When you think Cisco, you generally think routers, not power plants. But increasingly, Cisco sees its future in the Smart Grid via a backdoor route -- selling data center hardware to electric utilities. And that's good news for anyone wanting to green their data center.
Cisco certainly isn't ignoring selling products directly for the Smart Grid itself, including home devices to help people manage their electric use. As I've written in the past, Cisco expects that the Smart Grid use may even eventually dwarf the Internet.
But according to CNet, Cisco believes that utility companies will need to invest plenty of money in data centers in order to manage all the data that will be generated by the Smart Grid. Here's what CNet says:The tech giant is developing a suite of smart-grid products designed to add networking smarts to the existing grid, including routers for substations and home energy-monitoring systems. But a large chunk of the $20 billion per year in smart-grid spending that Cisco anticipates is in traditional data centers.
Since smart-grid technologies rely on a steady flow of information, Cisco expects that utilities will need to invest in more sophisticated IT systems, said Mark Weiner director of Data Center Solutions and a member of a Cisco smart-grid team....MORE
I didn't see a link to the cnet post (bad form). Here it is:
Cisco looks to ride smart-grid data deluge
