Enterprise Risk Management at Cisco

Cisco Systems, founded in 1984 by a group of computer scientists from Stanford University, shipped its first product in 1986. Since then it had grown into a global player in the information technology (IT) industry, with over 10,000 employees in more than 200 offices in 54 countries. Cisco was the worldwide leader in Internet Protocol-based (IP) networking solutions, the backbone of the Internet and most corporate, education, and government networks around the world. Cisco provided a wide range of products and services for transporting data, voice and video. Cisco's bread and butter products were routers and switches. The switch line included equipment based on Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Token Ring, and ATM technologies.

Cisco Systems was founded by Stanford University husband-and-wife team Leonard Bosack and Sandra Lerner and three colleagues in 1984. Bosack developed technology to link his computer lab's network with his wife's network in the graduate business school. They sold their first network router in 1986. Originally targeting universities, the aerospace industry, and the government, the company began to target large corporations in the late 1980s. Venture capitalist Donald Valentine of Sequoia Capital bought a controlling stake and became chairman. He hired John Morgridge of laptop maker GRiD Systems as president and CEO.