AskDefine | Define cisco

Dictionary Definition

cisco

Noun

1 cold-water fish caught in Lake Superior and northward [syn: lake herring]
2 important food fish of cold deep lakes of North America [syn: lake herring, Coregonus artedi] [also: ciscoes (pl)]

User Contributed Dictionary

English

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

  1. Any North American freshwater fish of the genus Coregonus or Leucichthys that live in cold water lakes

Translations

Extensive Definition

Cisco Systems, Inc. (, ) is a multinational corporation with more than 63,000 employees and annual revenue of US$35 billion as of 2007. Headquartered in San Jose, California, it designs and sells networking and communications technology and services under five brands, namely Cisco, Linksys, WebEx, IronPort, and Scientific Atlanta.

Corporate history

Partial list of software products

Cisco Systems VPN Client

The Cisco Systems VPN Client is an executable program that allows Linux, OS X, Solaris and Windows based computers to connect to a Virtual Private Network (VPN). The client makes remote resources of another network available in a secure way as if the user was connected directly to that "private" network. The software is not free but is often installed on university and business computers in accordance with a site-license.

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 and Yahoo to integrate consumer VoIP services with wireless and cordless phones.

Environmental record

As a part of an ongoing effort to help its customers to take steps toward becoming greener, WebEx, now part of Cisco (CSCO), announced on April 21, announced a challenge as a part of its 'Plant-A-Tree with WebEx' program. From April 21 through May 31, in addition to planting a tree for each free trial, for every 100 free trials taken Cisco WebEx will plant an additional 100 trees. The challenge is part of Cisco WebEx's ongoing efforts to help business reduce their impact on the environment by reducing the need for travel. Launched in April 2006, the 'Plant-A-Tree with WebEx' program is an easy way to experience the business productivity benefits of web collaboration while helping offset global carbon dioxide emissions.

Criticisms and controversy

China

Cisco has been criticized for its involvement in censorship in the People's Republic of China. 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 Chinese on-line activities. Cisco says that it does not customize or develop specialized or unique filtering capabilities to enable governments or regimes to block access to information and that it sells the same equipment in China as it sells worldwide. Leaked documents suggests that Cisco sees information control in China as a good commercial opportunity.

Shareholder class action lawsuit against Cisco

On August 18, 2006 Cisco reached a settlement in a long-standing class action lawsuit that originated in 2001. "The original suit, filed April 20, 2001, claimed that the company made misleading statements, or omitted statements of material fact, that were relied on by purchasers of Cisco stock. It also alleged that the individual defendants sold Cisco stock while in possession of material, non-public information. Cisco denied all allegations in the suit." While Cisco denies all wrongdoing in the suit, it agreed to settle with the plaintiffs. Cisco's liability insurers, its directors, and officers paid the plaintiffs US$91.75 million to settle the suit.

Cisco lawsuit against Huawei

On January 23, 2003, Cisco sued Huawei Technologies, Co., Ltd and its subsidiaries, Huawei America, Inc. and FutureWei Technologies, Inc. over Huawei's unlawful copying of Cisco's intellectual property. The suit alleged that Huawei "unlawfully copied and misappropriated Cisco's IOS software... and infringed numerous Cisco patents." Cisco suspended the patent infringement lawsuit on October 1, 2003, after Huawei agreed to modify some of their products.

Brazil

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 since 2002 that exempted the company from paying over R$1.5 billion (US$824 million) in taxes.

See also

References

External links

cisco in Arabic: سيسكو سيستمز
cisco in Czech: Cisco Systems
cisco in Danish: Cisco Systems
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cisco in Spanish: Cisco Systems
cisco in Persian: سیسکو سیستمز
cisco in French: Cisco Systems
cisco in Galician: Cisco Systems
cisco in Indonesian: Cisco Systems
cisco in Italian: Cisco Systems
cisco in Hebrew: סיסקו מערכות
cisco in Lithuanian: Cisco
cisco in Malayalam: സിസ്‌കോ
cisco in Dutch: Cisco Systems
cisco in Japanese: シスコシステムズ
cisco in Norwegian: Cisco Systems
cisco in Polish: Cisco
cisco in Portuguese: Cisco Systems
cisco in Romanian: Cisco Systems
cisco in Russian: Cisco Systems
cisco in Slovak: Cisco Systems
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cisco in Turkish: Cisco Systems
cisco in Chinese: 思科系统
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