Low Power Ethernet Coming

September 20, 2010

Representatives of technology firms such as Broadcom, Cisco Systems and others are expected to ratify a low-power Ethernet standard that could cut energy use 60 percent or more in basic networking functions.

The ratification of 802.3az is anticipated on Sept. 30 after four years of work, says Wael William Diab, a technical director at Broadcom and vice-chair of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet working group. The standard will allow chip and gear makers to put physical layer, or PHY, circuits into a sleep mode during the microseconds between packet transmissions.

Physical layer connections are the most basic in networking equipment, primarily handling the streaming of raw digital “bits” among devices. Diab said the introduction of a PHY-level idle mode should enable equipment makers to simultaneously turn off other parts of a router, switch or gateway, leading to more power savings.

Broadcom already has pre-standard products in the market.

The challenge to completing the standard was finding an effective way to awaken gear when packet traffic resumes. The energy-saving feature will be incorporated in new, not existing, equipment.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Cisco Unveils First Smart Grid Hardware And Customers

May 25, 2010

Cisco Systems kept its promise to build industrial strength smart-grid hardware, unveiling on Tuesday its first router and switch.

The Silicon Valley networking giant has made no secret about its interest in this potentially lucrative market. But so far its efforts have appeared sluggish, with few utilities other than Duke Energy climbing aboard.

Cisco's Connected Grid line built with special features for the grid, including a greater resistence to extreme temperatures and electromagnetic fields.

This could be ready to change. Along with the new products – engineered with special features, such as an ability to resist strong electromagnetic fields – the company named several utilities now testing the products and said it expects them to become customers. They are San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, Enel Group in Italy and E.ON Westfalen Weser in Germany

Cisco also introduced a brand name for its line of hardware: Connected Grid. And it said additional products were on the way, included an in-home energy display expected in several months that could put the company in head-to-head competition with vendors such as EcoFactor and Tendril.

To design products for the market, “we really needed to start from the ground up,” says Brad Tips, product manager for substation automation.

The new router and switch target the substation market, where extreme temperatures and electric fields make for difficult conditions. Standard routers and switches would not likely survive the 15 years or more utilities demand, said Tips.

Cisco says its Connected Grid Router 2010 and Switch 2520 will withstand temperatures from 40 below zero to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Traditional products operate in a narrower 32-degree to 100-degree range.

They also will operate in high electromagnetic fields, withstand abnormal electrical surges and run with no fans or moving parts to eliminate the likelihood of failure. The Switch 2520 has optional support for powerline over Ethernet with a similar feature expected for the router.

The products will cost more than traditional networking gear – a base price of $5,900 for the router and $5,400 for the switch. But Cisco says they will competitively stack up with gear from suppliers RuggedCom, GarrettCom, Hirschmann Automation and Control, and Encore Networks.

Cisco had promised its first smart grid products within nine to 12 months of last May’s push into the market space, so it claims to be on time. The two products will be available commercially by August.

Along with new consumer-facing products, Cisco said it would unveil what it calls field-area network gear, such as pole-top routers expected to work out of doors in neighborhood settings. It withheld additional information on the in-home consumer display.

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Cisco Makes Two Smart Grid Hires

April 28, 2010

Cisco Systems, hoping to rev up its smart grid business, added two industry veterans to its executive ranks.

The network equipment giant said on Monday it hired Paul De Martini from Southern California Edison, where he was vice president of advanced technology. De Martini will serve as the chief technology officer of Cisco’s smart-grid team.

Laura Ipsen, senior vice president of the unit, also last month named Jeff Taft global smart grid architect. Taft was mostly recently with Accenture and has 25 years of experience in the energy and technology businesses.

De Martini was leading the utility’s smart grid strategy and is charged with accelerating Cisco’s business.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Sprint Accelerates Quest For A Green Phone

April 20, 2010

Like many companies, Sprint wanted to do its part to fight global warming. It took measures to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, increase its use of renewable energy and carefully recycle old phones.

The Samsung Restore is one of two new green phones coming to market. Sprint is looking at using kinetic energy to charge future phones

But what about designing green phones from the start, cutting down on the use of damaging chemicals and manufacturing with recycled materials? There was a void in the market the company decided to fill, says manager Darren Beck.

This summer, the efforts will result in the release of the company’s second and third green phones. Possibly first to arrive, the Samsung Restore, has an outer casing made of 27 percent recycled plastic and as a whole is 84 percent recyclable. It uses only small amounts of the environmentally troublesome chemicals PVC, brominated flame retardant, beryllium and phthalates, according to a press release made available Tuesday.

But the initiative won’t end there, Beck said on a Cisco Systems-sponsored Virtual Earth Day conference call. The company is looking at other aggressive steps to improve the cell phone’s eco-footprint.

At the top of the list, says Beck, are efforts to eliminate the need for chargers by creating self-charging phones that make use of kinetic movement or radio waves to charge. The company also is looking at the possibility of not including chargers with its phone and letting consumers use their existing chargers.

In tandem, engineers are examining ways to use improve materials and reduce or eliminate packaging waste.

Sprint’s first green phone, the Samsung Reclaim, was released last summer. Eighty percent of its materials can be recycled. Along with the Resore, Sprint will launch a green phone this summer from LG Electronics called the Remark. Nineteen percent of its shell comes from recycled materials.

Tuesday’s press release also pointed out that the Restore will come with an Energy Star certified charger and without a paper manual. It’s packaging is 100 percent recyclable.

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Cisco Takes Lesson From IPhone And Opens Its Smart Grid Software To Outside Apps Developers

March 17, 2010

Cisco Systems opened its EnergyWise software for corporate Smart Grids to third party programmers, hoping to spawn an iPhone-like frenzy of energy-management apps development.

The networking giant said EnergyWise software APIs, or application programming interfaces, are available to connect the software to assorted electronic devices and internal building systems, such as air conditioning.

Cisco released APIs for its EnergyWise software used to mamage power use by IP phones, computers and eventual building systems

The news came as Cisco introduced its EnergyWise Orchestrator technology for letting administrators remotely manage the power use of PCs and laptops. The technology lets administrators turn off machines not in use and provides information on operating power use.

The EnergyWise software is a key component of Cisco’s energy management strategy. It was unveiled in January 2009 as a tool for companies to manage power use by IP phones, video surveillance cameras, wireless access points, PCs and eventually building systems, such as heaters, air conditioning, elevators, lights and security systems.

Its first task was to connect to IP phones and networking gear, such as access points. Now it is reaching PCs. Cisco hopes to extent its usefulness by encouraging third-party developers to expand its capabilities.

The company also on Wednesday rolled out the latest version of its 2960 Catalyst switch with a dramatic 60 percent reduction in power consumption. The edge, or branch-office, switch achieves higher performance while cutting power by using of new custom ASIC chips.

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Smart Grids Will Bring Massive Data Center Buildouts At Utilities

October 22, 2009

Mention smart grid and most people think of advanced electric meters sending reams of information to utilities.

That information is hoped to help consumers make better decisions about when and why they use energy.

But there is another key component to the consumer-facing smart grid beyond the so-called smart meter. Utilities need powerful new, Google-like data centers to make sense of all the information they will receive.

Electricity use data will flow into utility data centers as quickly as every 15 minutes instead of once a day

Electricity use data will flow into utility data centers as quickly as every 15 minutes instead of once a day

Utilities are in varying degrees of preparing their data centers for this new smart-grid world, says Inbar Lasser-Raab, senior director of marketing for network and smart grid systems at Cisco Systems. Some are focused first on the communications infrastructure (i.e.: installing smart meters). Others have already begun to tackle the necessary data center build outs.

In either case, the industry appears to be facing a massive remaking of its compute and storage infrastructure over the next several years to deliver on the promise of a more intelligent, more responsive electric grid.

The challenging facing these typically slow moving companies is speed. In the past they might receive data about electric use once a day. In the next few years, that could accelerate to every 15 minutes.

“We’re definitely working with utilities on their data-center infrastructure,” says Lasser-Raab. Some say they expect their facilities to carry them for several years. Others are making plans to boost capacity.

“It’s an industry that is really energized,” she said. And that is a necessary change, both in the data center and outside of it.

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Cisco To Expand 30 Market Adjacency Initiatives To 50

August 7, 2009

Cisco Systems has long sought to branch beyond its core networking business as the expansion of the router and switching markets slowed.

First it was into advanced technologies, such as home networking, unified communications and IP telephony.

The number of initiatives will expand, says Ciscos John Hailey

The number of initiatives will expand, says Cisco's John Hailey

Then it became “market adjacencies,” named as such because they were seen as adjacent to the company’s existing markets. Cisco is presently developing businesses in about 30 adjacencies, including the smart energy grid and what it calls smart connected communities, where cities use networks to drive economic development and deliver services.

That list will grow shortly to 50.

During a fourth-quarter conference call on Wednesday, CEO John Chambers said an expansion of the initiatives was likely. “Assuming we are successful, you will see us expand well beyond (the) 30 we have today,” he told analysts.

He pointed out that all adjacencies are designed to expand the role of the network and are opportunities that could grow into billion dollar businesses. They are in various stages of evolution, he added.

But he didn’t specify the extent of the expansion Cisco had in mind.

During a Thursday evening panel discussion, however, Cisco Senior Manager of Workplace Resources John Hailey let the number slip. There soon will be 50 initiatives, he said while discussing Cisco’s efforts to become a green company.

It will be interesting to discover what they are.

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LED Lighting Will Be Big As Companies Go Green

August 7, 2009

Going green has many meanings at Cisco Systems.

Our customers and partners are demanding we be a green company, says Ciscos John Hailey

"Our customers and partners are demanding we be a green company," says Cisco's John Hailey

It means monitoring energy use at 600 buildings across the globe to reduce a $130 million electric bill. It means locating data centers where power is not just cheap and plentiful, but where it comes from less-polluting sources.

And it means looking ahead to new technologies, such as LED lighting, which is destine to be big and smart enough to adjust to daylight conditions and instruct nearby lights to follow suit.

“Our customers and partners are demanding we be a green company,” Cisco’s Senior Manager of Workplace Resources John Hailey said Thursday evening at an SDForum Green & Clean event in Menlo Park. That’s why “we are now re-evaluating how we locate data centers and labs (looking) as to whether it is clean or dirty energy.”

While many companies justify environmental projects based on their expected cost savings, others have begun to look at a broader calculation. Customers, partners and suppliers now expect carbon reduction to be part of a company’s DNA – as can be seen in Cisco’s effort to seek cleaner power sources.

While the growing desire to be a good corporate citizen is nothing new, what was interesting was its emphasis at last night’s forum. With the Bush Administration a thing of the part, companies appear to be genuinely taking green to heart.

In other word’s, Cisco isn’t alone. At Hewlett-Packard, the company installed SunPower solar panels on six San Diego buildings last year.  The benefits include an estimated $750,000 in savings over 15 years. But the company now realizes they go beyond that.

Customers want to see green data centers at their partners, notes Anne Marie Feldhusen, a marketing manager for the company’s green business initiative. The benefit is less tangible, but nonetheless important.

Large scale environmental improvements will reguire regulations, says IBMs Matthew Denesuk

Large scale environmental improvements will reguire regulations, says IBM's Matthew Denesuk

There will still need to be prodding, says Matthew Denesuk, a partner at IBM’s venture capital group, which is why large-scale environmental improvements will require government regulations.

But smart companies, it appears, are thinking a step ahead – to a time when green is not just good for business but necessary for business.

Because altruism will take a while to go mainstream, and because cost savings will motivate many projects even after, IBM’s venture capital group is seeking technologies that integrate with existing ERP systems and other widely used software, says Denesuk. A separate focus is on products tailored to an industry vertical, he says.

Products need to be flexible so they can respond to changing regulations and company initiatives, he says.

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Cisco Sees Tipping Point And Revs Engines For Growth

August 5, 2009

Cisco Systems may have disappointed Wall Street with its fourth-quarter results.

But the network giant says its recently completed fourth quarter may have been the “tipping point,” where sales declines from the global downturn began reversing themselves and growth resumed.

We are now moving the entire focus of the company to growth, says Ciscos John Chambers

"We are now moving the entire focus of the company to growth," says Cisco's John Chambers

As a result, “we are now moving the entire focus of the company to growth,” says CEO John Chambers. It is possible a couple of quarters from now “we will look back and see that the tipping point was the fourth quarter.”

At first, the growth may be hard to see. The company projected first quarter sales would decline 15 to 17 percent from a year ago. But they will be up 1 to 3 percent from the fourth quarter, compared with the typical 1 to 2 percent rise expected from a fourth to a first quarter.

This is an “aggressive, bold statement,” Chambers said on a conference call with analysts. “Overall, this is business as normal.”

While a second quarter of positive quarter-to-quarter growth would be a welcome sign for the company (the fourth quarter also had quarter-to-quarter growth, the company’s first quarter in a year) it is not guaranteed. Cisco’s key router and switch businesses continued to decline in the fourth quarter, with router sales were off 27 percent and switch revenue slumping 20 percent.

But it reflects what Chambers said were improving business trends in the United States, Asia Pacific and in emerging markets. Only Europe appears to be lagging.

Cisco hopes to take advantage of the improving market place by investing in approximately 30 new business opportunities. These include what Cisco calls its smart connected communities (marketed to overseas governments) and its smart grid technologies for improving energy efficiency.

“It is too soon to call a recovery,” Chambers says. But the fourth quarter saw the first positive economic signals.

That means it is time for the aggressive equipment supplier to rev its engines.

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Swtching Market Said To Be In A Permanent Swoon

August 4, 2009

With Cisco Systems set to report earnings on Wednesday afternoon, it seems timely to report this downbeat view of the switching market.

Dell’Oro reported Tuesday morning that the Ethernet switching market, which Cisco dominates, should tumble 20 percent this year – its sharpest drop since 2001.

“Given the severity of the decline during the first quarter of 2009, it will be difficult for the market to rebound quickly to the revenue and port levels we saw in 2008,” said Alan Weckel, director of Ethernet switch market research.

Evidently Weckel expects some market improvement during the second half of the year. That may give some lift to revenue at Cisco. And he also predicts the market will begin expanding again in 2010, with purchases for busy corporate data centers and interest in new high-speed 10 gigabit Ethernet switches leading the way.

“However, it will be difficult for the market to return to the robust growth rates it enjoyed over the past five years,” says Weckel. (Some of those growth rates weren’t so robust, as a matter of fact.)

It will be interesting to see what Cisco says about the future of this key networking market. Permanent slowing would be an ominous sign for the company. However, it is clear corporate networks will need to expand dramatically in coming years as video is more routinely incorporated in reports and on Web sites.

There are reasons to think a wave of new buying could be on the way several years from now.

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