However, the value of this book is mainly elsewhere. More than a
history of Cisco Systems, it's a look at the companies that are competing
for profits in the area of routers, fiber optics, wireless, cable and
copper. It's about mega-connectivity through digital telecommunications
-- all the hardware and software that determines whether the Internet works
or doesn't work, or might work in the future, but which is invisible to the
average consumer. To put it another way, it's nearly everything other than
cell phones, broadcasting, and personal computer software. Cisco gets most
of the ink in this book, but there's also Lucent, Nortel, and Juniper.
This book is pre-Google, but to characterize it in 2005, one might suggest
that Google is all about consumer-oriented fluff, while this is about the
nuts and bolts behind the fluff. All that's missing is some discussion of
the role played by open-source software, and what that might mean.
ISBN 0-7615-2775-3
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