But if you've ever had a network outage or lost an Internet connection, you know the Web can still be quite unstable. And as evidenced by the recent MCI WorldCom network outage, network problems can be devastating. While 3Com makes the same type of Internet routing and switching equipment as its Silicon Valley neighbor, it has never managed the stunning success that seems to come so easily to Cisco Systems. Siemens, is a company with so many lines of business that it's hard to grasp. That's both the problem and the promise of the company.
Cisco systems is one company that practices what it preaches.
Anyone who doubts the effectiveness of the company's efforts to wire, network and Internet-enable the world, can simply check out Cisco's own infrastructure. For one thing, Nokia can claim more people using its handsets. Still, its neighbor Ericsson has a few tricks up its sleeve. Still, it was easy to dismiss Lucent as hopelessly mired in the past, tied to the ancient circuit-switched networks that are being replaced by Internet technologies. But that has actually become the company's greatest advantage.