With a new CEO taking the reigns, two of Cisco's top leaders have resigned. Presidents Rob Lloyd and Gary Moore are stepping down effective next month, the company announced Monday.

The two will step down effective July 25 -- the day before longtime CEO and chairman John Chambers retires. Incumbent CEO Chuck Robbins announced the two men's imminent departure in a blog post on Monday. It's part of transitioning Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) to a "flatter leadership team," Robbins says. (See Cisco's Robbins to Replace Chambers as CEO.)

The new CEO plans to announce his new organizational structure and leadership team within two weeks, he adds.

Prior to Robbins being named the new Cisco CEO last month, Lloyd had been widely considered Chambers's successor, frequently appearing at his side on earnings calls and other public events.

Lloyd, who spent 21 years at Cisco, is president of sales and development and also led the company's Internet of Everything team, connecting manufacturing, smart cities, retail and other sectors in Cisco's Internet of Things strategy, Robbins says.

Moore is Cisco's first president and COO, joining Cisco in 2001 as head of services in 2001 and growing that business over 12 years from $3 billion to nearly $10 billion annual revenue, according to Robbins.

Lloyd says on a Cisco blog post that he's leaving "to begin the next chapter in my career." He says he's "very pleased that Chuck Robbins, who I've had the pleasure to call a friend for more than a decade, is taking over as CEO as I depart." Moore says farewell in his own blog post.

The services organization Moore built will be integral to Cisco's transition from selling products to selling "outcomes" -- Cisco's way of saying that it's going to focus less on technology and more on how that technology can produce business results. (See How Cisco Will Compete Against White Box Switches.)

Chambers announced his retirement well in advance -- in 2012 -- saying then that he would step aside in two to four years and naming Moore, Lloyd, Robbins and Edzard Overbeek, senior VP of global services, as possible successors. (See John Chambers IDs Potential Successors.)

Want to know more about SDN? This will be just one of the many topics covered at Light Reading's second Big Telecom Event on June 9-10 in Chicago. Get yourself registered today or get left behind!

That resulted in behind-the-scenes corporate intrigue that -- to Cisco's credit -- was virtually invisible to the public, says 451 Research analyst and longtime Cisco veteran Christian Renaud. Cisco's stock barely moved when Chambers finally announced his retirement date last month.

"It was Game of Thrones-time on who was heir apparent," Renaud says.

As for the future for Lloyd and Moore: What can two ex-presidents do when they suddenly find they have a lot of free time? Maybe something like this:

— Mitch Wagner, , West Coast Bureau Chief, Light Reading. Got a tip about SDN or NFV? Send it to [email protected].