Both COO Gary Moore and president Rob Lloyd were considered the front-runners to become the next CEO when Chambers retired, but neither of them of them got the job. Instead, Cisco surprised the industry by giving the CEO job to Chuck Robbins, the guy leading Cisco's massive sales unit including its massive sales partner organization.

The outgoing executives' last day will be July 25, at the end of Cisco's fiscal year.

It's not really a shock that these two executives would leave the company as Robbins takes over.

Moore, 65, has been with Cisco for 14 years. And though his name was bandied about as a possible CEO, internally, people never really thought he would get the job or last long after Chambers left. He was seen as an operational/execution kind of leader, a very good No. 2 executive but not a visionary.