Tech

Cisco will go faster under Chuck Robbins: CEO Chambers

Cisco's Chambers: We changed the world in many ways
VIDEO4:3104:31
Cisco's Chambers: We changed the world in many ways

Cisco Systems on Monday announced John Chambers would step down as chief executive effective July 26. Succeeding him as CEO will be Cisco veteran Chuck Robbins.

"I love what I do, but it's time for Chuck to take the reigns and I'm really excited about turning things over to him," Chambers told CNBC on Tuesday.

Chambers said while his own strengths are "vision and strategy, [Robbins] can and will move the company faster."

Read MoreCisco's life after Chambers is still about sales

"He'll make it more seamless across many of our operations and he'll take us to faster growth than I would have done," Chambers said. "I think the company is in great hands."

Chambers will serve as executive chairman and help Robbins with "key government relations, digitizing cities, and countries, key strategic partners, etc.," he said.

Cisco CEO John Chambers.
Getty Images

"One of the most important things you do as a leader is you build a company that has one of the smoothest, seamless CEO transitions and that's what we are doing as a company," he said.

Read MoreCramer: Ciscotransition will be 'seamless'

Robbins has been with the network equipment company since 1997. Most recently, he was senior vice president of worldwide operations.

Chambers also spoke about the ever-changing face of technology and Cisco's role in it.

"Digitization is coming at us like a rocket. We're at the front end of a decade run in terms of the next generation of the Internet," he said. "We're going to lead it like we did the last one."

Shares of the company have risen about 26 percent over the past 12 months to $29. (Get the latest quote here.)

Cisco unveils a new suite of products
VIDEO0:3400:34
Cisco unveils a new suite of products