There are a lot of ideas and agendas -- and egos -- to manage along with the operations of a $40 billion company attempting to broaden its presence in so many non-core markets. It's now apparent -- via that reduced those councils from nine to three, and Chambers' memo that Cisco lost focus, was slow to make decisions and failed to execute -- that the structure contributed to the company's misfiring in the last two or so quarters.

Analysts are generally positive on Cisco's effort to streamline the board/council structure. Some would like Cisco to pare down more of its businesses -- especially more of the consumer operations -- but whether it will is unclear.

in Network World's Data Center section.