Cisco Systems

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Cisco Systems, Inc.
Type	Public NASDAQ: CSCO, SEHK: 4333
Founded	1984
Headquarters	San Jose, California, USA
Key people	CEO and President: John Chambers Chairman: John Chambers
Industry	Networking hardware
Products	Switches, Routers, Firewalls
Revenue	$28.48 billion USD (2006)
Operating income	$9.50 billion USD (2006)
Net income	$5.58 billion USD (2006)
Employees	51,480 (Nov 2006)
Slogan	Welcome to the human network
Website	www.cisco.com

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO, SEHK: 4333) is a global company headquartered in San Jose, California, USA, that designs and sells networking and communications technology and services under three brands: Cisco, Linksys, and Scientific Atlanta. Initially, Cisco manufactured only enterprise multi-protocol routers, but today Cisco's products can be found everywhere from the living room to the enterprise to service provider networks. Cisco's vision is "Changing the Way We Live, Work, Play and Learn." Cisco's current tagline is "Welcome to the human network."^[1]

Contents 1 Corporate history 1.1 Executives 1.2 Origin of the Cisco name 1.3 Corporate acquisitions 1.4 Criticisms 1.5 VoIP Services 2 A partial list of products 3 Huawei Lawsuit 4 References 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] Corporate history

Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner (Bachelor of Science from California State University, Chico, Masters in Econometrics from Claremont University, Masters in Statistics and Computer Science from Stanford University), a married couple that worked in computer operations staff at Stanford University, founded Cisco Systems in 1984. Bosack adapted multiple-protocol router software originally written by William Yeager, another staff employee who had begun the work years before Bosack arrived from the University of Pennsylvania, where Bosack had received his bachelor's degree.

While Cisco was not the first company to develop and sell a router (a device that forwards computer traffic between two or more networks), it did create the first commercially successful multi-protocol router to allow previously incompatible computers to communicate using different network protocols. As the Internet Protocol (IP) has become a standard, the importance of multi-protocol routing as a function has declined. Today, Cisco's largest routers are marketed to route primarily IP packets and MPLS frames.

In 1990, the company went public and was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Bosack and Lerner walked away from the company with $170 million and later divorced.

During the Internet boom in 1999, the company acquired Cerent Corp., a start-up company located in Petaluma, California, for about $7 billion. It was the most expensive acquisition made by Cisco at that time. The only bigger acquisition is Scientific Atlanta.

In late March 2000, at the height of the dot-com boom, Cisco was the most valuable company in the world, with a market capitalisation of more than $500 billion.^[2][3] In 2007, with a market cap of about $165 billion, it is still one of the most valuable companies.^[4]

Using acquisitions, internal development, and partnering with other companies, Cisco has made inroads into many network equipment markets outside routing, including Ethernet switching, remote access, branch office routers, ATM networking, security, IP telephony, and others. In 2003, Cisco acquired Linksys, a popular manufacturer of computer networking hardware and positioned it as a leading brand for the home and end user networking market (SOHO).

Cisco has set up Cisco Networking Academies in 150 countries aimed at teaching students to design and maintain computer networks.

Cisco provides certifications to professionals in the networking field. These include:

• CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert)
• CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional)
• CCDP (Cisco Certified Design Professional)
• CCIP (Cisco Certified Internetwork Professional)
• CCSP (Cisco Certified Security Professional)
• CCVP (Cisco Certified Voice Professional)
• CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate)
• CCDA (Cisco Certified Design Associate)
• CCSI (Cisco Certified Systems Instructor)

The company has its corporate headquarters in San Jose, California, and also many outposts in other countries. The company was a 2002-03 recipient of the Ron Brown Award.

[edit] Executives

John Chambers is currently the chairman and CEO.

Other senior executives include:

• John Chambers - Chairman of the Board
• Randy Pond - Senior Vice President, Ops, Processes and Systems
• Rebecca Jacoby - Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer
• Charles H. Giancarlo - Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer
• Dennis D. Powell - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
• Susan Bostrom - Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer
• John N. Stewart - Chief Security Officer, Corporate Security Programs Organization
• Wim Elfrink - Senior Vice President, Customer Advocacy
• Joe Pinto - Senior Vice President, Technical Services
• Rick Justice - Senior Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations

[edit] Origin of the Cisco name

The name "Cisco" is an abbreviation of San Francisco. According to John Morgridge, employee 34 and the company's former president, the founders hit on the name and logo while driving to Sacramento to register the company -- they saw the Golden Gate Bridge framed in the sunlight.^[5] The name cisco Systems (with the lowercase "c") continued in use within the engineering community at the company long after the official company name was changed to Cisco Systems, Inc. Users of Cisco products can still see the name ciscoSystems occasionally in bug reports and IOS messages.

The company's logo reflects its San Francisco name heritage: it represents a stylized Golden Gate Bridge. In October 2006, Cisco publicly launched a new logo that is graphically simpler and more stylized than the original.

[edit] Corporate acquisitions

For a list and discussion of Cisco's acquisitions, see Cisco Systems acquisitions.

[edit] Criticisms

While a successful company in many ways, Cisco is not without its controversies. Cisco recently reached a settlement in a long-standing class action lawsuit that originated in 2001. "The original suit, filed April 20, 2001, claimed that the company made misleading statements, or omitted statements of material fact, that were relied on by purchasers of Cisco stock. It also alleged that the individual defendants sold Cisco stock while in possession of material, non-public information. Cisco denied all allegations in the suit."^[6] While Cisco denies all wrongdoing in the suit, it agreed to settle with the plaintiffs. Cisco's liability insurers, its directors, and officers paid the plaintiffs $91.75 million to settle the suit.^[7]

Another point of controversy surrounding the company is its involvement in censorship in the People's Republic of China. Cisco supplied the Chinese government with Internet infrastructure equipment that is used to block websites. However, Cisco says that it does not customize or develop specialized or unique filtering capabilities to enable regimes to block access to information and that it sells the same equipment in China as it sells worldwide.^[8]

See also: Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China and the Frontline (US TV series) report mentioning Cisco's recent controversial involvement in China

[edit] VoIP Services

Cisco became a major provider of voice over IP to enterprises, and is now moving into the home user market through its acquisitions of Scientific Atlanta and Linksys. Scientific Atlanta provides VoIP equipment to cable service providers such as Time Warner, Cablevision, Rogers, UPC and others; Linksys has partnered with companies such as Skype and Yahoo to integrate consumer VoIP services with wireless and cordless phones.

[edit] A partial list of products

• Hardware

• • Application Network Services
  • Broadband Cable products: uBR7100 series, uBR7200 series, uBR10012 CMTSes. A line of Cable Modems, the uBR900 series and CVA122 series, were also made in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but have since been discontinued.
  • Clean Access Server
  • Content Networking
  • DSL & Long Reach Ethernet
  • Interoperability Systems
  • Cisco LocalDirector load-balancing appliance
  • Optical Networking series: 15xxx Series: 15302, 15305, 15310, 15327, 15454, 15600, 1580x, 15900(wavelength router, but end for sale)
  • Routers: SB107, 700, 800, 1000, 1600, 1700, 1800, 2500, 2600, 2800, 3600, 3700, 3800, 4500, 4700, 7000, 7100, 7200, 7300, 7400, 7500, 7600, 10000, 12000, and CRS-1
  • Security & VPN products: Anomaly Detection and Mitigation Appliances, Cisco AVS 3110 Application Velocity System, Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances, Cisco PIX 500 Series Security Appliances, Cisco VPN 3000 Series Concentrators, Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series/7600 Series WebVPN Services Module, IPSec VPN Services Module (VPNSM) for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Switches and Cisco 7600 Series Routers
  • Server Networking & Virtualization
  • SPA Phone Adapters
  • Storage networking
  • Switches
    • Catalyst series: 500 Express, 1200, 1600, 1700, 1900, 2000, 2100, 2800, 29xx, 3000, 35xx, 37xx, 40xx, 45xx, 5xxx, 6xxx, etc..
    • Metro Ethernet ME 3400 Series Access Switches
    • MGX 8800 Series Multiservice Switches: MGX 8830, MGX 8850
    • MDS 9000 Series Multilayer SAN Switches
  • Universal Gateways & Access Servers
  • Video
  • Voice & IP Communications: 7900 Series IP Phones: 7936, 7906G, 7912G, 7911G, 7920, 7921G, 7911G, 7921G, 7931G, 7940G, 7941G, 7941G-GE, 7960G, 7961G, 7961G-GE, 7970G, 7971G-GE and 7985G
  • Wireless: Wireless Integrated Switches and Routers,Wireless IP Telephony, Wireless LAN Access, Aironet Wireless Bridges and Workgroup Bridges, Cisco Wireless LAN Client Adapters, Wireless LAN Controllers, Wireless Network Management, Wireless LAN Management, Wireless Security Servers, Wireless IP Phone 7920

• Software
  • Cisco CallManager
  • Cisco Emergency Responder
  • Cisco IP Transfer Point (ITP)
  • Cisco Multimedia Conference Manager (MCM)
  • Cisco Fabric Manager
  • CiscoView
  • CiscoWorks Network Management software
  • IP SLAs
  • Cisco Intelligent Contact Management
  • Cisco Secure Access Control Server (ACS)
  • Cisco Access Registrar (AR)
  • Cisco Security MARS (Monitoring, Analysis and Response System)
  • Cisco Clean Access Agent, Cisco Clean Access Manager
  • Content Loadbalancers (acquired from Arrowpoint)
  • Content Engine
  • Wireless LAN Solution Engine
  • VPN Concentrator
  • Packet Tracer

• • Cisco IP/TV
  • Cisco IP/VC
  • Cisco CallManager Express (CCME)
  • Cisco Unified Contact Center
  • Cisco MeetingPlace
  • Cisco Unity
  • Cisco Unity Express
  • Cisco Secure Desktop
  • Cisco Security Manager
  • Cisco Transport Manager
  • Cisco Enhanced Device Interface
  • Wireless Control System

[edit] Huawei Lawsuit

On January 23, 2003, Cisco sued Huawei Technologies, Co., LTD and its subsidiaries, Huawei America, Inc. and FutureWei Technologies, Inc. over Huawei's unlawful copying of Cisco's intellectual property.^[9] The suit alleged that Huawei "unlawfully copied and misappropriated Cisco's IOS software... and infringed numerous Cisco patents." Cisco suspended the patent infringement lawsuit on October 1, 2003, after Huawei agreed to modify some of their products.

[edit] References

• Cisco Press

[edit] See also

• IOS - Internetwork Operating System
• CLEO Cisco router in Low Earth Orbit
• Catalyst switch
• Cisco Career Certifications

[edit] External links

• Cisco Systems Home Page
• Cisco on Cisco: Inside Cisco IT Cisco IT case studies, best practices, presentations, video
• Cisco Networking Academy
• Information on Cisco Certifications
• Interactive Overview - 20 Years of Cisco
• Yahoo! - Cisco Systems, Inc. Company Profile
• Video and audio of speech by CEO John Chambers at Duke University