- Cisco is consolidating its Common Hardware Group into Jeetu Patel's Product Organization
- Hardware chief Martin Lund is leaving to lead an AI startup
- The hardware group has broad responsibilities, comprising silicon, systems and optics
Cisco is bringing its hardware and software products together under a single leader, consolidating its Common Hardware Group into its Product Organization led by Jeetu Patel, Cisco president and chief product officer.
The hardware group has broad responsibilities, comprising silicon, systems and optics.
The consolidation follows the departure of Martin Lund, who headed up the hardware group since he joined Cisco two years ago. Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins broke the news in a very brief post on the company website Monday. Lund said in a LinkedIn post that he is leaving Cisco to become CEO of an early-stage AI startup. Lund didn't provide details on his plans, and Robbins' post lacked specifics as well.
"This change will help drive further alignment across our portfolio and accelerate delivery of the differentiated solutions our customers need to be successful in the AI era," Robbins said.
A Cisco spokesperson credited the consolidation of product teams already underway with strengthening the company's platform strategy, and said the move allows Cisco to bring hardware and product development closer together under Patel.
Cisco declined to elaborate, but said it will share more details at its annual CiscoLive conference next month.
What's going on at Cisco?
Analyst Roy Chua, principal at AvidThink, sketched two possibilities for the transition: First, the consolidation may have been planned, with Cisco believing that vertical integration of hardware and software is the path to achieving it.
The other possibility is that Lund's departure was at least somewhat surprising, and the consolidation is temporary "to give the organization stability until they sort out what they want to do in the longer term," Chua said.
Either way, Patel gets significantly more authority. "What consolidating under Jeetu means is that Jeetu essentially has pretty much the entire stack," Chua said.
Lund has long industry history
Before joining Cisco in 2024, Lund was corporate VP of Microsoft Azure for Operators 2020-2023, with responsibilities for telco, AI ops and private 5G.
Before Microsoft, Lund was CEO of Metaswitch Networks, a cloud communications software company, 2015-2020, until Microsoft acquired it. Previously, he had senior positions at Cadence Design Systems, an electronic design automation provider; Broadcom, where he oversaw network switching; and Intel.
This story was updated to include comments from Roy Chua, principal at AvidThink, and background information, on April 28, 2026, at 4:35 p.m. ET.