Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO, SEHK: 4333) is a multinational corporation with more than 66,000 employees and annual revenue of US$39 billion as of 2008. Headquartered in San Jose, California, it designs and sells networking and communications technology services.
Cisco's stock was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average on June 8, 2009. It replaced General Motors which had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, a married couple who worked as computer staff at Stanford University, later joined by Richard Troiano, founded Cisco Systems in 1984. Lerner moved on to direct computer services at Schlumberger, moving full time to Cisco in 1987. 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 the early days. For Cisco's first product, Bosack adapted multiple-protocol router software originally written some years before by William Yeager, another Stanford employee who later joined Sun Microsystems.
While Cisco was not the first company to develop and sell a router, it was one of the first to sell commercially successful routers supporting multiple network protocols. As the Internet Protocol (IP) became widely adopted, the importance of multi-protocol routing declined. Today, Cisco's largest routers are primarily used to deliver IP packets and MPLS frames.
In 1990, the company was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Lerner was fired; as a result Bosack quit after receiving $200 million. Most of those profits were given to charities and the two later divorced.
Cisco acquired a variety of companies to bring in products and talent into the company. Several acquisitions, such as Stratacom, were the biggest deals in the industry when they occurred. During the Internet boom in 1999, the company acquired Cerent Corp., a start-up company located in Petaluma, California, for about US$7 billion. It was the most expensive acquisition made by Cisco to date, and only the acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta has been larger. Although not every acquisition is successful, Cisco has succeeded more frequently than its competitors in integrating and growing the revenue of its acquisitions. Several acquired companies have grown into $1Bn+ business units for Cisco, including LAN switching, Enterprise VOIP, and home networking.
In late March 2000, at the height of the dot-com boom, Cisco was the most valuable company in the world, with a market capitalization of more than US$500 billion. In July 2009, with a market cap of about US$108.03 billion, it is still one of the most valuable companies. CSCO was voted stock of the decade on NASDAQ. The company's 7500 Series router was voted 3rd in the product of the decade 1990-2000 behind the Mosaic web browser and the Novell LAN manager.
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).
The company's first two CEOs are John Morgridge and John Chambers (active). The Corporate Headquarters is on East Tasman Drive in San Jose, California, between Zanker Road and Cisco Way.
The company was a 2002-03 recipient of the Ron Brown Award.
Cisco's vision is "Changing the Way We Work, Live, Play and Learn." Cisco's current tagline is "Welcome to the human network."
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 and Yahoo to integrate consumer VoIP services with wireless and cordless phones.
Cisco Career Certifications
Cisco Career Certifications are IT professional certifications for Cisco products. The tests are administered by Pearson VUE. There are five levels of certification: Entry, Associate, Professional, Expert, and Specialist.
The CCNA validates the ability to install, configure, operate, and troubleshoot enterprise level router and switched networks. This includes design implementation and verification of connections to remote sites in a WAN. New CCNA training includes basic mitigation of security threats, introduction to wireless networking and Voice.
Expert-level certifications
The expert-level certification is the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE). It is the highest level of professional certification that Cisco provides. There are five active CCIE tracks, as shown below. As of June 26, 2009 there are 20,003 people with active CCIE certifications in the world..
Cisco began its CCIE program in 1993 originally with a two day lab, later changing it to the one day format used today. Fewer than 3% of Cisco certified individuals attain CCIE certification, and on average will spend thousands of dollars and 18 months studying before passing. Many candidates build mock-labs at home using old Cisco equipment, selling it again to other candidates after passing. Alternatively candidates may rent "rack time" online and practice lab scenarios on Cisco equipment hosted on the Internet for that purpose.
Cisco refers to the CCIE as the "most respected IT certification", and from 2002 to 2005 it was voted as such in CertCities magazine. It has also been voted the most technically advanced IT certification by CertMag, and is generally reported as the highest salaried certification in IT salary surveys.
The CCIE is comprised of a written exam and a "lab" exam (each in the specific area of the chosen track). The written exam is required to take the lab exam, and has a cost of $350 USD per attempt. Upon passing the written exam, the candidate has eighteen months to take the lab exam. If the first attempt is unsuccessful the candidate has three years from the date the written exam was passed to successfully complete the lab. If a candidate does not pass the CCIE lab in that time, they must pass the CCIE written exam again before making additional attempts at the CCIE lab exam. As many attempts can be made to pass the lab exam for up to three years after passing the written, so long as the first attempt is within 18 months. There is a minimum waiting time between attempts of one month.
The CCIE Lab is currently $1,400 USD per attempt and are offered only at ten Cisco lab exam locations worldwide. The locations are Bangalore; Beijing; Brussels; Dubai; Hong Kong; Research Triangle Park, NC; San Jose, CA; São Paulo; Sydney; and Tokyo. Some CCIE tracks do not have lab exams available at all locations. For example, the Storage Networking lab is available only at the Research Triangle Park, NC and Brussels locations. In addition, according to a survey by Cisco the average cost to prepare for CCIE certification is $9,050 as of April 2006, spent mostly on practice equipment and self study material. This is partially offset by the increased salary the certification commands, which a March 2007 Network World article estimates at 10% - 15% over similarly experienced engineers who do not have a CCIE.
The lab is an eight hour hands-on exam designed to demonstrate that the candidate not only knows the theory, but is also able to practice it. Many prospective CCIEs need multiple attempts to pass the lab exam.
There are no formal prerequisites for the CCIE exam, but Cisco recommends one has at least 3–5 years experience in networking before attempting to become a CCIE. CCIE was the first Cisco Certified qualification, and as such there were no other certifications that could be taken prior. The development of the associate and professional certifications was due to recognition of the fact that a CCIE is overkill for many networking personnel, and also for the vast majority of businesses who employ such people, and that certifications needed to be offered at lower levels. Despite the development of the lower certifications, Cisco has chosen not to make them formal requirements for the CCIE certification.
It is possible to hold multiple CCIE certifications. This is done by passing both the written and the lab exam in a particular track. As of September 9, 2008, there are 1,729 individuals who hold multiple CCIE certifications. Of those, 274 hold three or more CCIE certifications.
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