Cisco Systems
The company was founded in 1984 and went public in 1990. During the peak of the dot com boom, Cisco was the most valuable company in the world. Cisco is known for utilizing extensive acquisitions to fuel their growth.
Cisco Systems develops and sells networking and systems communications technology products and services. Based in San Jose, California, Cisco Systems has 3 main brands that they promote: Cisco, Linksys and Scientific Atlanta. While they originally specialized in the enterprise (business) market, Cisco has branched into the home networking market as well.
In 1993, Cisco embarked on an initiative to design practical, cost-effective networks. It quickly became apparent that designing and installing the networks was not enough, schools also needed some way to maintain the networks after they were up and running. Cisco Senior Consulting Engineer George Ward developed training for teachers and staff for maintenance of school networks. The students in particular were eager to learn and the demand was such that it led to the creation of Cisco Networking Academy.
