Chambers said Cisco is still committed to its partnership with VMware and EMC despite VMware's recent acquisition of . The company has long experience at partnering with competing vendors, he said. In the so-called VCE partnership, EMC contributes storage and VMware provides virtualization software for combined data-center packages.

"I think you'll see us work this out," Chambers said.

"We fully will control our own destiny, not to be dependent on anyone in terms of our long-term strategy, although strategic partnerships must be a part of achieving that strategy," he said.

Cisco is well-positioned to compete in network virtualization because it will require more than software, Chambers said. Cisco's strength in network hardware will play a key role, he said.

"We think it's going to be ASICs, hardware and software combined," Chambers said, referring to the application-specific integrated circuits Cisco makes for many of its switches and routers.