Yesterday, Cisco marks its 25th anniversary with a call to community service. Chairman and CEO John Chambers challenged every Cisco employee to volunteer four hours of service in his or her local community. The networking leader’s goal is an aggregate contribution of 200,000 employee volunteer hours, which equates to approximately 25 years worth of service to the global community.
Cisco was founded on December 10, 1984 by husband and wife Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, two former Stanford University computer scientists whose efforts to enable email between computers on different networks led to the invention of the first multiprotocol router. This seminal breakthrough played a major role in fueling the growth of the Internet.
Chambers says “In the coming quarter century, the role of the network will become even more important in driving growth, innovation, and productivity in industries such as healthcare, education and energy. Looking ahead, Cisco is positioned to lead the evolution of the network to enable a ‘connected future’ which is increasingly collaborative, video-driven, personalized, and mobile.”.