History of Cisco

As one of the world’s largest networking organizations, Cisco Systems has a long and complex history. This post will cover the events in Cisco’s past you can get a better understanding of how it became one of the most successful tech companies on Earth.

The History of Cisco is the history of the phone systems in America. In the period between 1876 and 1880, Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone company had over 40,000 subscribers, which was more than any of his competitors. This success was because of Bell’s patent for the “single wire” telephone. His successful experiments in telephony led to ratification and implementation of the first national network on May 25, 1881 with (you guessed it) a single wire transmission line.

A few years later, another breakthrough occurred that would shape future technology development: while experimenting with polyphase currents he invented (or helped patent), Thomas Edison discovered the first commercial electric lighting system. This led to the widespread and popular use of electricity: with light bulbs, machines could be run 24/7 and homes no longer had to rely on gas-powered lamps.

The newfound ubiquity of electricity helped advance another technology on the rise: the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone company (which eventually became AT&T), now applied their monopoly on local phone service to provide long-distance calling. Seeing a way to make even more money, AT&T’s local business grew rapidly, going from 20,000 telco lines in 1881 to over 265,0006 years later in 1887.

But AT&T’s business was not all local. With the continued growth of long distance communication, there came the need for some way to make sure messages reached their intended destination. AT&T approached Alexander Graham Bell and his invention of the transoceanic cable (which would eventually be called the “Atlantic Cable”) asking if they could patent it. Bell agreed, but under numerous conditions: he did not want any part of AT&T’s after-tax profits, an . He did not want to ensure a monopoly on long distance communication as he felt that monopoly was against the public interest. All he asked was that AT&T would pay him only a small royalty for the use of his invention.

For AT&T, this was a sell-out, but they chose to stick by Bell’s terms for the sake of their future success . In 1874, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison worked together to launch the first transatlantic cable. The resulting success of this project would lead to other business ventures between these two men – including an effort to create a nationwide electrical grid and an electric railroad system in the 1880s.

Bell maintained his independence and in 1885 he decided to try out his own single-wire telephone across New York. He then offered to sell the rights to this technology to his former business partners at AT&T for $100,000, an offer which was quickly rejected. When Bell’s New York Telephone Company established the first commercial long-distance line in 1892, it seemed AT&T would be unable to compete. But through legal battles and regulatory changes, AT&T was able to maintain a firm grip on the local market (they eventually ended up buying out Bell’s company), and their monopoly in long-distance communication remained unchallenged for many decades.

Though these events were not directly related to Cisco, they contributed to its development . We return to our story about Cisco. The seeds of Cisco were planted in the beginnings of the 20th century, when two young men enrolled in electrical engineering programs at Stanford University. One of them was Leonard Bosack, who later found great success with his startup company named after himself.

“Leonard Bosack created an implementation of TCP/IP that ran on a DEC20. From this work, he went on to form a number of companies from which came products such as Cisco routers.” -Vint Cerf (co-inventor of the TCP/IP protocol and one of the “fathers” of the Internet)

The other was his classmate, Sandy Lerner. After graduating from Stanford in the 1960s, Sandy Lerner started a company named “Infinet” that produced a widely used TCP/IP implementation. She then decided to leave Infinet in 1980 after disagreements with the board of directors. The company was eventually sold to another startup company named Cisco, where she became a top executive for the next few decades (until she left in 2009).

Since Cisco’s founding, it has grown from simple equipment to one of the most successful businesses on the planet.