Cisco Systems

"Cisco" redirects here. For other uses, see Cisco (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Sysco, Sisqó, Sisko, or Certis CISCO.
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Public
Traded as NASDAQ: CSCO
Dow Jones Industrial Average Component
S&P 500 Component
NASDAQ-100 Component
Industry Networking equipment
Founded December 1984 (1984-12)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Founders Leonard Bosack
Sandy Lerner
Headquarters San Jose, California, U.S.[1]
Coordinates Coordinates: 37°24′38″N 121°57′29″W / 37.4106394°N 121.958166°W / 37.4106394; -121.958166
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 John Chambers (Chairman)
Chuck Robbins (CEO)
Products Networking Device
Network Management
Cisco IOS and NX-OS Software
Interface and Module
Optical networking
Storage area networks
Wireless, Telepresence, VOIP, Security
Datacenter
List of Cisco Products
Revenue Increase US$ 49.161 billion (2015)[2]
Increase US$ 10.770 billion (2015)[2]
Increase US$ 8.981 billion (2015)[2]
Total assets Increase US$ 113.481 billion (2015)[2]
Total equity Increase US$ 59.698 billion (2015)[2]
Number of employees
 71,833 (2015)[3]
Subsidiaries List of acquisitions
Website Cisco.com

Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in San Jose, California, that designs, manufactures and sells networking equipment.[4] The stock was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average on June 8, 2009, and is also included in the S&P 500 Index, the Russell 1000 Index, NASDAQ-100 Index and the Russell 1000 Growth Stock Index.[5]

History

One of the many buildings on the Cisco Systems campus in San Jose

1984–1995: early years

Cisco Systems was founded in December 1984 by Leonard Bosack, who was in charge of the Stanford University computer science department's computers, and his wife Sandy Lerner, who managed the Graduate School of Business' computers.[6]

Despite founding Cisco in 1984, Bosack, along with Kirk Lougheed, continued to work at Stanford on Cisco's first product. It consisted of exact replicas of Stanford's "Blue Box" router and a stolen[7] copy of the University's multiple-protocol router software. The software was originally written some years earlier at Stanford medical school by research engineer William Yeager. Bosack and Lougheed adapted it into what became the foundation for Cisco IOS. On July 11, 1986, Bosack and Lougheed were forced to resign from Stanford and the university contemplated filing criminal complaints against Cisco and its founders for the theft of its software, hardware designs and other intellectual properties. In 1987, Stanford licensed the router software and two computer boards to Cisco.

In addition to Bosack, Lerner and Lougheed, Greg Satz, a programmer, and Richard Troiano, who handled sales, completed the early Cisco team. The company's first CEO was Bill Graves, who held the position from 1987 to 1988.[8] In 1988, John Morgridge was appointed CEO.

The name "Cisco" was derived from the city name, San Francisco, which is why the company's engineers insisted on using the lower case "cisco" in its early years. The logo is intended to depict the two towers of the Golden Gate Bridge.[9]

On February 16, 1990, Cisco Systems went public (with a market capitalization of $224 million) and was listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. On August 28, 1990, Lerner was fired; upon hearing the news, her husband Bosack resigned in protest. The couple walked away from Cisco with $170 million, 70% of which was committed to their own charity.[10]

Although Cisco was not the first company to develop and sell dedicated network nodes,[11] it was one of the first to sell commercially successful routers supporting multiple network protocols.[12] Classical, CPU-based architecture of early Cisco devices coupled with flexibility of operating system IOS allowed for keeping up with evolving technology needs by means of frequent software upgrades. Some popular models of that time (such as Cisco 2500) managed to stay in production for almost a decade virtually unchanged—a rarity in high-tech industry. Although Cisco was strongly rooted in the enterprise environment, the company was quick to capture the emerging service provider environment, entering the SP market with new, high-capacity product lines such as Cisco 7000 and Cisco 8500.

Between 1992 and 1994, Cisco acquired several companies in Ethernet switching, such as Kalpana, Grand Junction, and most notably, Mario Mazzola's Crescendo Communications which together formed the Catalyst business unit. At the time, the company envisioned layer 3 routing and layer 2 (Ethernet, Token Ring) switching as complementary functions of different intelligence and architecture—the former was slow and complex, the latter was fast but simple. This philosophy dominated the company's product lines throughout the 1990s.

In 1995, John Morgridge was succeeded by John Chambers.[13]

1996–2005: Internet and silicon intelligence

The phenomenal growth of the Internet in mid-to-late 1990s quickly changed the telecom landscape. As the Internet Protocol (IP) became widely adopted, the importance of multi-protocol routing declined. Nevertheless, Cisco managed to catch the Internet wave, with products ranging from modem access shelves (AS5200) to core GSR routers that quickly became vital to Internet service providers and by 1998 gave Cisco de facto monopoly in this critical segment.

In late March 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble, Cisco became the most valuable company in the world, with a market capitalization of more than US$500 billion.[14][15] In July 2014, with a market cap of about US$129 billion,[16] it is still one of the most valuable companies.[17]

Meanwhile, the growth of Internet bandwidth requirements kept challenging traditional, software-based packet processing architectures.

The perceived complexity of programming routing functions in silicon, led to formation of several startups determined to find new ways to process IP and MPLS packets entirely in hardware and blur boundaries between routing and switching. One of them, Juniper Networks, shipped their first product in 1999 and by 2000 chipped away about 30% from Cisco SP Market share. Cisco answered the challenge with homegrown ASICs and fast processing cards for GSR routers and Catalyst 6500 switches. In 2004, Cisco also started migration to new high-end hardware CRS-1 and software architecture IOS-XR.

2006–2012: The Human Network

As part of a massive rebranding campaign in 2006, Cisco Systems adopted the shortened name "Cisco" and created "The Human Network" advertising campaign.[18] These efforts were meant to make Cisco a "household" brand—a strategy designed to support the low-end Linksys products and future consumer products (such as Flip Video camera acquired by Cisco in 2009).

On the more traditional business side, Cisco continued to develop its extensive enterprise-focused routing, switching and security portfolio. The quickly growing importance of Ethernet also influenced the company's product lines, prompting the company to morph the successful Catalyst 6500 Ethernet switch into all-purpose Cisco 7600 routing platform.[19] However, limits of IOS and aging Crescendo architecture also forced Cisco to look at merchant silicon in the carrier Ethernet segment. This resulted in a new ASR9000 product family intended to consolidate company's carrier ethernet and subscriber management business around EZChip-based hardware and IOS-XR. Cisco also expanded into new markets by acquisition—one example being a 2009 purchase of mobile specialist Starent Networks that resulted in ASR5000 product line.

A Cisco facility in Chennai, India. India is one of the company's largest overseas markets and production centers.

Throughout the mid-2000s, Cisco also built a significant presence in India, establishing its Globalization Centre East in Bengaluru for $1 billion, and planning that 20% of Cisco's leaders would be based there.[20]

However, Cisco continued to be challenged by both domestic Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Networks and overseas competitors Huawei. Due to lower-than-expected profit in 2011, Cisco was forced to reduce annual expenses by $1 billion. The company cut around 3,000 employees with an early-retirement program who accepted buyout and planned to eliminate as many as 10,000 jobs (around 14 percent of the 73,400 total employees before curtailment).[21][22] During the 2011 analyst call, Cisco's CEO John Chambers called out several competitors by name,[23] including Juniper and HP.

On 24 July 2012, Cisco received approval from the EU to acquire NDS (a TV software developer) for USD 5 billion.[24] This acquisition signaled the end of the "The Human Network" strategy as Cisco found itself backing off from household hardware like Linksys[25] and Flip into the cloud and software market.

2013–present

Portuguese President Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Former Cisco CEO John Chambers, and Cisco Sr. Director of Corporate Innovation Helder Antunes.

On July 23, 2013, Cisco Systems announced a definitive agreement to acquire Sourcefire for $2.7 billion.[26]

On August 14, 2013, Cisco Systems announced it would cut 4,000 jobs from its workforce, which was roughly 6% starting in 2014.[27]

At the end of 2013, Cisco announced poor revenue due to depressed sales in emerging markets, caused by economic uncertainty and by fears of the National Security Agency planting backdoors in its products.[28]

In April, 2014, Cisco Systems announced $150 Million to fund early-stage firms around the globe to focus on the Internet of Everything. The investment fund was allocated to investments in IoT accelerators and startups such as The Alchemist Accelerator, Ayla Networks and EVRYTHNG. After the announcement, The Alchemist Accelerator announced Cisco as a strategic partner and launched an individual program specifically focused on advancing the growth of IoT startups. This new funding increased Cisco Investments' thematic investing to $250 million total, adding to the previously announced $100 million commitment to startups focused on the emerging Internet of Everything (IoE) market opportunity.

On August 13, 2014, the company announced it was laying off another 6,000 workers or 8% of its global workforce, as part of a second restructuring.[29]

On May 4, 2015, Cisco announced CEO and Chairman John Chambers would step down as CEO on July 26, 2015, but remain chairman. Chuck Robbins, senior vice president of worldwide sales & operations and 17-year Cisco veteran, will become CEO.[30]

On July 23, 2015, Cisco announced the divesture of its television set-top-box and cable modem business to Technicolor SA for $600 million, a division originally formed by Cisco's $6.9 billion purchase of Scientific Atlanta. The deal came as part of Cisco's gradual exit from the consumer market, and as part of an effort by Cisco's new leadership to focus on cloud-based products in enterprise segments. Cisco indicated that it would still collaborate with Technicolor on video products.[31]

In January 2016, Cisco invested in VeloCloud, a software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) start-up with a cloud offering for configuring and optimizing branch office networks. Cisco contributed to VeloCloud's $27 million Series C round, led by March Capital Partners. Cisco is one of two strategic investors.[32]

Media and awards

Cisco products, most notably IP phones and Telepresence, are frequently sighted in movies and TV series.[33] The company itself and its history was featured in the documentary film Something Ventured which premiered in 2011.

Cisco was a 2002–03 recipient of the Ron Brown Award,[34][35] a U.S. presidential honor to recognize companies "for the exemplary quality of their relationships with employees and communities". Cisco commonly stays on top of Fortune "100 Best Companies to work for", with position No. 20 in 2011.[36]

According to a report by technology consulting firm LexInnova, Cisco is one of the leading recipients of network security-related patents with the largest portfolio within other companies (6,442 security-related patents).[37]

Acquisitions

Cisco acquired a variety of companies to spin products and talent into the company. In 1995–1996 the company completed 11 acquisitions.[38] Several acquisitions, such as Stratacom, were the biggest deals in the industry when they occurred.[39] During the Internet boom in 1999, the company acquired Cerent Corporation, a start-up company located in Petaluma, California, for about US$7 billion.[40] It was the most expensive acquisition made by Cisco to that date, and only the acquisition of Scientific Atlanta has been larger.[41] In 1999 Cisco also acquired stake for $1 Billion in KPMG Consulting to enable establishing Internet firm Metrius founded by Keyur Patel of Fuse.[42] Several acquired companies have grown into $1Bn+ business units for Cisco, including LAN switching, Enterprise Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) platform Webex and home networking. The latter came as result of Cisco acquiring Linksys in 2003 and in 2010 was supplemented with new product line dubbed Cisco Valet.

Cisco announced on January 4, 2007, that it would buy IronPort in a deal valued at US$830 million[43][44] and completed the acquisition on June 25, 2007.[45] IronPort was best known for its IronPort AntiSpam, its SenderBase email reputation service and its email security appliances. Accordingly, IronPort was integrated into the Cisco Security business unit.[46] Ironport's Senderbase was renamed as Sensorbase to take account of the input into this database that other Cisco devices provide. SensorBase allows these devices to build a risk profile on IP addresses, therefore allowing risk profiles to be dynamically created on http sites and SMTP email sources.[47]

Cisco announced on March 15, 2012, that it would acquire NDS Group for $5bn.[48][49] The transaction was completed on July 30, 2012.[4][50]

In more recent merger deals, Cisco bought Starent Networks (a mobile packet core company) and Moto Development Group, a product design consulting firm that helped develop Cisco's Flip video camera.[51][52] Also in 2010, Cisco became a key stakeholder in e-Skills Week. In March 2011, Cisco completed the acquisition of privately held network configuration and change management software company Pari Networks.[53]

Although many buy-ins (such as Crescendo Networks in 1993, Tandberg in 2010) resulted in acquisition of flagship technology to Cisco, many others have failed—partially or completely.[54] For instance, in 2010 Cisco occupied a meaningful share of the packet-optical market,[55] revenues were still not on par with US$7 billion price tag paid in 1999 for Cerent. Some of acquired technologies (such as Flip from Pure Digital) saw their product lines terminated.[56][57]

In January 2013, Cisco Systems acquired Israeli software maker Intucell for around $475 million in cash, a move to expand its mobile network management offerings.[58][59] In the same month, Cisco Systems acquired Cognitive Security, a company focused on Cyber Threat Protection. Cisco also acquired SolveDirect (cloud services) in March 2013[60] and Ubiquisys (mobile software) in April 2013.

Cisco acquired cyber-security firm Sourcefire, in October 2013.[61]

On June 16, 2014, Cisco announced that it has completed the acquisition of ThreatGRID, a company that provided dynamic malware analysis and threat intelligence technology.[62]

On June 17, 2014, Cisco announced its intent to acquire privately held Tail-f Systems, a leader in multi-vendor network service orchestration solutions for traditional and virtualized networks.[63]

On April 2, 2015, Cisco announced plans to buy Embrane, a software-defined networking startup. The deal will give Cisco Embrane's software platform, which provides layer 3–7 network services for things such as firewalls, VPN termination, server load balancers and SSL offload.[64]

On June 30, 2015, Cisco acquired privately held OpenDNS, the company best known for its DNS service that adds a level of security by monitoring domain name requests.[65]

On August 6, 2015, Cisco announced that it has completed the acquisition of privately held MaintenanceNet, the US-based company best known for its cloud-based contract management platform ServiceExchange.[66] On the same month, Cisco acquired Pawaa, a privately held company in Bangalore, India that provides secure on-premise and cloud-based file-sharing software.[67]

On September 30, 2015, Cisco announced its intent to acquire privately held Portcullis Computer Security, a UK-based company that provides cybersecurity services to enterprise clients and the government sectors.[68]

On October 26, 2015, Cisco announced its intent to acquire ParStream, a privately held company based in Cologne, Germany, that provides an analytics database that allows companies to analyze large amounts of data and store it in near real time anywhere in the network.[69]

On October 27, 2015, Cisco announced that it would acquire Lancope, a company that focuses on detecting threat activity, for $452.5 million in a cash-and-equity deal.[70]

Products and services

Cisco's products and services focus upon three market segments—enterprise and service provider, small business and the home.

Cisco has grown increasingly popular in the Asia-Pacific region over the last three decades and is the dominant vendor in the Australian market with leadership across all market segments. It uses its Australian office as one of the main headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region, offering a diverse product portfolio for long-term[71] stability, and integration is a sustainable competitive advantage.

Corporate market

"Corporate market" refers to enterprise networking and service providers.

Borderless networks
[72] for their range of routers, switches, wireless systems, security systems, WAN acceleration, energy and building management systems and media aware networks.[73]
Collaboration
IP video and phones, TelePresence, HealthPresence, Unified Communications, Call Center systems, Enterprise social networks and Mobile applications[74]
Datacenter and Virtualization
Unified Computing, Unified Fabric, Data Centre Switching, Storage Networking and Cloud Computing services.[75]
IP NGN (Next Generation Networks)
High-end routing and switching for fixed and mobile service provider networks, broadcast video contribution/distribution, entitlement and content delivery systems.[76]

Small businesses

Cisco small business SG300-28 28-port Gigabit Ethernet rackmount switch and its internals

Small businesses include home businesses and (usually technology-based) startups.[77]

Routers and switches
The machines that route and redirect packets across a network, including those for networks of smart meters.[78]
Security and surveillance
IP cameras, data and network security etc.[79]
Voice and conferencing
VOIP phones and gateway-systems, WebEx, video conferencing
Wireless
WiFi Access points
Network storage systems
Persistent people storage on networks, either in the traditional sense or in a cloud-like manner.

Home user

"Home user" refers to individuals or families who require these kinds of services.[80]

Broadband
Broadband refers to cable modems.
Flip Video
With the acquisition of Pure Digital Technologies, Cisco began to sell a line of video-recording devices called "Flip Video" that had been Pure Digital's only line of products. This line of products was not as popular as Cisco had thought it would have been, and on April 12, 2011, Cisco announced they were discontinuing all Flip camera production.[81][82] Cisco ūmi product line—video conferencing for home also proved to be a short-lived bid for the consumer multimedia market and did survive in Cisco product lineup.[83]

Hardware

A Cisco ASM/2-32EM router deployed at CERN in 1987
A Cisco 7960G IP Phone
Cisco UCS blade servers

Data

Telephony Products

Servers / Application Appliances

Experimental

Other Products

Software

Operating Systems

VPN/Remote Connectivity

Telephony/VoIP

Other

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 Communications, UPC and others; Linksys has partnered with companies such as Skype, Microsoft and Yahoo! to integrate consumer VoIP services with wireless and cordless phones.

Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS)

Cisco partners can offer cloud-based services based on Cisco's virtualized Unified Computing System (UCS). A part of the Cisco Unified Services Delivery Solution that includes hosted versions of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (UCM), Cisco Unified Contact Center, Cisco Unified Mobility, Cisco Unified Presence, Cisco Unity Connection (unified messaging) and Cisco Webex Meeting Center.[87]

Network Emergency Response

The company maintains several Network Emergency Response Vehicles (NERV)s. The vehicles are maintained and deployed by Cisco employees during natural disasters and other public crises. The vehicles are self-contained and provide wired and wireless services including voice and radio interoperability, voice over IP, network-based video surveillance and secured high-definition video-conferencing for leaders and first responders in crisis areas with up to 3 Mbit/s of bandwidth (up and down) via a 1.8-meter satellite antenna.[88]

NERVs are based at Cisco headquarters sites in San Jose, California and at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, allowing strategic deployment in North America. They can become fully operational within 15 minutes of arrival. High-capacity diesel fuel-tanks allow the largest vehicles to run for up to 72 hours continuously.[89] The NERV has been deployed to incidents such as the October 2007 California wildfires; hurricanes Gustav, Ike and Katrina; the 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion, tornado outbreaks in North Carolina and Alabama in 2011; and Hurricane Sandy in 2012.[90][91]

The team maintains and deploys smaller more portable communication kits which are deployed to emergencies outside of North America. In 2010 the team deployed to assist in earthquake recovery in Haiti and in Christchurch (New Zealand). In 2011 they deployed to flooding in Brazil, as well as in response to the tsunami in Japan.[92]

In 2011 Cisco received the Innovation Preparedness award from the American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter for its development and use of these vehicles in disasters.[93]

Cisco Career Certifications

Cisco Systems also sponsors a line of IT Professional certifications for Cisco products.[94] There are five levels of certification: Entry (CCENT), Associate (CCNA / CCDA), Professional (CCNP / CCDP), Expert (CCIE / CCDE) and recently Architect, as well as nine different paths, Routing & Switching, Design, Industrial Network, Network Security, Service Provider, Service Provider Operations, Storage Networking, Voice, Datacenter and Wireless.

A number of specialist technician, sales and datacenter certifications are also available.

Cisco also provides training for these certifications via a portal called the Cisco Networking Academy. Qualifying schools can become members of the Cisco Networking Academy and then provide CCNA level or other level courses. Cisco Academy Instructors must be CCNA certified to be a CCAI certified instructor.

Cisco often finds itself involved with technical education. With over 10,000 partnerships in over 65 countries[95] Cisco Academy program operates in many exotic locations. For example, in March 2013, Cisco announced its interest in Myanmar by investing in two Cisco Networking Academies in Yangon and Mandalay and a channel partner network.[96]

Criticisms and controversy

Shareholder relations

A class action lawsuit filed on April 20, 2001, accused Cisco of making misleading statements that "were relied on by purchasers of Cisco stock" and of insider trading.[97] While Cisco denied all allegations in the suit, on August 18, 2006, Cisco's liability insurers, its directors and officers paid the plaintiffs US$91.75 million to settle the suit.[98]

Intellectual property disputes

On December 11, 2008, the Free Software Foundation filed suit against Cisco regarding Cisco's failure to comply with the GPL and LGPL license models and make the applicable source code publicly available.[99] On May 20, 2009, Cisco settled this lawsuit by complying with FSF licensing terms and making a monetary contribution to the FSF.[100]

Censorship in China

Cisco has been criticized for its involvement in censorship in the People's Republic of China.[101] According to author Ethan Gutmann, Cisco and other telecommunications equipment providers supplied the Chinese government with surveillance and Internet infrastructure equipment that is used to block Internet websites and track online activities in China.[102] Cisco says that it does not customize or develop specialized or unique filtering capabilities to enable governments to block access to information and that it sells the same equipment in China as it sells worldwide.[103]

Wired News had uncovered a leaked, confidential Cisco PowerPoint presentation that details the commercial opportunities of the Golden Shield Project of Internet control.[104] In her article, journalist Sarah Stirland accuses Cisco of marketing its technology "specifically as a tool of repression."

In May 2011, a group of Falun Gong practitioners filed the lawsuit under the Alien Tort Statute alleging that Cisco knowingly developed and customized its product to assist the Chinese government in prosecution and abuse of Falun Gong practitioners.[105] The presentation leaked from Cisco lists "Combat "Falun Gong" evil religion and other hostiles" as one of the benefits of the Cisco system.[104] The lawsuit was dismissed in September 2014[106] by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, which decision was appealed to United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit[107] in September 2015.

Tax fraud investigation

On October 16, 2007, the Brazilian Federal Police and Brazilian Receita Federal (equivalent to the American IRS), under the "Persona Operation", uncovered an alleged tax fraud scheme employed by Cisco Systems Brazil Chief Carlos Roberto Carnevali since 2002 that exempted the company from paying over R$1.5 billion (US$824 million) in taxes.[108][109]

Antitrust lawsuit

On December 1, 2008, Multiven filed an antitrust lawsuit[110][111][112][113][114][115] against Cisco Systems, Inc. in an effort to open up the network maintenance services marketplace for Cisco equipment, promote competition and ensure consumer choice and value. Multiven's complaint alleges that Cisco harmed Multiven and consumers by bundling and tying bug fixes/patches and updates for its operating system software to its maintenance services (SMARTnet) and through a series of other illegal exclusionary and anticompetitive acts designed to maintain Cisco's alleged monopoly in the network maintenance services market for Cisco networking equipment. In May 2010 Cisco has accused the person who filed the antitrust suit, British-Nigerian technology entrepreneur Peter Alfred-Adekeye, with hacking and pressured the US government to extradite him from Canada. Alfred-Adekeye was arrested while in the middle of testifying against Cisco in an anti-trust hearing.[116] Although he was released after 28 days on bail, the case has stretched for a year, because the U.S. Attorney's office was unable to present the evidence required for the extradition.[117] The antitrust lawsuit has been settled 2 months after Alfred-Adekeye's arrest.[118] In May 2011 the US extradition request has been denied. Canadian Supreme Court Justice Ronald McKinnon, who oversaw the extradition hearing, commented on the arrest saying "It is simply not done in a civilized jurisdiction that is bound by the rule of law".[116] He also stated that the real reason for the extradition proceedings was because Alfred-Adekeye "dared to take on a multinational giant." Judge McKinnon has also condemned the US prosecutor for hiding the fact that Alfred-Adekeye was in legal proceedings against Cisco Systems, for stating that Alfred-Adekeye had left the USA in a time period when he had not and a formal request for extradition was not filed against Alfred-Adekeye when he was taken into custody. He described the information provided by Cisco and the US prosecutor as "full of innuendo, half-truths and falsehoods," adding that "This speaks volumes for Cisco's duplicity" and accused them of "unmitigated gall" in using such a heavy-handed move as an unsupportable arrest and jailing to pressure Alfred-Adekeye to drop or settle his civil antitrust complaint.[119]

In March 2013 Multiven has filed a complaint both in Switzerland and the US accusing Cisco of stealing thousands of its proprietary and copyrighted data files from its knowledge base. The attack has allegedly taken place with the use of "automated cyber scraping software" with the perpetrating IPs assigned to Cisco. Cisco has denied the claims.[120][121]

On July 20, 2015, Multiven CEO, Peter Alfred-Adekeye filed a libel lawsuit against Cisco for (1) falsely claiming that ‘he or someone under his control at Multiven’ downloaded and ‘stole’ Cisco software five times in 2006 from cisco.com (2) using this lie to orchestrate his illegal arrest in Vancouver, Canada in 2010 and (3) continuing to knowingly propagate this falsehood till today.[122]

Remotely monitoring users' connections

Cisco's Linksys E2700, E3500, E4500 devices have been reported to be remotely updated to a firmware version that forces users to register for a cloud service, allows Cisco to monitor their network use and ultimately shut down the cloud service account and thus render the affected router unusable.[123][124]

Firewall backdoor developed by NSA

According to the German magazine Der Spiegel the NSA has developed JETPLOW for gaining access to ASA (series 5505, 5510, 5520, 5540 and 5550) and 500-series PIX Firewalls.[125]

Cisco’s Chief Security Officer addressed the allegations publicly and denied working with any government to weaken Cisco products for exploitation or to implement security back doors.[126]

A document included in the trove of National Security Agency files released with Glenn Greenwald’s book No Place to Hide details how the agency’s Tailored Access Operations (TAO) unit and other NSA employees intercept servers, routers and other network gear being shipped to organizations targeted for surveillance and install covert firmware onto them before they’re delivered. These Trojan horse systems were described by an NSA manager as being “some of the most productive operations in TAO because they pre-position access points into hard target networks around the world.”[127]

Cisco denied the allegations in a customer document[128] saying that no information was included about specific Cisco products, supply chain intervention or implant techniques, or new security vulnerabilities. Cisco’s General Counsel also claimed that Cisco does not work with any government, including the United States Government, to weaken its products.[129] The allegations are reported to have prompted the company’s CEO to express concern to the President of the United States.[130]

Spherix Patent Suit

March 2014 Cisco Systems is being sued for patent infringement. Spherix asserts that over $43 billion of Cisco's sales infringe on old Nortel patents owned by Spherix. Officials with Spherix are claiming that a wide range of Cisco products, from switches to routers, infringe on 11 former Nortel patents that the company now owns.[131]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Cisco Contacts". November 19, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "CISCO SYSTEMS, INC. 2015 Statements" (XBRL). United States Securities and Exchange Commission. September 10, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Cisco Overview". Cisco.
  4. 1 2 "Cisco, Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Sep 12, 2012" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  5. ↑ Browning, E.S. (June 1, 2009). "Travelers, Cisco Replace Citi, GM in Dow". Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones & Company, Inc). Retrieved June 2, 2009.
  6. ↑ Toscano, Paul (April 17, 2013). "Tech Companies Are Doing It Wrong: Cisco Co-Founder". CNBC. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
  7. ↑ Carey, Pete. "A start-up's true tale". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved July 26, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Cisco's Acquisition Strategy". Case Studies in Business Strategy (ICMR) IV: 2. January 2004. BSTR083. Retrieved December 21, 2009.
  9. ↑ Leung, Wendy (May 27, 2012). "Happy 85th birthday to our Golden Gate Bridge!". Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Does Pink Make You Puke?". Forbes. August 25, 1997. Retrieved June 28, 2011.
  11. ↑ "I, Cringely. NerdTV. Transcript | PBS". Pbs.org. Retrieved November 13, 2008.
  12. ↑ Pennell, Ian (June 14, 2004). The Evolution of Access Routing; Cisco claim of first multi-protocol router. (Interview). Cisco. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
  13. ↑ "Cisco, Form PRE 14A, Filing Date Sep 19, 1995". secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Cisco pushes past Microsoft in market value". CBS Marketwatch. March 25, 2000. Retrieved January 25, 2007.
  15. ↑ "Cisco replaces Microsoft as world's most valuable company". The Indian Express (India). Reuters. March 25, 2000. Retrieved January 25, 2007.
  16. ↑ Cisco Systems Summary. Finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved November 26, 2011.
  17. ↑ Fost, Dan (May 5, 2006). "Chron 200 Market capitalization". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 25, 2007.
  18. ↑ "Welcome to the Human Network" (PDF). Cisco Systems. 2006. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
  19. ↑ "Cisco clue—6500 and 7600 split page". Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  20. ↑ Segal, Adam (January 10, 2011). "Chapter 8 – Promoting Innovation at Home". Advantage: How American Innovation Can Overcome the Asian Challenge. W. W. Norton. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-393-06878-8.
  21. ↑ Svensson, Peter. Cisco to cut costs and jobs as profit stalls. 12 May 2011. Christian Science Monitor. Accessed 2012-08-02.
  22. ↑ Vance, Ashlee. (2011-07-12) Cisco said to Plan Cutting Up to 10,000 Jobs to Buoy Profit. Bloomberg. Retrieved September 10, 2011.
  23. ↑ "Cisco CEO: We Were Fat". Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  24. ↑ "Cisco Receives EU Approval to Acquires NDS". BrightWire.
  25. ↑ "Cisco Sells Linksys Home Router Unit to Belkin". Bloomberg.
  26. ↑ Worldwide. "Cisco Announces Agreement to Acquire Sourcefire Inc. – Cisco Systems". Cisco.com. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
  27. ↑ "Cisco to cut 4,000 jobs". CNN Money. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  28. ↑ Stephen Lawson (November 13, 2013). "Cisco issues grim forecast after falling short on revenue". PCWorld. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  29. ↑ "Cisco to lay off 6,000 workers in second restructuring". San Jose News.Net. 13 August 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  30. ↑ "Cisco's Chambers to step down as CEO, to be executive chairman". Reuters. 4 May 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  31. ↑ "Technicolor to Buy Cisco’s Set-Top Box Unit for About $600 Million". The Wall Street Journal. July 22, 2015. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  32. ↑ Jim Duffy, Network World. “Cisco puts its money where the WAN is.” Jan 14, 2016. Jan 18, 2016.
  33. ↑ Cisco on TV & in the Movies—About Cisco. Cisco Systems (May 15, 2008). Retrieved September 10, 2011.
  34. ↑ Highbeam Research website Presidential Award For Corporate Leadership Presented to Cisco Systems. Retrieved April 10, 2011.
  35. ↑ Cisco News website Cisco Systems Receives Presidential Award for Corporate Leadership. Retrieved April 10, 2011.
  36. ↑ 100 Best Companies to Work For 2011: Cisco—CSCO. CNN. (February 7, 2011). Retrieved September 10, 2011.
  37. ↑ David Braue (January 6, 2016). "Australia is world's fourth-largest holder of network-security patents, analysis finds". Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  38. ↑ Garza, George (January 9, 2011). "The History of Cisco". Retrieved January 28, 2011.
  39. ↑ "Cisco, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Apr 26, 1996". secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  40. ↑ "Cisco, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Aug 26, 1999". secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  41. ↑ "Cisco, Form 10-Q, Quarterly Report, Filing Date Nov 23, 2005" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  42. ↑ "KPMG & Cisco". August 8, 1999.
  43. ↑ "Cisco Announces Agreement to Acquire IronPort". News release. Cisco. January 4, 2007. Retrieved November 8, 2013.
  44. ↑ Keith Regan (January 4, 2007). "Cisco buys IronPort for $830 Million". E-Commerce Times. Retrieved November 8, 2013.
  45. ↑ "Cisco launches Self-Defending Network v3.0". News release. Cisco Systems. June 25, 2007. Retrieved November 8, 2013.
  46. ↑ "About". Cisco IronPort. Accessed 8 November 2013.
  47. ↑ Patrick Ogenstad (October 6, 2009). "What is Cisco SensorBase?". Retrieved November 8, 2013.
  48. ↑ "Cisco, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Mar 15, 2012". secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  49. ↑ "Cisco to Acquire NDS for $5Bn".
  50. ↑ "Cisco India Overview". Cisco. Retrieved April 14, 2013.
  51. ↑ "Cisco, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Oct 14, 2009". secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  52. ↑ By Jim Duffy, NetworkWorld. "Cisco Buys Moto—no, not that Moto." May 18, 2010.
  53. ↑ "Cisco Completes Acquisition Of Pari Networks (Started By Former Cisco Execs)". TechCrunch. March 1, 2011.
  54. ↑ "Cisco, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Oct 5, 2009". secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  55. ↑ "Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei continue tight race for leadership in optical network hardware market". Infonetics Research. May 17, 2010. Retrieved September 5, 2011.
  56. ↑ "Cisco, Form 10-Q, Quarterly Report, Filing Date Nov 18, 2009" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  57. ↑ Ulanoff, Lance (April 6, 2011). "Cisco's UMI Adventure Should End". PCMag. Retrieved September 5, 2011.
  58. ↑ "Cisco, Form 10-Q, Quarterly Report, Filing Date Feb 19, 2013" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  59. ↑ Reuters (23 January 2013). "Cisco to buy Israel-based software maker for $475 million". Reuters.
  60. ↑ Goddard, Timothy. "Corum Group International Advises SolveDirect in Acquisition". PRWeb.
  61. ↑ "Acquisitions". Retrieved 2013-10-07.
  62. ↑ "Cisco Has Acquired ThreatGRID". Cisco. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
  63. ↑ "Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire Tail-f Systems". 17 June 2014.
  64. ↑ By Liam Tung, ZDNet. “Cisco to buy Embrane to boost datacenter SDN play.” April 2, 2015. April 7, 2015.
  65. ↑ "Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire OpenDNS". Retrieved 2015-10-12.
  66. ↑ "Cisco Completes MaintenanceNet Acquisition". Cisco. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
  67. ↑ "Cisco has Acquired Pawaa". Cisco. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
  68. ↑ "Acquisitions". Acquisition Summary. Cisco.
  69. ↑ "Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire ParStream". blogs@Cisco – Cisco Blogs. Retrieved 2015-10-27.
  70. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid. "Cisco Beefs Up Security, Buys Lancope For $453M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-10-27.
  71. ↑ "CCIE Security Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert".
  72. ↑ "Enterprise Networks". Cisco. December 10, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  73. ↑ Cisco website Borderless network products. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  74. ↑ Cisco website Collaboration products and services. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  75. ↑ Cisco website on Datacenter products. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
  76. ↑ Cisco website on IP Next-Generation Networks. Retrieved April 6, 2011.
  77. ↑ Products for small businesses. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
  78. ↑ Rick Merritt, EE Times. "Cisco rolls more routers for smart grids." January 27, 2012. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
  79. ↑ SME Products and services on company website. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  80. ↑ Cisco Home products on company website. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  81. ↑ "Catholic Online Statement about Flip Camera". CatholicOnline. March 13, 2011.
  82. ↑ ""World According to Jon" video about discontinuation". Jon Paula. March 12, 2011.
  83. ↑ "Cisco Pulls Another Flip". January 4, 2012. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  84. ↑ "Tandberg product inquiry page". Tandberg.com. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  85. ↑ "Cisco gives Flip video biz the boot". CNET. April 12, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  86. ↑ Carter, Earl; Stiffler, Rick (2001-12-28). "Intrusion Detection: Cisco IDS Overview". Cisco Press. Retrieved 2012-08-04. |chapter= ignored (help)
  87. ↑ "Cisco Launches Hosted Collaboration Solution". UCStrategies.com. July 2, 2010.
  88. ↑ "Cisco Network Emergency Response Vehicle". YouTube. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
  89. ↑ "TACOPS — Emergency Response Vehicle Tour, learningatcisco on USTREAM. Conference". Ustream.tv. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
  90. ↑ 49 Days Later, Superstorm Sandy Relief Effort is Still Running on Cisco Technology. Cisco.com Retrieved January 15, 2013.
  91. ↑ Cisco NERV: The ultimate first responder vehicle. TechRepublic. Retrieved September 10, 2011.
  92. ↑ "Cisco TacOps". YouTube. 2011-06-28. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
  93. ↑ 2011 Innovative Preparedness—Cisco Tactical Operations. Youtube.com. Retrieved September 10, 2011.
  94. ↑ "Cisco Certification and Career Paths".
  95. ↑ "About Network Academy".
  96. ↑ "Cisco Expands Commitment to Myanmar".
  97. ↑ "Cisco Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit Resolved" (Press release). Cisco Systems, Inc. August 18, 2006. Retrieved January 25, 2007.
  98. ↑ "Cisco resolves class action lawsuit". Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. August 18, 2006. Retrieved January 25, 2007.
  99. ↑ "Free Software Foundation Files Suit Against Cisco For GPL Violations" (Press release). BOSTON, Massachusetts: Free Software Foundation. December 11, 2008. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
  100. ↑ "FSF Settles Suit Against Cisco" (Press release). Free Software Foundation. May 20, 2009. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
  101. ↑ "FRONTLINE: the tank man: the struggle to control information | PBS". Pbs.org. Retrieved November 13, 2008.
  102. ↑ Ethan Gutmann (May/June 2010) "Hacker Nation: China's Cyber Assault", World Affairs Journal
  103. ↑ Earnhardt, John (February 15, 2006). "Cisco Testimony Before House International Relations Subcommittee". Cisco Systems, Inc. Archived from the original on December 6, 2006. Retrieved January 25, 2007.
  104. 1 2 Stirland, Sarah (May 20, 2008). "Cisco Leak: ‘Great Firewall’ of China Was a Chance to Sell More Routers". Wired. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  105. ↑ "Doe I et al v. Cisco Systems, Inc. et al". Justia Dockets & Filings.
  106. ↑ EDWARD J. DAVILA, District Judge. "DOE I v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.".
  107. ↑ "Doe I, et al v. Cisco Systems, Inc., et al :: Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit :: Case No. 15-16909".
  108. ↑ "Cisco offices raided, executives arrested in Brazil: reports". NetworkWorld. October 16, 2007. Retrieved October 16, 2007.
  109. ↑ "Brazilian tax authorities raid, close Cisco System's offices in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro". International Herald Tribune (Press release). October 17, 2007. Retrieved October 17, 2007.
  110. ↑ "Multiven Sues Cisco". lightreading. December 1, 2008. Retrieved December 2, 2008.
  111. ↑ "Net maintenance provider sues Cisco over allegedly monopolistic SMARTnet". NetworkWorld. December 1, 2008. Retrieved December 2, 2008.
  112. ↑ "Cisco Accused Of Monopoly In Antitrust Lawsuit". ChannelWeb. December 2, 2008. Retrieved December 2, 2008.
  113. ↑ "Multiven Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Cisco Systems, Inc." (Press release). Multiven, Inc. December 1, 2008. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
  114. ↑ "Cisco Systems hit with antitrust lawsuit". SearchITChannel. December 4, 2008. Retrieved December 4, 2008.
  115. ↑ "Lawsuit: Cisco blocks outsider gear maintenance". fiercetelecom. December 3, 2008. Retrieved December 3, 2008.
  116. 1 2 Rik Myslewski (3 June 2011). "Judge blasts Cisco's 'unmitigated gall' in ex-exec's arrest". The Register.
  117. ↑ Stephen Lawson (20 April 2011). "Cisco accused of orchestrating engineer's arrest". Network World.
  118. ↑ Stephen Lawson (2 August 2010). "Cisco settles antitrust suit over software updates". Computerworld.
  119. ↑ Rik Myslewski (3 June 2011). "Judge blasts Cisco's 'unmitigated gall' in ex-exec's arrest". The Channel.
  120. ↑ David Meyer (13 March 2013). "Cisco accused of stealing data from Swiss services firm Multiven". Gigaom.
  121. ↑ Danielle Walker (15 March 2013). "Legal fight between Cisco and Swiss firm continues with latest data theft accusations". SC Magazine.
  122. ↑ "Multiven CEO Peter Alfred-Adekeye Files Libel Lawsuit Against Cisco".
  123. ↑ "Cisco Pushing 'Cloud Connect' Router Firmware, Allows Web History Tracking". Slashdot. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
  124. ↑ "Cisco’s cloud vision: Mandatory, monetized and killed at their discretion". Extreme Tech. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
  125. ↑ "Interactive graphics: the spy tools of the NSA are sitting here". Der Spiegel. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
  126. ↑ "Comment on Der Spiegel articles about NSA TAO Organization". Cisco.com. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
  127. ↑ "NSA "upgrade" factory show Cisco router getting implant".
  128. ↑ "Customer Recommendations: Securing Your Network". Cisco.com. Retrieved May 2014.
  129. ↑ "Internet Security Necessary for Global Technology Economy". Cisco.com. Retrieved May 13, 2014.
  130. ↑ "In Letter to Obama, Cisco CEO Complains About NSA Allegations". Re/Code. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  131. ↑ Jeffrey Burt (27 March 2014). "Cisco Sued for Infringement of Old Nortel Patents". eweek.

Further reading

  • Bunnell, D. & Brate, A. (2001). Die Cisco Story (in German). Moderne Industrie. ISBN 3-478-35995-3.
  • Bunnell, D. (2000). Making the Cisco Connection: The Story Behind the Real Internet Superpower. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-35711-1.
  • Paulson, E. (2001). Inside Cisco: The Real Story of Sustained M&A Growth. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-41425-5.
  • Slater, R. (2003). The Eye of the Storm: How John Chambers Steered Cisco Through the Technology Collapse. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-018887-1.
  • Stauffer, D. (2001). Nothing but Net Business the Cisco Way. Wiley. ISBN 1-84112-087-1.
  • Waters, J. K. (2002). John Chambers and the Cisco Way: Navigating Through Volatility. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-00833-8.
  • Young, J. S. (2001). Cisco Unauthorized: Inside the High-Stakes Race to Own the Future. Prima Lifestyles. ISBN 0-7615-2775-3.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cisco.


Preceded by
General Motors		 Dow Jones Industrial Average component
June 8, 2009–present 		Incumbent
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, February 14, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.