Cisco's CEO says customers still spending

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cisco Systems Inc <CSCO.O> CEO John Chambers said he remained upbeat about technology spending by customers on Tuesday despite an uncertain economic outlook.

"I haven't called on a customer with Cisco in the last 120 days who isn't going to keep their spending with Cisco, or increase it," he told investors during the company's annual analyst day.

But Cisco, once the darling of the telecommunications world, may use the event as a platform to severely lower its long-term revenue growth target of 12 to 17 percent as the company matures and enters a new business phase, analysts say.

As early as May this year, Chambers had flagged a change to the growth target for the September analysts' meeting, which began Tuesday. He said at the time the company's target was "not reflective of the environment" it is now operating in.

Since August, investors have turned cautiously hopeful at the pace with which Cisco's restructuring has moved. Chambers kick-started the overhaul by declaring in April that the Internet routing and switching company had lost its way.

Despite tepid government and corporate spending on IT, Cisco last month produced results that exceeded scaled-back expectations. Many saw that as an early sign of success in a broad effort to clean house that has included laying off 15 percent of its staff and unloading its set-top box division.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr and Sinead Carew; editing by Gunna Dickson)