Cisco Putting Stamp On Smart Grid

Posted by Alexander Wolfe on September 23, 2009

I confess I can't get too excited about either green or smart grid technology, but that doesn't mean that both aren't legitimate new beachheads where -- to update Scott McNealy's famous aphorism -- the networking stuff will be the big deal. The whole deal, in fact.

The news point which prompts this post is Cisco's announcement last week, effectively kicking the activities of its Smart Grid Business Unit into high gear. It named Laura Ipsen general manager of the operation and announced a boatload of initiatives, which I guess are intended to centralize the focus of smart grid efforts around. . . Cisco. On the competitive front, GE is also a huge player in smart grid

Specifically, it created something called the Cisco Smart Grid Ecosystem and pulled in some 30 partners to join the group. These include not just software companies (Oracle, Wipro), but telecom (Cable & Wireless, Verizon) and power-generation equipment providers (Siemens), too. 

I know you're thinking the same thing I did when I read this -- that it's a bunch of marketing yadda, yadda, yadda. But if you look at its stated purpose, it's clearly not. The objectives of the ecosystem are:

"to support interoperability testing and enable industry migration to an IP-based infrastructure for smart grids and energy management applications;

to facilitate the adoption of Internet Protocol (IP)-based communications standards for smart grids that will benefit the energy industry as well as business and residential customers."

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