Meanwhile, competitors are just beginning to grapple with their own problems, Chambers said. He said Hewlett-Packard is struggling with strategy and Cisco had overcome price-based competition from the company by demonstrating that its own products are cheaper in the long term. Talking with analysts after the day's main presentations were over, Chambers said, "When has HP ever been more vulnerable?"

Cisco also attacked Juniper several times during the conference, just a few days after it that ridicules Juniper for delayed product introductions. The Silicon Valley routing rival is spread too thin across its core service-provider router business and its newer enterprise products, Chambers said.

"We've never been better positioned versus our competitors," Chambers said.

The IDG News Service