“I think we'll have a clearer view, and I expect to see more normal ordering patterns. Of course, we don't guide orders, but I expect to see more normal ordering patterns in the second half of the year.”

In context

“normalized certainly in the first half of fiscal '24. And so that effect will be dampened. The second is backlog. And as we were still sitting on excess backlog, and we still do, but we've obviously been working our way through that and delivering product to customers. As we get their backlog orders in their hands, they can complete that project and then place the order for the next project. And so that's also been a little bit of a headwind to bookings, and then it's whatever is happening in the macro would be the third factor. We think those first two will normalize in the first half of fiscal '24. Lead times will be normalized, certainly by the time we get to the end of the first half and much of the backlog -- the excess backlog will ship out during the first quarter of fiscal '24. So I think we'll have a clearer view, and I expect to see more normal ordering patterns. Of course, we don't guide orders, but I expect to see more normal ordering patterns in the second half of the year. Michael Ng: Okay. That's all very helpful. Thank you, Chuck. Thank you, Scott. Chuck Robbins: Thank you. Marilyn Mora: Great. Thank you. Let's go ahead and take the next question. Operator: Ittai Kidron with Oppenheimer. You may go ahead. Ittai Kidron: Thanks, guys. High energy, I like this. Chuck, maybe you could look at -- talk about the RPO. Very strong performance there, especially when you look at the same metric a year ago. Maybe you can unpack this a little bit in the context of a few metrics, meaning duration of contracts customers are willing to go into now, size of deals that are willing to move into now. I'm just trying to kind of get a little bit into the elements of this significant increase in RPO. Appreciate it. Chuck Robbins: Yes. Thanks, Ittai. I'll give you a little colo”