Cisco Goes Green

With considerable fanfare, Cisco introduced its EnergyWise offering, and during a follow up call, discussed in some depth the broader engineering program that backs it up. To begin with, I don't think this will be a big deal. Initially only the power consumption of a limited set of network and VoIP devices are reported, and that's not very consequential compared, for example, to Google's interest in server power consumption which is fundamental to their operating costs. On the other hand, we believe that visibility is a very key element to any management system, and Cisco is a natural provider to energy management (via the network) as a natural extension of their entry into physical security. Understanding how and where power is used is an essential first step to the intelligent management of energy consumption. Google recently discussed their PowerMeter which seems to be a cloud-based service that provides convenient access to the usage data that modern power meters generate.