San Jose, Calif., September 21, 2012 – As part of its ongoing relationship in support of The Tech Museum of Innovation, Cisco has just delivered technology donations to the museum as part of a $1,026,962 grant that also includes a presenting sponsorship of The Tech Challenge and support for the celebrated The Tech Awards. In addition, Cisco employees have donated more than 1,000 volunteer hours including technical expertise, and judging and other service for The Tech Challenge, an annual competition for students in grades 5-12, which introduces engineering design with a hands-on project to solve a real-world problem.

The museum received a suite of products from Cisco including local area and wireless network infrastructure, voice over internet protocol telephony, switching, digital signage, server virtualization and data storage technologies. Through these solutions, the museum expects to increase customer satisfaction and improve staff productivity due to a faster network bandwidth, save an estimated 20 percent on technology maintenance through a virtual desktop environment, save 40 percent on data center energy costs, and reduce operating costs. The museum's projected annual savings total $383,400.

"Thanks in large part to Cisco's products we will develop engaging and interactive visitor experiences, build operational capacity, and support our outreach efforts including social networking outlets and other online resources," said Tim Ritchie, president, The Tech Museum. "In addition, we're furthering our mission and accelerating our impact through Cisco's financial gifts and employees' time and expertise," Ritchie said.

"The Tech Museum reflects the spirit of Silicon Valley and is an example of how we can multiply our impact on communities," said Blair Christie, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Cisco. "We're delighted to advance the museum's operations and new exhibit design model, which involves rapidly renewing content to keep pace with the world around us. And because Cisco is strongly committed to transforming science, technology, engineering and math education to ensure a strong future workforce, we're particularly pleased to support The Tech Challenge."

Tech Challenge video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnASF-7Vico

Related Links:

• Blair Christie's blog about The Tech Challenge:  http://blogs.cisco.com/?s=%22tech+challenge%22&x=19&y=4
• Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility: http://csr.cisco.com/
• The Tech Museum: http://www.thetech.org/
• The Tech Challenge:  http://thetechchallenge.thetech.org/
• The Tech Awards: http://thetechawards.thetech.org/

About The Tech Museum

The Tech Museum is a hands-on technology and science museum for people of all ages and backgrounds. The museum—located in the Capital of Silicon Valley —is a non-profit learning resource established to engage people in exploring and experiencing technologies affecting their lives. Through programs such as The Tech Challenge presented by Cisco, our annual team-design competition for youth, and internationally renowned programs such as The Tech Awards presented by Applied Materials, The Tech Museum endeavors to inspire the innovator in everyone.
 

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. For ongoing news, visit http://newsroom.cisco.com.

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