Days after CEO Chuck Robbins publicly rejected the idea of laying off employees to make room for artificial intelligence, Cisco Systems announced a new wave of layoffs, removing 157 positions in California.
The action has drawn legal attention, which has made the company’s attempts to strike a balance between cost containment, shareholder returns, and an expansion strategy driven by AI even more difficult. Employees at a number of Cisco locations will be impacted by the layoffs, with the Milpitas facility seeing the most. According to CRN, 64 more jobs will be lost in San Francisco, while employees at the company’s Pleasanton branch and previous Redwood City headquarters will also be affected.
According to sources, the positions being terminated range widely, from entry-level workers to top executives, including vice presidents. The layoffs’ timing has drawn criticism. Robbins only stated to CNBC this week that he has no plans to use AI as a cover for cutting staff. He emphasised that he wanted engineers to “innovate faster and be more productive” rather than “fire a bunch of people right now.”
Legal Investigation: Possible WARN Act Violations
Strauss Borrelli, a Chicago-based legal firm, has declared that it is looking into whether Cisco complied with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which mandates that companies in the United States give 60 days’ notice before executing mass retirements. In the past, Scott Herren, the chief finance officer at Cisco, referred to job losses associated with AI deployment as a “reallocation versus a headcount savings” effort.
However, the most recent round comes after two significant worker reductions in the last year: a 5% global decrease in February 2024 and a 7% cut announced in August 2024, both of which the business claimed would maximise shareholder value. Strauss Borrelli stated in a statement that it was investigating whether impacted Cisco workers had been given enough notice and were eligible for benefits and severance pay for 60 days.
According to reports, employees were notified of the layoffs on August 13th, before the mid-October employment terminations were scheduled. The law firm has questioned whether the correct procedures were followed, even if the dates seem to meet WARN’s standards.
“We are looking into whether Cisco violated the WARN Act by terminating 157 employees without giving at least 60 days’ notice,” Strauss Borrelli stated. Regarding the legal investigation, the business has not made any public remarks.
Cisco’s AI Growth Amid Job Cuts
The layoffs take place as Cisco’s AI-related business is expanding rapidly. The business recently revealed that its AI-related revenues for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 totalled $800 million, bringing its yearly total to $2.1 billion. Robbins informed investors that the majority of this revenue was derived from hyperscaler clients, with the other two-thirds being connected to Cisco’s optical portfolio.
Impact on Employees and Leadership Shake-Up
Cisco’s strategic investment in AI infrastructure as a long-term growth engine is highlighted by the financial gain. However, it also draws attention to the paradox of reducing employment while announcing record profits from one of the sectors of the economy with the strongest rate of growth.
Cisco has announced changes to its senior levels in addition to the job losses. According to CRN, Tim Coogan, senior vice-president for U.S. commercial operations, will succeed Rodney Clark as global partner sales head.
Quick
Shots
•Layoffs follow CEO Chuck Robbins’
public denial of AI-driven job cuts just days earlier.
•Job losses affect employees across
levels, including senior executives and vice presidents.
Cisco and Nvidia have teamed up to provide organisations with secure AI infrastructure, allowing them to set up data centres for AI workloads on a large scale. On March 18, Cisco and NVIDIA revealed an AI factory design that prioritises security. The firms have acted quickly to provide validated reference architectures, building on the broader alliance announced last month with this collaboration with NVIDIA. The firms are working together with NVIDIA to create the Cisco Secure AI Factory, which will significantly streamline the deployment, management, and security of AI infrastructure for businesses of all sizes. According to Cisco CEO and Chair Chuck Robbins, AI can open up revolutionary business potential. Networking and security must be integrated in order to do this. The reliable, cutting-edge solutions from Cisco and NVIDIA enable our clients to easily and safely realise AI’s full potential. NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang went on to say that AI factories are revolutionising every sector and that security needs to be integrated into every layer to safeguard infrastructure, data, and apps. NVIDIA and Cisco are working together to develop the secure AI blueprint, which will provide businesses with the framework they need to scale AI with confidence and protect their most important assets.
The Cisco Secure AI Factory and its Operations
The Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA is based on the collaboration between Cisco and NVIDIA on the NVIDIA Spectrum-XTM Ethernet networking architecture. Cisco is incorporating security solutions such as Cisco AI Defence to safeguard the creation, implementation, and use of AI models and applications, and Cisco Hypershield to safeguard AI workloads. Cisco and NVIDIA will work together to give clients the freedom to create infrastructure that meets their unique AI requirements without compromising security or ease of use.
AI factories have to deal with fresh, intricate security issues. The recently released Cisco State of AI Security study highlights significant advancements from a quickly changing AI security ecosystem by analysing over 700 pieces of legislation and dozens of attack vectors unique to AI. Businesses will be more flexible, scale more quickly, and generate commercial value more quickly if they proactively address their AI infrastructure and security issues at the same time. It is anticipated that Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA would expand on the two organisations’ distinct capacity to provide full-stack technological solutions and adaptable AI networking by utilising the anticipated combined architecture.
What this New Collaboration will Offer?
By combining their distinct perspectives on the AI infrastructure requirements of their clients, Cisco and NVIDIA are able to provide flexible deployment options in addition to validated reference architectures. The Secure AI Factory will offer enterprise clients high-performance, scalable AI infrastructure that integrates security at every step of the customer journey. According to Patrick Moorhead, founder, CEO, and chief analyst of Moor Insights & Strategy, companies in today’s dynamic market require end-to-end solutions that tackle their most critical problems rather than merely technology. Together, Cisco and NVIDIA will provide integrated solutions that, in my opinion, will spur innovation, make deployment easier, and optimise processes. Combining the two could be an “easy button” for AI infrastructure, even though AI itself is difficult. They could enable businesses to expedite digital transformation and more confidently accomplish their strategic goals by making AI infrastructure easier to acquire and administer.
“Cyber Security is much more than the matter of IT” – Stephane Nappo
With the increased internet usage, a large amount of personal and professional information and data is available online which is continuously under the threat of exposure. In the USA alone over 53 million individuals were affected due to data compromise in the first half of 2022.
Source: Statista.com
This threat has grown several folds with cyber crimes becoming incredibly sophisticated and the entire world shifting online, especially since 2020 amid the uncertainty and disruption of the global pandemic. As per a survey conducted by Statista, the average cost of data breaches worldwide from March 2020 to March 2022, combined in different sectors, is more than 150 million US dollars.
Under these circumstances, cyber threat intelligence becomes an extremely valuable tool to protect, detect and respond to any cyber threat your data might be exposed to.
In this blog, we will discuss in detail cyber threat intelligence and tools that can help you in protecting your data.
What is Cyber Threat Intelligence? Cyber threat intelligence is the collection, processing, and analysis of data to discern the motive and behavior of a potential cyber attack and to help us make informed decisions and implement proactive security procedures. The cyber threat intelligence tools are designed to help us with the process.
Threat intelligence is a cyclic, continuous process that is typically completed in 6 steps:
Set goals and plan the direction
Collection of data
Processing of data
Analysis of data
Dissemination of data
Report findings
There are four types of cyber threat intelligence viz. strategic, tactical, technical, and organizational. Each one of these is meant for different users and describes the threat and its details in various depths as per the knowledge and requirement of the concerned user.
Cyber Threat Intelligence Explained
What Are Cyber Threat Intelligence Tools?
Attackers today have learned and developed thousands of ways to breach data and wreak havoc. Also, with advanced technology and software involved, threats have grown more complex and crimes more sophisticated. Therefore, effective and timely detection of threats and strongly powerful retaliation are extremely important for protecting your data.
Cyber threat intelligence tools are developed and designed to counter these issues. They provide up-to-date information about the latest threats such as malware, exploits, etc. These tools also provide information about the tactic, technology, and procedure (TTP) involved in a particular threat and suggest the best methods for protection against it. Further, these tools are capable of analyzing any potential or specific threat detected on a particular network.
These tools are capable of managing the risk as well as enhancing your cyber security through artificial intelligence or machine learning. They give an organization the ability to plan preventive measures, detect threats, and resolve security issues.
Key Features Your Cyber Threat Intelligence Tool Must Have
As per a survey by Statista, the most useful type of cyber intelligence tool, as per the users, is the one that provides detailed information about the malware being used in the attack.
Source: Statista.com
Although the basic function of most cyber threat intelligence tools remains the same, there are certain key features that you must look for while choosing your CTI.
Flexibility
Any cyber threat intelligence tool that you choose must fit in with your already existing security mechanisms including Firewalls and SIEM (Security Information and Event Management).
A threat intelligence tool processes data from various sources and provides risk scores. Therefore, it cannot act as a standalone tool. Combining it with other security systems enables prioritization, and proactive alerting, as well as adds circumstantial data for alerts that ease the investigation.
Moreover, this flexibility of function would also let the tool collect accurate data from the dark web and other sources.
Comprehensible
Asingle-window dashboard simplifies the entire process of threat detection and remediation. Being comprehensive the tool collects information from every possible source and displays it together which also accelerates the decision-making process.
Multiple Source Information
To exactly analyze an organization’s position in terms of cyber security the tool must be able to extract information from as many sources as possible. Through this real-time indicators can be discovered that can help in forming accurate correlations.
Alert Quality
Several security alerts are often ignored owing to a large number of false positives. This causes alert fatigue amongst the security team who are unable to decipher the actual high-priority issues.
A good threat intelligence tool should be able to prioritize and categorize the actual security alerts, which is only possible when it can correlate the data in the alert with the already available database. This would ensure that the important notifications do receive a response from the security team.
Proactive Intelligence
To manage and control security issues a cyber threat intelligence tool must be proactive. This means that the tool should be able to identify the threat and vulnerabilities before the commencement of the actual attack.
A tool integrated with automated response processes helps in early detection and effective response to the threat.
Top 7 Cyber Threat Intelligence Tools
The right threat intelligence tool would help point out the potential issues and nip the problem in the bud. Based on the requirements of users as well as the opinions of the experts we have made a list of the top 7 cyber threat intelligence tools that will secure your system from cyber threats.
As per Statista, Fortinet led the global threat intelligence software industry in 2022 with almost 39% of the total market share.
Experts label Fortinet’s FortiRecon as one of the best cyber threat intelligence tools. It is a Digital Risk Protection Service product. Other than its outside-the-network view of the risk, it can also mitigate three additional risk areas viz. Digital assets risk, brand-related risks, and underground & imminent threats. It uses automation, machine learning as well as human intelligence to analyze the brand risk for an organization and deliver proactive custom intel.
Key Features:
External Attack Surface Management
Adversary Central Intelligence
Extensive asset and exposure discovery
Comprehensive reporting
Pros:
Easy to use
Contextualized threat insights
Early-stage lifecycle protection
Far-reaching threat sources
Comprehensive report
Cons:
Not suitable for any non-MS domain device
Logging services do not include many details
Pricing:
Contact the vendor to get the quotes for Fortinet’s Fortirecon threat intelligence license.
Recorded Future
Website
Recordedfuture.com
Rating
4.6
Demo Provided
Yes
Used For
Providing coverage against adversaries, infrastructure, and targets
Recorded Future – Cyber Threat Intelligence Tool
It is headquartered in Boston cyber security platform. Recorded Future is widely recognized for its predictive or proactive cyber threat intelligence. It gives you real-time visibility into the vast digital ecosystem and automates the entire process of collection, analysis, and reporting. It provides coverage against adversaries, infrastructure, and targets.
Key Features:
Manages risk landscape through a single-platform approach
Advance filters to narrow down your search
Powerful integration ability connects with both SIEM and SOAR providers
Graphical representation of worldwide threat data
Pros:
A wide variety of threat intelligence is covered
Direct source evidence for effective decision making
Easy navigation owing to modular design
10+ years of reference data updated regularly
Cons:
Overwhelming search results
Comparatively expensive, starts at USD 10,000 for AWS
Pricing:
Contact Recorded Future to obtain the current pricing of the license.
Cisco Security Malware Analytics
Website
Cisco.com
Rating
4.4
Demo Provided
No
Used For
Providing contextual analytics for malware and threats
Earlier recognized by the name threat grid, it is a cloud-based unified security solution. It generates alerts for malware activities and helps analyze the threat levels to draw strategies for tackling them. It provides end-to-end visibility and protection by leveraging threat intelligence.
Key Features:
Contextual analytics for malware and threats
Huge malware knowledge base
Uses behavioral indicators to predict and prioritize attacks
Automation and integration abilities through APIs
Pros:
Easy integration without reprogramming
Cross-product security data from Cisco and third-party sources
Thorough analysis and comprehensive reporting of threat
Automated sample upload through API integration
Cons:
Frequent delays in the alert mechanism
Strenuous on-premise appliance setup
Pricing:
Contact the vendor to get the quotes for Cisco Security Malware Analytics license.
Echosec
Website
Flashpoint.io/platform/echosec
Rating
4.9
Demo Provided
10 days free trial
Used For
Social media and open source intelligence (OSINT) gathering.
Echosec – Cyber Threat Intelligence Tool
It is a Canada-based company that specializes in Open Source Intelligence Tools (OSINT). Its flagship platform leverages data from social media, the dark web, as well as open community platforms. It collects real-time risk information and allows you to perform ad hoc dark web searches alongside internal threat monitoring.
Key Features:
Pre-built data search filters with 24X7 monitoring.
An externally focused tool that connects with global security feeds, illicit forums, etc.
Directly feeds information to the co-security tools
Collects data from 18 social media platforms, news portals, and blogs
Pros:
Simple and easy-to-use investigative tool
Makes investigation easy and provides actionable results quickly
Extraordinarily intuitive GUI
Cons:
For any OSINT newbie, the learning curve can be steep
Occasional random results require human verification
Pricing:
Pricing information for Echosec is supplied by the software provider. Final cost negotiations to purchase Echosec must be conducted with the seller.
IntSights External Threat Protection(ETP) Suite
Website
Intsights.com
Rating
3.5
Demo Provided
Yes
Used For
Monitoring phishing attacks, malicious domains, and data breaches
It is a 360-degree tool for cyber security that provides rich, real-time, actionable insights within 24 hours. It delivers enterprise-grade external, contextualized, and prioritized threat intelligence. It can be used either as separate modules for external intelligence, risk analysis, and threat investigation or as an end-to-end cyber threat intelligence tool.
Key Features:
It collects data from the dark web, provides external threat feeds, and conducts custom research.
Well-built analytical report and automatic risk mitigation
Critical vulnerability patching
Comes with use-case-specific solutions or APIs for extensible integration capability.
Pros:
Supports all major languages including Japanese, Portuguese, German, French, and others.
Focuses on external channels such as social media, black markets, etc.
Extremely flexible, adaptable, and comprehensive tool
Cons:
Weak alerting mechanism
Steep learning curve
Pricing:
Pricing information for IntSights External Threat Protection is supplied by the software provider. Final cost negotiations to purchase IntSights External Threat Protection must be conducted with the seller.
ThreatConnect
Website
Threatconnect.com
Rating
4.5
Demo Provided
Yes
Used For
Dealing in threat intelligence, risk quantification, and intelligence-powered security operations
ThreatConnect – Cyber Threat Intelligence Tool
It is a Romania-based company that deals in threat intelligence, risk quantification, and intelligence-powered security operations. It strengthens security and defense by breaking down complex data into actionable information. The information and data collected can be analyzed manually or with automation assistance.
Key Features:
Uses Playbooks which are an intelligence-driven orchestration feature
Intuitive dashboard with prioritized risks on the face of it
Show threat prevalence through crowdsourcing analytics
Pros:
A powerful data model that establishes links between incidents, threats, and IOCs.
Proactive detection through the combination of orchestration and automation.
Updated information on the latest cyber threats and malware
Intro to ThreatConnect
Cons:
One of the most expensive threat intelligence tools
Not flexible enough to suit user requirements
Pricing:
Pricing information for ThreatConnect is supplied by the software provider. Final cost negotiations to purchase ThreatConnect must be conducted with the seller.
ZeroFOX
Website
Zerofox.com
Rating
4.3
DemoProvided
Yes
Used For
Monitoring the web for data leakage and ransomware
Zerofox – Cyber Threat Intelligence Tool
It is a US-based company that provides cyber intelligence solutions. It safeguards an organization against online threats such as phishing, data leakage, impersonation, and others. It monitors the web for data leakage and ransomware and brings relevant data to the attention of the user.
Key Features:
It is equipped with the latest AI, ML, and OCR technologies
Combines artificial intelligence with human intelligence to review and prioritize threats
Solely designed for external threat protection
Visual indicators on the dashboard offer absolute visibility
Pros:
Hacker elimination through adversary disruption and takedown as a service
Huge integration library covering all popular IT tools
Streamlined workflow with a straightforward setup process
Cons:
Overwhelming subdomain alerts
Generates a large number of false positives
Pricing:
Contact ZeroFOX to know about the price of the license.
Conclusion
Cyber threat intelligence tools play a crucial role in the growth of any business by protecting it from the commonest and biggest of threats. They identify, predict, alert, and manage cyber attacks. Also, with the number of cyber-attacks rising every year to a great degree and the world shifting online there is no alternative to these tools. However, with a large number of options available in the market, making a final choice can be hard.
In this article, we shared with you the 7 best cyber threat intelligence tools to make your search convenient. Hope we could help.
FAQs
What is Cyber Threat Intelligence?
Cyber Threat Intelligence is the process of gathering and analyzing information about cyber threats to protect an organization’s digital assets and infrastructure. It provides actionable intelligence to support cyber security strategies and enhance the ability to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber-attacks.
What are the 3 types of cyber threats?
Malware
Phishing
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) Attacks
What are the benefits of Crime Threat Intelligence tools?
The benefits of using Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) tools are:
Improved threat awareness and detection
Enhanced incident response
Increased efficiency and cost savings
Compliance with regulatory requirements
What is the most common cyber threat?
The most common type of cyber threat is malware, including viruses, trojans, and ransomware.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Cisco.
Cisco is a networking equipment corporation, that designs, manufactures, and sells its products. Cisco might not be the only corporation that has developed network nodes. So, what accounts for its victory?
The name “Cisco” is an acronym for San Francisco, where the company was founded in 1984 by Stanford computer scientists Sandy Lerner and Leonard Bosack. Cisco Systems Inc. is a networking multinational corporation based in the United States.
Cisco was the very first company to provide routers that could handle several internet protocols. Their early devices were also distinguished by their traditional CPU architecture. Their technology was cutting-edge, and hardware was rarely an issue.
Cisco isn’t a household brand, but it is well-known. They are one of the world’s largest networking firms, with a market capitalization of over $200B, ranking them at number 64 on the Fortune 500 list.
Here’s learning all about Cisco, its Founders and Team, Funding and Investors, Business and Revenue Model, Growth, Challenges Faces, Name, Tagline, Logo and more.
As of January 26th, 2022, Cisco released its Data Privacy Benchmark Study for 2022, a yearly worldwide examination of security business practices that emphasizes the influence of privacy on enterprises and their perspectives on data protection.
Privacy is mission-critical, according to the 2022 research, with 90 per cent of respondents considering it a business requirement. According to the poll, privacy expenditure continues to climb, and businesses see a strong return on investment from privacy spending.
As of January 20th, 2022, Cisco has announced an extension of the Cisco Catalyst 9000 range, which is built on the powerful Unified Access Data Plane (UADP) ASIC silicon, to provide additional enterprise-grade switching capabilities to the industrial edge for industries like utilities, oil and gas, highways, and rail.
As companies strive to increase economies, employee safety, and business agility and promote hybrid work, functional connectivity in industrial areas is rising at an exponential rate. As operational technology (OT) devices are integrated onto corporate networks, IT knowledge is necessary to expand and protect the network as the operational world advances.
About Cisco
Cisco Systems is a multinational technology corporation headquartered in the United States that specialises in computer networking.
Cisco networking services link computing devices, and communication networks with people, enabling individuals to access and transmit data regardless of computer system type, location, or time.
As a company that sold its products mostly to other businesses, Cisco did not become a household name, but in the second decade of the 21st century, it was one of the largest corporations in the United States. Cisco was founded in 1984 and has its headquarters in San Jose, California.
Cisco is the only company that can assert a ‘legacy’ in a market as youthful as networking systems. Cisco’s networks not only carry 85% of all Online traffic; the corporation actively utilizes the Internet to operate its businesses, from purchases made online and stock management to employee evaluations and travelling expenditures.
Cisco – Logo and Meaning
The two towers of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, are shown in Cisco’s company logo.
Cisco Logo
The company’s engineers were insistent upon using lower case “cisco” in its early years since the term “Cisco” was taken from the city name San Francisco.
Cisco – About Founders and Team
Cisco was founded by Sandra Lerner and Leonard Bosack.
Sandra Lerner and Leonard Bosack, founders of cisco
Cisco was created by Sandra Lerner and Leonard Bosack, (then) a married couple who met as students at Stanford University. They continued working at the institution after graduating in 1981, supervising the computer facilities of two distinct departments.
They were strongly influenced by Standford’s technology from the early 1980s. Bosack used technologies developed by other Stanford employees in the 1970s to connect their individual computer networks.
He and Lerner realised that router technology, as it was known at the time, could be extremely inexpensively adapted for large-scale usage outside of the institution. Cisco (originally called “Cisco Systems”) was created in December 1984 by the two, who named the business after the city of San Francisco. Cisco eventually bought Stanford’s proprietary technology.
Cisco’s initial product, a network interface card for Digital Equipment Corporation computers, was introduced in 1985. The next year, it had its first major success with a router that supported numerous network protocols. Lerner was fired from Cisco in 1990, shortly after the firm sold its first stock to the public, and Bosack also quit.
Chuck Robbins became the CEO of Cisco replacing John Chambers.
Chuck Robbins, CEO of cisco with John Chambers, ex-CEO of cisco
This revitalized the company. Chuck Robbins brought an outside perspective as he had been at that company for the past 17 years and this did help the company as they shifted their focus to cloud-based networking and this picked up the company from the fall.
They sold to consumer companies like Technicolor for 600 million dollars and invested in newer startups like Velocloud. And in February of 2017, they launched their cloud-based secured internet gateway called Cisco Umbrella. And just 2 years ago, they bought an AI-driven business intelligent company called accompany for 270 million dollars and today they are doing better than ever before.
Cisco was off to a pretty rough start due to inner conflicts among members, but their small team made things happen.
In 1985 they sold their very first product which is a network interface card which they sold to Digital Equipment Corporation. But the following year was the one when they came out with their first blade successful product. This was simply a router. What made it special was that it served multiple network protocols. This router was so successful that it required more cash to expand and as the result, it turned to investment.
In late 1987, the venture capitalist from Sequoia Capital took control of the company. This might have appeared to them as the right thing to do, but it later came back to bite them. Just a couple of months after they came, they changed to the president and CEO of Cisco. The new CEO didn’t get along well with the founders of the company.
Despite this, the company continued to grow and on February 16, 1990, the company went public on NASDAQ with a market cap of 224 million dollars. But unfortunately soon after, in August 1990, Sandy Lerner and Bosack both left the company. They walked away with 170 million dollars. As for Cisco systems, they were still doing good, but they completely transitioned from a family-owned business to a very corporate business.
In the early 1990s, they used their savings and put it towards a few part companies like grand junction and similar other companies that formed the capital business unit.
Cisco – Employees
Chuck Robbins – Chairman & CEO
Eric Wenger – Senior Director, Technology Policy, Global Government Affairs
Matt Swartz – Principal Engineer
Bill Gerhardt – Managing Director – Strategy and Business Development
Tal Schierau – Sr. Director, Customer Experience
Caroline Baker – Executive Producer, Unhackable with Mike Storm, a Security Podcast Series
Jon Koplin – Managing Director EMEAR, Cisco Investments and Corporate Development
Kelly Crothers – Director of Employee Experience
Cisco – Business Model
Cisco earns money through selling networking and communications hardware and software, which represents the Internet’s backbone.
Applications: The selling of software-oriented services that sit on top of Infrastructure Platforms, such as collaboration (Cisco TelePresence, for example), analytics software, and, the internet of things (IoT) generates revenue.
Infrastructure Platforms: The selling of fundamental networking technologies such as routing, switching, data centre devices, and wireless yields revenue.
Services: The provision of support services and technical consulting generates revenue.
Security and Other products: Revenues are derived from the sale of threat detection, management and security products and cloud and system management tools. This segment also used to house the company’s Service Provider Video Software and Solutions business, which was hived off in 2018.
“The networks that we build we’re going to have to think about fundamentally differently, there is no room for technology religion,” Mr. Robbins said.
Over more than three decades, Cisco Systems became a Silicon Valley giant partly because of one facet of its business: technological complexity.
Managing Cisco’s many varieties of networking equipment, which help computers exchange data, became such a convoluted process over time that customers who learned to do so became loath to try competing products. But that pattern can’t go on, according to Chuck Robbins, Cisco’s chief executive, who took over the company in 2015. At Cisco’s annual technology conference, he declared that technical shifts were affecting how all companies used the internet, forcing Cisco to rewrite its product playbook.
Cisco has raised a total of $2.5M in funding over 1 round. This was a Series A round raised on Jan 1, 1987.
Date
Stage
Amount
Investor
Jan 1, 1987
Series A
$2.5M
Sequoia Capital
Cisco – Investments
Cisco has made 210 investments. Their most recent investment was on Oct 7, 2020, when Illusive Networks raised $24M.
Date
Stage
Amount
Organization Name
Oct 7, 2020
Series B
$24M
Illusive Networks
Aug 5, 2020
Grant
$25k
Respira Labs
Apr 2, 2020
Series C
$230M
Illusive Networks
Jan 29, 2020
Venture Round
$8.6M
Illusive Networks
Oct 30, 2019
Venture Round
$7.6M
Illusive Networks
Mar 20, 2019
Series C
$27M
Illusive Networks
Mar 12, 2019
Venture Round
$50M
Illusive Networks
Jan 2, 2019
Series G
$10M
Illusive Networks
Dec 1, 2018
Grant
$300k
Illusive Networks
Oct 3, 2018
Series D
$30M
Illusive Networks
Cisco – Acquisitions
A total of 237 businesses have been acquired by Cisco. A few of them are as follows:
Acquiree Name
About Acquiree
Date
Amount
Replex
Replex provides software solutions.
Oct 25, 2021
–
Epsagon
Epsagon is a privately held, modern observability company with offices in New York and Tel Aviv.
Aug 13, 2021
$500M
Kenna Security
Kenna is a SaaS risk and vulnerability intelligence platform that accurately measures risk and prioritizes remediation efforts.
May 14, 2021
–
Socio
Powering in-person, virtual, and hybrid event success.
May 12, 2021
–
Sedona Systems
Sedona Systems is a creator of an IP/optical converged control platform
May 11, 2021
$100M
Dashbase
Dashbase empowers you to deliver high quality VoIP services.
Dec 22, 2020
–
Slido
Slido is an audience interaction platform for meetings and events.
Dec 7, 2020
–
IMImobile
IMImobile is a cloud communication software that helps users manage customer interactions at scale.
Dec 7, 2020
£543M
Banzai Cloud
Bringing Cloud Native to the Enterprise
Nov 16, 2020
–
Portshift
Kubernetes-native security solution, single pane of glass for containers and Kubernetes security.
Oct 1, 2020
–
Cisco – Growth
Cisco Systems Inc. has been on a goal for the past few years: to conquer the data networking business, just like IBM did with mainframe computers and Microsoft and Intel did with pcs.
Cisco, situated in San Jose, Calif., has gone on a significant acquisition binge to achieve this lofty aim, purchasing 14 firms since late 1993. Cisco evolved and adapted to its ever-changing surroundings. During the mid to late 1990s, Cisco adapted to the internet protocol as the internet age progressed.
They introduced devices such as the ASA 5200 and GSR (Gigabit Switch Router) routers, but the dot-com bubble, like that of any other technological business at the time, had a significant impact on their growth. But, more than any other technological business, Cisco was able to reap the rewards of the dot-com bubble.
Cisco had become the most valuable firm in the world by late March 2000, after surpassing Apple in the game. When the dot-com market collapsed, Cisco Systems, like Oracle and Dell, suffered a huge drop. However, because none of the firms had achieved the same heights as Cisco Systems, they were not as badly affected.
Cisco Systems intends to dominate its industry and has already made 237 acquisitions since its inception. While many acquisitions are stressful, Cisco’s revenues and net profits have more than quadrupled since 1996. The key is to look for organisational synergies before making a purchase.
The circumstances in the early 2000s provided an ideal opportunity for Cisco’s competitors to enter the market. Juniper Networks, the largest rival, was adamant about passing the IP and MPL package. They published their first part a few years before in 1999, but this is when they started to take off.
Cisco’s market share was eroding, and they now own 30% of the market. Cisco swiftly countered by introducing more powerful processing cards and GSR routers. A6 are application-specific integrated circuits, which they created as well.
They were particularly popular with Bitcoin and theory mining, and in 2004, they began migrating to CSR-1, a new high-level platform. They also received IOS-XR, a new software architecture. Cisco was able to recover from the dot-com bubble thanks to these reforms, and it began to thrive again.
Cisco – Mistakes and Downfall
Cisco made the mistake of attempting to become a household name in 2006. They began by renaming themselves Cisco rather than Cisco Systems. They’ve also spent a lot of time and money advertising links to these items, as well as their prospective consumer costs.
They were also attempting to focus on their conventional business at the same time. They were also seeking to expand globally and enter new markets while all of this was going on. For example, they attempted to develop a foothold in India by investing $1 billion in a global centre of ease in Bangalore.
They were also attempting to acquire their way into new markets on top of all of this. But here’s the thing: one person can only do so many things at once and be effective at all of them. And Cisco’s attempt to achieve all of these things at the same time was doomed to fail. Despite their efforts, their opponents were rapidly gaining momentum.
They faced domestic rivalry from Juniper Networks, as well as international competition from Huawei, which has recently gained a lot of attention. Cisco’s revenues were so low as a result of all of this that they chose to slash their spending by $1 billion each year in 2011. What precisely did they do to achieve this?
Mostly by laying off workers. They fired 3000 people right away, and hundreds more were granted early retirement packages and other benefits. After everything was said and done, 10,000 jobs were lost, accounting for 14% of their workforce. Cisco was clearly in a poor situation.
Cisco sold eastbound lines to Belkin International in 2013, and this interchanged from the consumer to the network side. Years of mistakes, however, continued to have disastrous repercussions. They had to reduce 4000 and 6000 positions in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
Cisco – Future Plans
Over the previous two decades, Cisco has reaped the benefits of the internet’s growth and increased traffic. Cisco predicts that worldwide network traffic would expand by 26% annually until 2022, thanks to the expansion of online services such as video streaming and gaming.
“Innovation requires focused investment, the right team and a culture that values imagination,” said Chuck Robbins, chairman and CEO of Cisco. “We are dedicated to transforming the industry to build a new internet for the 5G era. Our latest solutions in silicon, optics and software represent the continued innovation we’re driving that helps our customers stay ahead of the curve and create new, ground-breaking experiences for their customers and end users for decades to come.”
Cisco intends to bring its 75,000 employees back into the office once the epidemic has passed, while still allowing for remote work. After converting its entire worldwide staff to remote work, the IT giant is taking efforts to ensure that employees can continue to work from home, such as strengthening networks to allow for more remote access to corporate databases.
“How can we improve the robustness and resilience of our networks and connectivity?” “How do we scale up much more effectively,” Cisco’s chief operating officer, Irving Tan, explained. “There’s a lot to learn, and it’s still early in the game.” By equipping individuals and businesses with problem-solving skills and revolutionary technology through Cisco Networking Academy, they want to offer the advantages of digitalization to one billion people by 2025.
Cisco – FAQs
What does Cisco do?
Cisco Systems is a multinational technology corporation based in the United States that specialises in communication networks.
When was Cisco founded?
Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner founded cisco on December 10, 1984.
How does cisco make money?
Cisco earns money through selling networks and telecommunications software and hardware, which represents the Internet’s backbone.
