Cisco's headcount at the end of Q3 totaled 65,223 employees.

Cisco refers to reductions totaling less than 10% of its global workforce as "limited restructurings." This is a way for the company to cut costs by reducing workforce in small, incremental moves without having to publicly announce or disclose the actions, sources say.

Cisco , or 9% of its workforce, in an effort to better focus its business and reduce operating expenses by $1 billion a year. 

Jim Duffy has been covering technology for over 25 years, 21 at Network World. He also writes The Cisco Connection blog and can be reached on Twitter @Jim_Duffy.

in Network World's Data Center section.