What is the current cash balance for Cisco Systems (CSCO)
es back 10 years. I haven't looked at it, but it was significant.
And I think it's a combination of what we talked about. You know, for three years on these calls, we talked about when's 5G going to be real, right? And so we see it real now. And so you sell site routers that are backhaul. Routers are a big deal.
Packet Core is a big deal. You get into the cloud providers and you have, you know, either stand-alone -- silicon stand-alone software or integrated systems. And increasingly, it's -- we're getting more integrated systems work, which has been helpful. The Edge with the ASR 9000, the Cisco 8000 has been obviously super successful in the NCS product line.
Optical, acacia is doing very well. And so all those technologies just line up. And I think that when you look at the -- I'd say, I'd summarize it with three major trends, just us getting into the 400-gig build-out in the cloud, plus the 5G build-out in the service provider space and then a rearchitecture that's happening in the service provider space to just basically flatten and simplify the whole routed optical network strategy that our teams have talked about. Those are the drivers.
And you had a second question, Rod.
Rod Hall -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Yeah. I wanted to come back to the backlog and maybe see if Scott, if you have aged that at all? I mean, could you give us any idea? I know it's, you know, within the RPO, but could you give us any idea on aging on that just so we could try to reconcile? I mean, obviously, the talks down. Reason it's probably down is because the growth rate here just doesn't match the order growth, and people are going to try to reconcile that. And I thought, well, maybe you could give us some kind of aging that would help us to, you know, make some progress on that.
So I'm just curious if you can help with that. Thanks.
Scott Herren -- Chief Financial Officer
You know, Rod, thanks for that question. This is something that our supply chain team is working day and night to try to resolve. We obviously can look at that and understand what's in the backlog quite well. What I'd say is what we're working through is really a prioritization mechanism on how we can get things shipped out that are going to make sense to our customers and get those out there as quickly as possible.
So there is some aging inside there, Rod. Rather than try to quantify that for you, what I'd say instead is it's something that we are -- our team is working night and day to try to resolve.
Rod Hall -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
OK. Great. Thank you.
Scott Herren -- Chief Financial Officer
And by the way, If it's sitting in the backlog, obviously, it's not an RPO yet. It's not in RPO, so it's incremental to RPO. 
Chuck Robbins -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Right.
Rod Hall -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Oh, sorry, yes, I misspoke. Sorry about that. 
Thank you.
Marilyn Mora -- Head of Investor Relations
All right. Thanks, Rod. Next question. 
Operator
Matthew Niknam from Deutsche Bank. You may go ahead.
Matthew Niknam -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Hey, guys. Thank you for taking the questions. Just two, if I could. First, on gross margins.
I think the guide for next quarter implies you're going to be down about 50 bps at the midpoint despite some of the seasonal lift you've typically seen in fiscal 2Q. So I'm just wondering, is it entirely worsening supply chain constraints? Or are there other factors to consider? And then secondly, I guess more broadly, a question on capital allocation. At the Analyst Day, you talked about using the buyback to continue to use it to offset dilution for stock options, but you're also sitting on $23 billion in cash. Wondering if there are any updates you can share in terms of strategy here? And on a related point, what you're seeing on the M&A front in terms of larger scale, more transformational opportunities? Thanks.
Scott Herren -- Chief Financial Officer
OK. You snuck in three there, Matthew, but I'll start with the gross margin question. The guide that we gave for the quarter at 63.5 to 64.5 is exactly the same guide tha
es back 10 years. I haven't looked at it, but it was significant.
And I think it's a combination of what we talked about. You know, for three years on these calls, we talked about when's 5G going to be real, right? And so we see it real now. And so you sell site routers that are backhaul. Routers are a big deal.
Packet Core is a big deal. You get into the cloud providers and you have, you know, either stand-alone -- silicon stand-alone software or integrated systems. And increasingly, it's -- we're getting more integrated systems work, which has been helpful. The Edge with the ASR 9000, the Cisco 8000 has been obviously super successful in the NCS product line.
Optical, acacia is doing very well. And so all those technologies just line up. And I think that when you look at the -- I'd say, I'd summarize it with three major trends, just us getting into the 400-gig build-out in the cloud, plus the 5G build-out in the service provider space and then a rearchitecture that's happening in the service provider space to just basically flatten and simplify the whole routed optical network strategy that our teams have talked about. Those are the drivers.
And you had a second question, Rod.
Rod Hall -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Yeah. I wanted to come back to the backlog and maybe see if Scott, if you have aged that at all? I mean, could you give us any idea? I know it's, you know, within the RPO, but could you give us any idea on aging on that just so we could try to reconcile? I mean, obviously, the talks down. Reason it's probably down is because the growth rate here just doesn't match the order growth, and people are going to try to reconcile that. And I thought, well, maybe you could give us some kind of aging that would help us to, you know, make some progress on that.
So I'm just curious if you can help with that. Thanks.
Scott Herren -- Chief Financial Officer
 You know, Rod, thanks for that question. This is something that our supply chain team is working day and night to try to resolve. We obviously can look at that and understand what's in the backlog quite well. What I'd say is what we're working through is really a prioritization mechanism on how we can get things shipped out that are going to make sense to our customers and get those out there as quickly as possible.
So there is some aging inside there, Rod. Rather than try to quantify that for you, what I'd say instead is it's something that we are -- our team is working night and day to try to resolve.
Rod Hall -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
OK. Great. Thank you.
Scott Herren -- Chief Financial Officer
And by the way, If it's sitting in the backlog, obviously, it's not an RPO yet. It's not in RPO, so it's incremental to RPO. 
Chuck Robbins -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Right.
Rod Hall -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Oh, sorry, yes, I misspoke. Sorry about that. 
Thank you.
Marilyn Mora -- Head of Investor Relations
All right. Thanks, Rod. Next question. 
Operator
Matthew Niknam from Deutsche Bank. You may go ahead.
Matthew Niknam -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Hey, guys. Thank you for taking the questions. Just two, if I could. First, on gross margins.
I think the guide for next quarter implies you're going to be down about 50 bps at the midpoint despite some of the seasonal lift you've typically seen in fiscal 2Q. So I'm just wondering, is it entirely worsening supply chain constraints? Or are there other factors to consider? And then secondly, I guess more broadly, a question on capital allocation. At the Analyst Day, you talked about using the buyback to continue to use it to offset dilution for stock options, but you're also sitting on $23 billion in cash. Wondering if there are any updates you can share in terms of strategy here? And on a related point, what you're seeing on the M&A front in terms of larger scale, more transformational opportunities? Thanks.
Scott Herren -- Chief Financial Officer
OK. You snuck in three there, Matthew, but I'll start with the gross margin question. The guide that we gave for the quarter at 63.5 to 64.5 is exactly the same guide tha