Cisco to Establish Global R&D Centre in Galway

“Investment by the world leader in networking is a superb win for Ireland, which will create 200 new technical and engineering positions,” says Minister Martin TD

November 21, 2006 - Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin TD announced today that Cisco, the worldwide leader in networking, is to establish a dedicated world-class Research & Development Centre in Galway, with the support of IDA Ireland. The investment will be undertaken by Cisco subsidiary Cisco Internetworking (Ireland) Limited. Cisco develops and sells networking and communication technology products and services for transporting data, voice and video to customers worldwide.

The Galway centre will be an integral part of Cisco’s future worldwide Research & Development activities. It will initially employ 50 skilled graduates and is projected to grow to 200 positions over the next three years for people at degree level and above, with a number of positions requiring Master and PhD qualifications.

The Galway centre represents an important addition to the global R&D function of Cisco’s Voice Technology Group and will be involved in the development of new applications and services for its Unified Communications solutions. Cisco’s vision of Unified Communications is to help reduce communication chaos that disrupts business processes and slows decision making by using the intelligence in the network to connect to the right person the first time, using the most available, accessible communication medium.

Minister Martin said “This investment is a superb win for Ireland coming as it does from a truly global household name of the calibre of Cisco and involving R&D that will further push-out the frontiers of global communications through the development of next-generation products and services. It is a further significant increase in the benchmark by which other global companies can judge Ireland’s abilities to successfully support truly cutting-edge highly sophisticated technological R&D and of our ability to provide the required numbers of the most knowledgeable and skilled graduates that can be found anywhere in the world.”

“The Galway centre will firmly embed Cisco, the world’s leading networking company, in Ireland, where it will undertake research at the very heart of Cisco’s new growth strategy, a key part of which includes its Unified Communications business. Cisco has been a major target company for IDA Ireland for quite some time and the location of this R&D centre here was achieved against strong competition. Cisco is also to investigate the opportunities for collaborative R&D with both industry and academic partners in Ireland.”

“In addition, the provision of IDA Ireland’s assistance to the company clearly further demonstrated the Government’s support for Cisco and for the development of R&D in general in Ireland and is an ideal reflection of the ambitions of our Government’s recent €3.8 billion initiative for Science and Technology,” added Minister Martin.

Charlie Giancarlo, Cisco’s Chief Development Officer, said “Cisco products and systems provide the backbone for the communications for nearly all of the world’s businesses, governments and service providers. Today the majority of Cisco’s business and customers exist outside of North America. To remain responsive to the communications needs of our customers, we are expanding our significant investment in development around the world. We view Ireland as an excellent area to establish our new R&D facility in the area of Unified Communications both because of the positive business climate and because of the established talent pool.”

Cisco, through its international sales and finance subsidiaries, has existing Irish operations based in Dublin, which employ 66 people in sales and support operations, which focuses on the domestic market, and a finance (captive leasing) and treasury operation. It also holds an Irish banking license.

For information on available positions please contact galwayjobs@cisco.com.
About Cisco Systems

Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

Contact Information

Alison Stokes

Voice and IP Communications

Cisco Systems, Inc.

Contact via E-mail