Cisco introduced its Cisco EnergyWise® technology for Cisco Catalyst® switches that measures, reports and reduces the energy consumption of Internet Protocol (IP) devices such as phones, laptops and access points. Cisco also announced industry partner solutions along with an intelligent middleware acquisition that will ultimately enable the management of power consumption for entire building systems such as lights, elevators, and air conditioning and heating.
Cisco EnergyWise was purpose-built in alignment with Cisco’s vision of how networking technology can support a low-carbon economy, cut energy use and promote overall environmental sustainability. It is part of the company’s technology roadmap for changing the value-chain of information technology (IT) by placing the intelligent network squarely at the center of how companies reduce greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions across their entire organization.
Cisco EnergyWise will roll out in three phases to improve IT and building system energy utilization: in the first phase (February 2009), Network Control, Cisco EnergyWise will be supported on Catalyst switches and manage the energy consumption of IP devices such as phones, video surveillance cameras and wireless access points. In the next phase (Summer 2009), IT Control, there will be expanded industry support of EnergyWise on devices such as personal computers (PCs), laptops and printers. In the final phase (Early 2010), Building Control, Cisco EnergyWise will be extended to the management of building system assets such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), elevators, lights, employee badge access systems, fire alarm systems and security systems.
Cisco EnergyWise provides real-time, granular measurement capabilities to give chief information officers better visibility into energy savings across an entire organization as well as specific places in the network such as the campus, branch office and data center.
Cisco is working with Schneider Electric for building utility management, SolarWinds for network monitoring, and Verdiem for monitoring PC power in order to extend EnergyWise as a platform for power management across IT and the building systems of an organization by early 2010. Cisco also announced the acquisition of Richards-Zeta’s intelligent middleware to provide simplified and cost-effective interoperability and integration between building infrastructure, IT applications and Cisco EnergyWise.
"Cisco believes that information technology has the power to transform the way the world manages its environmental and energy challenges. With EnergyWise, Cisco is uniquely positioned to help our customers gain a networkwide view of energy consumption that encompasses not only device-level power, but in the future entire network efficiency, building operations and business practices across an entire organization," said Judy Lin, Senior Vice President of the Ethernet Switching Technology Group for Cisco.
