Cisco Invests $12 Million in R&D Center in Japan

December 18, 2004

Tokyo R&D Center to Focus on Internet Software and Routing Technology, Drawing on Japan's Leadership in the Broadband Market

Cisco Systems, Inc., today announced its intent to open research and development center in Tokyo, Japan. The facility will open in February, 2005, and will represent an initial $12 million investment over the next five years, focusing on the development of Internet Protocol-based networking technologies, including routers and Cisco IOS and IOS XR software, the most broadly deployed and advanced software platform powering the Internet.

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Cisco Systems, Inc. is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Today, networks are an essential part of business, education, government and home communications, and Cisco Internet Protocol-based (IP) networking solutions are the foundation of these networks. Cisco hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create Internet solutions that allow individuals, companies, and countries to increase productivity, improve customer satisfaction and strengthen competitive advantage. The Cisco name has become synonymous with the Internet, as well as with the productivity improvements that Internet business solutions provide. At Cisco, our vision is to change the way people work, live, play and learn. Cisco was founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University.

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The Tokyo R&D center will focus on advanced Internet technologies such as IPv6, multicast, and wireless, in addition to improving existing security and quality-of-service (QoS) technologies.

The Tokyo R&D center will initially employ 10 engineers and will allow Cisco to take advantage of unique Japanese market conditions for the creation of new routing and software products.

Tokyo was chosen for this facility because of Japan's leadership in broadband services. The success of the government-led "e-Japan" program has provided the country with one of the most sophisticated broadband markets in the world.

With Japanese enjoying broadband at rates costing about a thirtieth of what they are in the US, service providers continue to roll out new consumer and business applications and services, such as nation-wide voice-over-IP and rich media gaming and entertainment services. Japanese service provider networks carry loads that are five times higher than in the US and broadband access is growing at more than 500 percent a year.

"Products and technologies produced to meet Japan's demand for intelligent bandwidth will be robust enough to handle any other market in the world," said Mike Volpi, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Routing Technology Group, Cisco Systems. "Japan has been an innovator in broadband services and building an R&D center in Japan is a continuation of our stated strategy of allocating research and development resources where there is talent and market opportunity."

The Cisco Carrier Routing System (CRS-1), Cisco's recent routing innovation announced earlier this year, was developed with direct input from Japanese service providers and these have been among the first companies to deploy the technology platform. A new variant of IOS, IOS XR, was specially developed to handle the requirements for availability and scalability posed by the CRS-1.