Cisco systems is a multinational company founded by Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, a married couple who worked as computer operations staff members at Stanford University, later joined by Richard Troiano founded Cisco Systems in 1984.

Company mainly deals in Networking Device, Network Management, Cisco IOS and NX-OS Software, Interface and Module, Optical networking, Storage area networks, Wireless, Tele presence, VOIP, Security, Datacenter. Main business of company is designing, manufacturing, and selling networking equipment.

The name "Cisco" was adopted from the city name, San Francisco.

Bill Graves was the company's first CEO who held the position from 1987 to 1988. On February 16, 1990.

Cisco Systems listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange and became public.

During the period of 1992 to 1994, Cisco acquired several companies in Ethernet switching; most of them are Kalpana, Grand Junction and Crescendo Communications which together formed the Catalyst business unit.

Throughout mid-2000s Cisco also built a significant presence in India. establishing its Globalization Centre East in Bangalore for $1 billion.

Main competitors companies of Cisco are Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Networks Huawei.

In 2006 as part of a massive rebranding campaign, Cisco Systems adopted the shortened name "Cisco" and launch "The Human Network" advertising campaign. These efforts were meant to make Cisco a "household" brand – a strategy designed to support the low-end Linksys products and future consumer products. Cisco's current portfolio of products and services is focused upon three market

• Home
• Small Business
• Enterprise and Service Provider

The solutions for each market are segmented into Architectures, which form the basis for how Cisco approaches each market.

Home user

• Linksys product line of access points, switches etc.
• Broadband: cable modems

Small businesses

• Routers and switches (including those for networks of smart meters)
• Security and surveillance: IP cameras, data and network security solutions etc.
• Voice and conferencing solutions: VOIP phones and gateway-systems, WebEx, video conferencing
• Wireless: WiFi Access points
• Network storage systems

Corporate market

• Borderless networks: for their range of routers, switches, wireless systems, security systems, WAN acceleration, energy and building management systems and media aware networks.
• Collaboration: IP video and phones, TelePresence, HealthPresence, Unified Communications, Call Center systems, Enterprise social networks and Mobile applications.
• Datacenter and Virtualization: Unified Computing, Unified Fabric, Data Centre Switching, Storage Networking and Cloud services.
• 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.

Cisco Career Certifications

Cisco Systems also sponsors a line of IT Professional certifications for Cisco products.

There are five levels of certification: Entry (CCENT), Associate (CCNA / CCDA), Professional (CCNP / CCDP)), Expert (CCIE / CCDE), and recently Architect, as well as eight different paths, Routing, Switching, Design, Network Security, Service Provider, Service Provider Operations, Storage Networking, Voice, and Wireless. A number of specialist technician, sales and data-center 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.