Is there life after 30: history of CiscoSystems
Sometimes we talk about other companies, for example, we recently talked about a case with the fall of AWS . Today we decided to recall the history of the development of Cisco, the largest player in the network equipment market.
/ Photo: Axel Schwenke / CC
Many people know that the name of the company comes from the abbreviated name of San Francisco, and its logo symbolizes the famous Golden Gate Bridge. But there are less well-known facts: for example, from the article you will find out why the president of the company received a salary of one dollar and how Cisco sued Apple for the iPhone.
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The company 's history began in 1984: it was founded by spouses Leonard Bosak (Leonard Bosack) and Sandra Lerner (Sandra Lerner), who worked at Stanford University. Leonard Bosak adapted the software for a multi-protocol router, written by another university employee, William Yeager, to correspond via e-mail with his wife, who worked in another building.
After 6 years, investors attracted professional managers to work, and it was finally decided to “get rid of” the founders. When Sandra Lerner was fired, Leonard Bosac also left the company. The couple almost immediately sold their two-thirds of the shares for 170 million, which was a very large amount. But perhaps such a decision was rash - in 2014, their share would have cost 90 billion.
Some facts about the company's products. The very first AGS (Advanced Gateaway Server) router was launched on the market in 1986. It supported TCP / IP and PUP along with other protocols. The device was the first commercially successful multiprotocol router. Later, the company entered the market of IP-telephony and ATM equipment.
The second most important product in the company's history is the Catalyst 6500 Ethernet Switch, which was released in 1999. For all the time, 700 thousand devices were sold, and the number of users reached 25 thousand. It is believed that this switch allowed to take a dominant position in the market.
The company developed steadily and in May 2000, the value of Cisco reached $ 500 billion. But too rapid growth led to a crisis: in 2001, the figures dropped 5 times. The company's president, John Chambers, did not lose optimism, and besides other anti-crisis measures, he cut his salary to $ 1 to take Cisco out of the crisis. In total, over the course of its existence, Cisco has absorbed more than 190 companies (their list is presented here ), which allowed it to enter new markets and constantly expand.
The most successful product is considered to be the ISR-router (with the integration of services). It was released in 2004 and for 5 years 7.5 million units were sold. They differed from their predecessors in higher performance, which made it possible to integrate all the basic functions without losing speed. 2009 is important for the company to enter a new market - the market of blade servers. The company introduced UCS - the industry's first converged platform for building data centers.
It was an intelligent, programmable infrastructure to simplify and accelerate the deployment of enterprise-class applications and services in traditional, virtualized, and cloud computing environments. Today, in our data centers, we also use the UCS complex , since this platform not only allows us to manage the set of equipment, but also is suitable for our own development.
But the next product was legendary for the reason that led to a lawsuit with Apple because of the name "iPhone". The story began long before the release of the "apple" smartphone in 2007. The first device under this name was released back in 1998 by Infogear and combined the functions of a regular landline phone and a web terminal. The company was later bought by Cisco along with trademark rights.
This controversial situation was resolved in February 2007: both companies received the right to use the trademark with the condition of conducting joint activities. But Cisco also owned the “IOS” (Internetwork Operating System) trademark, under which they released the software used in routers and network switches. However, Apple received official permission for this trademark in advance and still use it under a Cisco license.
At Cisco, much attention is paid to research: today the company has almost 74 thousand employees, 25 thousand of whom are engineers. Also, since its inception, more than 20 thousand patents have been registered , which is approximately equal to 700 applications per year. And a third of them are patents for innovative software. Around the world, the company has 170 laboratories in which employees are engaged in development.
In addition, Cisco oversees the Network Academy program, which helps train specialists in the theory and practice of designing, building, and operating local and global networks. Under this program, which operates in Russia as well, at the same time 1 million students gain knowledge.
Cisco can be called a green company: in 2016, the company completed 100 environmental projects. For example, compared to 2007, the amount of emissions was reduced by 34%, and 25% of the energy used is obtained from renewable sources. The company also has a recycling and recycling program. In a year, users donate to the company about 12-13 thousand tons of Cisco equipment, which is either subject to repair and is used for internal purposes, or is sent for further processing.
The company traditionally participates in the preparation of the Olympic Games, where it is usually responsible for maintaining the network and server infrastructure. In London and Rio, for example, the company also provided cybersecurity, and at the last Olympiad it also implemented the Internet of Things project. In Sochi, another contractor was engaged in infrastructure, but Cisco still did not stand aside: the company provided a number of equipment and software for the cloud video solution from NBC.
In addition to the Olympiad, the company has other interesting projects. For example, in 2017, Cisco developed the Intelligent Mobile Audio Guide for the Museum of Russian Impressionism. It is based on the Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences (CX) application, which helps users navigate the museum, can pave the way to the right exposure and automatically begin a story as you approach it. High accuracy of navigation is provided by another Cisco technology - the Aironet 3700 access point with unique high-precision positioning modules (Hyperlocation modules).
Today, the company's financial performance continues to grow: in 2015 and 2016, revenue grew by 4% to $ 49.2 billion, and profit in 2016 increased by 20% and reached 10.7 billion dollars. Experts suggest that in the near future, the company will focus on software, the Internet of things and even robots. Cisco continues to actively grow and develop in different areas, so we will follow with interest where else the company will lead its interesting life story and whether robots can become more profitable than routers.
The main goal of our work is to make IaaS simple and straightforward, even for those who have not experienced IT. We tell about our experience in the 1cloud blog :
/ Photo: Axel Schwenke / CC
Many people know that the name of the company comes from the abbreviated name of San Francisco, and its logo symbolizes the famous Golden Gate Bridge. But there are less well-known facts: for example, from the article you will find out why the president of the company received a salary of one dollar and how Cisco sued Apple for the iPhone.
')
The company 's history began in 1984: it was founded by spouses Leonard Bosak (Leonard Bosack) and Sandra Lerner (Sandra Lerner), who worked at Stanford University. Leonard Bosak adapted the software for a multi-protocol router, written by another university employee, William Yeager, to correspond via e-mail with his wife, who worked in another building.
After 6 years, investors attracted professional managers to work, and it was finally decided to “get rid of” the founders. When Sandra Lerner was fired, Leonard Bosac also left the company. The couple almost immediately sold their two-thirds of the shares for 170 million, which was a very large amount. But perhaps such a decision was rash - in 2014, their share would have cost 90 billion.
Legendary products
Some facts about the company's products. The very first AGS (Advanced Gateaway Server) router was launched on the market in 1986. It supported TCP / IP and PUP along with other protocols. The device was the first commercially successful multiprotocol router. Later, the company entered the market of IP-telephony and ATM equipment.
The second most important product in the company's history is the Catalyst 6500 Ethernet Switch, which was released in 1999. For all the time, 700 thousand devices were sold, and the number of users reached 25 thousand. It is believed that this switch allowed to take a dominant position in the market.
The company developed steadily and in May 2000, the value of Cisco reached $ 500 billion. But too rapid growth led to a crisis: in 2001, the figures dropped 5 times. The company's president, John Chambers, did not lose optimism, and besides other anti-crisis measures, he cut his salary to $ 1 to take Cisco out of the crisis. In total, over the course of its existence, Cisco has absorbed more than 190 companies (their list is presented here ), which allowed it to enter new markets and constantly expand.
The most successful product is considered to be the ISR-router (with the integration of services). It was released in 2004 and for 5 years 7.5 million units were sold. They differed from their predecessors in higher performance, which made it possible to integrate all the basic functions without losing speed. 2009 is important for the company to enter a new market - the market of blade servers. The company introduced UCS - the industry's first converged platform for building data centers.
It was an intelligent, programmable infrastructure to simplify and accelerate the deployment of enterprise-class applications and services in traditional, virtualized, and cloud computing environments. Today, in our data centers, we also use the UCS complex , since this platform not only allows us to manage the set of equipment, but also is suitable for our own development.
But the next product was legendary for the reason that led to a lawsuit with Apple because of the name "iPhone". The story began long before the release of the "apple" smartphone in 2007. The first device under this name was released back in 1998 by Infogear and combined the functions of a regular landline phone and a web terminal. The company was later bought by Cisco along with trademark rights.
This controversial situation was resolved in February 2007: both companies received the right to use the trademark with the condition of conducting joint activities. But Cisco also owned the “IOS” (Internetwork Operating System) trademark, under which they released the software used in routers and network switches. However, Apple received official permission for this trademark in advance and still use it under a Cisco license.
Projects, cases and programs
At Cisco, much attention is paid to research: today the company has almost 74 thousand employees, 25 thousand of whom are engineers. Also, since its inception, more than 20 thousand patents have been registered , which is approximately equal to 700 applications per year. And a third of them are patents for innovative software. Around the world, the company has 170 laboratories in which employees are engaged in development.
In addition, Cisco oversees the Network Academy program, which helps train specialists in the theory and practice of designing, building, and operating local and global networks. Under this program, which operates in Russia as well, at the same time 1 million students gain knowledge.
Cisco can be called a green company: in 2016, the company completed 100 environmental projects. For example, compared to 2007, the amount of emissions was reduced by 34%, and 25% of the energy used is obtained from renewable sources. The company also has a recycling and recycling program. In a year, users donate to the company about 12-13 thousand tons of Cisco equipment, which is either subject to repair and is used for internal purposes, or is sent for further processing.
The company traditionally participates in the preparation of the Olympic Games, where it is usually responsible for maintaining the network and server infrastructure. In London and Rio, for example, the company also provided cybersecurity, and at the last Olympiad it also implemented the Internet of Things project. In Sochi, another contractor was engaged in infrastructure, but Cisco still did not stand aside: the company provided a number of equipment and software for the cloud video solution from NBC.
In addition to the Olympiad, the company has other interesting projects. For example, in 2017, Cisco developed the Intelligent Mobile Audio Guide for the Museum of Russian Impressionism. It is based on the Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences (CX) application, which helps users navigate the museum, can pave the way to the right exposure and automatically begin a story as you approach it. High accuracy of navigation is provided by another Cisco technology - the Aironet 3700 access point with unique high-precision positioning modules (Hyperlocation modules).
Today, the company's financial performance continues to grow: in 2015 and 2016, revenue grew by 4% to $ 49.2 billion, and profit in 2016 increased by 20% and reached 10.7 billion dollars. Experts suggest that in the near future, the company will focus on software, the Internet of things and even robots. Cisco continues to actively grow and develop in different areas, so we will follow with interest where else the company will lead its interesting life story and whether robots can become more profitable than routers.
The main goal of our work is to make IaaS simple and straightforward, even for those who have not experienced IT. We tell about our experience in the 1cloud blog :
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/325486/
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