software-managed wide-area networks, or SD-WAN. All its revenue comes from networking equipment, software subscriptions and maintenance, making those results a focused comparison for Cisco’s enterprise networking business.
NVIDIA competes with Cisco to sell equipment that connects AI and cloud data centers. Watch its data-center networking platforms rather than its whole Compute & Networking segment, which also includes computing and automotive products, when assessing competition for Cisco’s AI infrastructure business.
Broadcom competes with Cisco at the chip level: it supplies networking semiconductors for switching and routing infrastructure that rival Cisco Silicon One. Its Networking Connectivity business is the part to watch for this rivalry, rather than its broader semiconductor and infrastructure-software portfolio.
Fortinet competes with Cisco for customers buying secure networks, network-security appliances and combined cloud-delivered networking and security, or SASE. Watch whether customers add Fortinet appliances or accept security built into existing Cisco networks—a choice Fortinet identifies as a risk to its sales.
Palo Alto Networks competes with Cisco for enterprise spending on network security and broader security platforms. Watch its push to replace customers’ separate security products with integrated platforms, which addresses the same security budgets Cisco pursues.
Dell Technologies competes with Cisco for enterprise and AI data-center purchases of servers and networking infrastructure. Its separate revenue lines for AI-optimized servers and traditional servers and networking help distinguish AI spending from the broader infrastructure market Cisco serves.
Ciena competes with Cisco to supply service-provider and cloud networks with routing, switching and optical infrastructure. Watch its Optical Networking and Routing and Switching businesses for a comparison with Cisco’s service-provider routing and optics.
Nokia competes with Cisco for carriers’ and cloud operators’ purchases of IP routing, switching and optical infrastructure. Its Network Infrastructure business sells these products to telecommunications providers and AI and cloud customers, making that business more relevant to Cisco than Nokia’s mobile-network operations.
Marvell Technology competes with Cisco Silicon One by selling Ethernet and data-infrastructure chips, including products tailored to customers’ requirements. Watch demand for its customized networking solutions as a sign of the alternatives customers seek to Cisco’s networking technology.
Zscaler competes with Cisco for enterprise subscriptions that secure access to applications and combine networking and security in the cloud, or SASE. Watch its Zero Trust SASE offering, which connects users only to authorized applications rather than placing them on a corporate network.
CrowdStrike Holdings competes with Cisco’s security offerings by selling enterprises subscriptions to Falcon, which detects, investigates and responds to threats. Watch customers’ adoption of additional Falcon modules: the platform reuses collected data across security functions without requiring extra sensors.
Microsoft competes for the same enterprise collaboration and security spending as Cisco: Teams rivals Webex, and Microsoft’s enterprise security products rival Cisco’s security offerings.
Datadog competes with Cisco for customers paying to monitor applications, understand system behavior and analyze logs for security threats. Watch adoption of its monitoring, log-management and security products together, since their shared data gives customers an alternative to Cisco’s observability and security software.
Dynatrace, Inc. competes with Cisco for enterprise purchases of software that analyzes logs, traces and application performance to explain how systems are running. Its Grail data platform combines these records with security and business data, making integrated analysis a concrete product feature to compare with Cisco’s observability suite.
RingCentral competes with Cisco Webex and Contact Center for customers buying cloud communications and contact-center subscriptions. Watch its subscription revenue for this comparison, since subscriptions generated over 90% of RingCentral’s total revenue in both 2025 and 2024.
Nokia Corporation earningsNOK
Nokia's Network Infrastructure results will show how much carriers and cloud operators are buying in routing and optical markets Cisco also serves.
Read Nokia's Network Infrastructure revenue and its signals on telecom and cloud demand alongside Cisco's service-provider routing and optical business. Strength at Nokia would indicate active buying in a shared market, not prove Cisco is losing share; weakness could mean softer demand or a shift in competitive share, which Cisco's own results must resolve.
RINGCENTRAL, INC. earningsRNG
RingCentral's subscription revenue will show whether businesses are spending more on cloud communications and contact centers, where it competes with Cisco.
Read RingCentral's subscription revenue growth alongside Cisco's collaboration results. Stronger subscriptions would show customers are still buying cloud communications and contact-center services, but would not mean Cisco is losing customers; slower growth could reflect weaker category spending or RingCentral losing momentum, and Cisco's own collaboration results help distinguish the two.
Fortinet, Inc. earningsFTNT
Fortinet's report will show whether customers are buying dedicated network-security appliances or choosing other ways to protect networks, a spending choice it shares with Cisco.
Read Fortinet's appliance sales alongside security-service revenue, and note whether customers keep adding dedicated appliances. Strong appliance demand would show buyers still want purpose-built secure networks, keeping pressure on Cisco's security and integrated-network offerings; weaker appliances with service growth could point to budgets shifting toward cloud-delivered security, but Fortinet's results alone cannot show Cisco won those customers.
Arista Networks earningsANET
Arista's cloud and AI networking and campus sales will show how much cloud operators and enterprises are spending in markets where it challenges Cisco.
Separate Arista's cloud and AI networking sales from campus sales, then read both against Cisco's networking business. Strength in both would show active spending across data centers and enterprise campuses, with Arista competing for it; strength in cloud and AI but weakness on campus would place the growth mainly in data centers. The results show shared-market demand and competitive pressure, not Cisco's share on their own.
Datadog, Inc. earningsDDOG
Datadog's monitoring, log-management and security adoption will show whether customers are choosing an integrated software alternative to Cisco's observability and security offerings.
Check whether Datadog's monitoring, log-management and security products are growing together, then compare that pattern with Cisco's observability and security businesses. Broader adoption would show customers value a shared-data platform for system monitoring and security, making Datadog a stronger alternative; slower adoption would weaken that case, but would not prove customers are switching to Cisco.
Cisco Systems, Inc. earningsThis company
Cisco's report will show whether AI infrastructure demand is turning into networking revenue growth without memory costs eating away the benefit.
Read networking revenue alongside gross margin, and check whether subscription revenue is still growing. Rising networking revenue with gross margin holding and subscriptions increasing would show Cisco is selling more equipment without materially sacrificing profitability; slower networking growth or a falling margin would suggest large-customer timing or memory costs are eating into the benefit of demand.
