Ecolibrium Shared Learning Towards an Economically and Ecologically Viable Future

Ecology, Ecosystems, and the Economy of Energy

DistribuTECH 2010 is in full swing in Tampa, Florida, and the new ideas and solutions flowing from the event are exciting. Maybe even mind-boggling. After all, the industry has undertaken to do no less than change the patterns of energy supply and demand—an overwhelming task, but a vital one. When you think about it, all melodrama aside, the future of the world really does hang in the balance. No wonder the place is filled with new energy (no pun intended) and new thinking.

But while traipsing through the power delivery vanguard, I was struck by the importance of a venerable old concept: partnership. It’s always helpful, but when the goal is rethinking electrical power delivery and use worldwide, partnership is essential. It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes a whole planet full of cooperating companies to change the economy of energy. Vendors of all types will have to work together not simply to fill in each others’ solution gaps, but also—and more importantly—to build on each others’ strengths and drive each other forward. And they are.

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Posted by Tere' Bracco at 06:18AM PST

Introducing CIM Modeling Services

Collaborative Infrastructure Modeling (CIM)

We recently launched a new service capability out of our Customer Advocacy teams that provides a collaborative medium between facilities and IT operations.  For anyone who has tried to manage the design aspects of establishing a new data center infrastructure architecture, you know that some of the most painful moments come from “translating” between facilities and IT designs.  We’ve chosen to develop proposed infrastructure architectures using Google SketchUp which is freeware and incredibly easy to use.

Traditionally the physical design has been built using applications like Visio, AutoCad and BIM.  These applications are ideal if you need a very detailed blueprint to build against.  However, they tend to have large file sizes and are only accessible to specially trained individuals.  With SketchUp and the 3D Warehouse that Google maintains (thank you Google!) we are able to provide a 3D wiki of sorts that allows facilities and IT to work towards a reconciled design intent.  Once design intent is understood, the design specification process is quicker and far more simple.  This level of modeling also allows you to centralize the many data points that influence the ultimate operative efficiency of a data center environment.  Like Ben Franklin once said “an ounce of preservation is worth a pound of cure”...this applies to designing a Greener operation, model it first.

You can see some examples of models we’ve built…

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Posted by Rob Aldrich at 09:40AM PST

Continuing COP15 Negotiations

Last week John Chambers said, “The issue of climate change demands new business models, innovative technologies and global collaboration along with partnerships across the public and private sectors.” For the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen, Cisco did just that.

In close collaboration with the Danish Government, the COP15 host country, Cisco implemented a global TelePresence solution called the Global Climate Change Meeting Platform (GCCMP).  The GCCMP enabled hundreds of participants to be “brought in” directly to the Bella Center, from South Africa, Canada, Nepal, Ethiopia, Thailand, Mexico, Australia, France, the U.S., South Korea and many other countries.

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Posted by Laura Ipsen at 10:23AM PST

United Nations:  Walking the Talk on Climate Change with Cisco TelePresence

As climate negotiations go down to the wire, we’ve experienced a much higher volume of meetings on the Global Climate Change Meeting Platform this week than last.

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of hosting United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, who spoke via Cisco TelePresence from the  Bella Center to President Lee Myung-Bak of South Korea.

South Korea’s major broadcasting stations were on hand at the Parliament building, capturing the conversation.  Scroll down on this page and watch the video for a front-row view of the proceedings.

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Posted by Irene Sandler at 09:14AM PST

NGOs Drive Creative Uses of Cisco TelePresence

Cisco TelePresence celebrated its third birthday last month, and it’s become an integral part of the way we work.  But we’re so close to it, we take for granted how innovative it can really be.

Through our sponsorship at COP15, we’ve been able to view Cisco TelePresence through the fresh eyes of non-governmental organizations.  And, as befitting one of the most dynamic forces in climate change discussions today, they’ve been using it for more than meetings.

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Posted by Irene Sandler at 08:34AM PST

Calculating the Net Carbon Impact of Cisco TelePresence

A question we get a lot is:  how much can Cisco TelePresence really help my company reduce its carbon footprint?

Happily, now we can help.  Today, we’re unveiling the Cisco TelePresence Calculator, a handy mobile web application that helps you figure out how much carbon and currency you save with a deployment that you can model.  It’s really easy to use:  try it.

Better yet, the methodology underlying the calculator, which was developed by the Cisco Internet Solutions Business Group, was certified through an exhaustive analysis by DOMANI,  one of the most prominent sustainability consulting firms in the industry.  For the carbon calculation, they’ve used travel reduction as the primary driver for reducing carbon output.  Set against this is the energy cost of operating Cisco TelePresence equipment and necessary HVAC requirements, which are calibrated to the different costs of energy in different regions of the world.  At the end, the calculator outputs two items of interest:  the amount of carbon a given Cisco TelePresence deployment helps to avoid over a five year time horizon, plus the number of months it takes for the system to pay for itself in economic terms.

So, what parameters would be realistic to enter?

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Posted by Irene Sandler at 05:00AM PST

Greening the UN Climate Change Conference:  One Telepresence Meeting at a Time

Today marks the start of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.  It’s our chance to showcase one of the ways that ICT (information and communication technology)  can substantively reduce carbon footprints by providing a realistic alternative to in-person negotiations.

One of the most innovative uses has been the iSeeT presentation theater, showcasing a CTS1100 as a way to bring in luminaries from remote location in an interactive, personal way. 

Take, for example, December 16^th.  Hamadoun Toure, the Secretary-General of the ITU,  will be moderating a panel featuring folks like Hans Vestberg, president and CEO of Ericsson, Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations,  and Jean Reveillon, Secretary-General of the European Broadcasting Union.  But, alors!, Monsieur Reveillon will actually be in Geneva.

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Posted by Irene Sandler at 09:00PM PST

Securing Smart Meters

In this article Ira Winkler discusses how meter vulnerabilities are changing his mind about the potential for a wide-spread attack to the nation’s electrical infrastructure.

The grid is unique in that most of the grid’s assets are publicly accessible.  With that in mind, good security practitioners will ASSUME that public assets like meters will be compromised.

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Posted by Dave Dalva at 02:57PM PST

Greening your Data Center - New Book

Not sure if you’ve seen it yet but a great book for anybody trying to define what a “Green” data center means and take steps  towards migrating to one.  I’ve known Doug Alger for about 4 years now, he is a Solutions Architect within Cisco IT.  Doug does is a rare breed, he has a strong facilities background but is employed by an IT operation.  Doug often jokes that if Facilities and IT departments had no issues in planning and management, his job would go away.  I was privileged to provide technical editing for this book and from what I know in the industry, I believe it is the best work today in providing a resource base to build upon.

Since there is no such thing as a Green Data Center today (in a purist sense), this book addresses what steps you can take and what standards are their to move towards one.  This is a great book to not just read once but refer back to in building your plan.

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Posted by Rob Aldrich at 01:16PM PST

Higher Education Goes Green with Cisco TelePresence

As often is the case, institutes of higher education are at the forefront of innovative ways to solve problems.  Melding technology and sustainability is a natural area where they’ve taken the lead: read the cover article in the current issue of EDUCAUSE Review.

I’m here at the EDUCAUSE 2009 Annual Conference, where some of higher education’s best and brightest information technology thinkers meet and collaborate about ways to enhance and extend learning.

A lot of them have adopted Cisco TelePresence, not only as way to create new educational and business models, but also as a way to be more sustainable. 

The more conventional way to be sustainable with Cisco TelePresence is to reduce travel between various campuses.  Take a look at what conference attendees had to say about that in this video:

But there’s another twist.  

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Posted by Irene Sandler at 10:59AM PST

Everything But the Cocktail Party:  COP15 and Cisco TelePresence

One of the inconvenient ironies of hammering out a global climate change accord is that assembling delegates from 192 countries in close  physical proximity tends to spew thousands of metric  tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

But that face-to-face is so necessary, and not just because of the language and cultural barriers inherent in international discussions.  Negotiations on climate change can be contentious:  agreements have considerable impact on national economies and rates of growth, and they touch emotional hot buttons around the fair distribution of responsibility between industrialized and developing countries.  It’s a bit like a holiday gathering of a large, extended, and occasionally dysfunctional family.

You know what I’m going to write next:  Cisco has a solution, and it has something to do with telepresence technology.

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Posted by Irene Sandler at 06:10AM PST

People Power: Smart Grid is About More Than Just Smart Technology

*Posted by Rob Aldrich for Jenny Carless, contributor to News@Cisco*

The smart grid is not just about smart technology – it’s also about how people use that technology to be smarter about their own behavior.

Business and municipal leaders have figured this out, and they’re addressing a critical piece of the climate change puzzle: empowering consumers to help reduce global warming by being smarter about their own behavior.

Smart Meters

As part of my research for a recent article about Smart Grid Strategies for a Global Marketplace on News@Cisco, I interviewed Kjartan Skaugvoll, vice president and general manager of Sales at Nuon, a Dutch utility company. He feels strongly that consumers can play a big part in addressing climate change, and he’s really enthusiastic about how smart meters in people’s homes, connected to an intelligent electric grid, can help educate people about their energy consumption, so they can make changes in their behavior accordingly.

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Posted by Rob Aldrich at 06:59PM PST

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

In the 1980s, there was an American television show called The A-Team. The lead character in that series, ‘Hannibal’ Smith (played by George Peppard) had a catch-phrase that turned up in most episodes: “I love it when a plan comes together.” That’s what I like about working at Cisco—you get to see the plans coming together. 

Flash to last February, when we launched Cisco EnergyWise. Most analysts and press were very positive. Cisco EnergyWise was seen as innovative because it took advantage of this simple fact: Networking is so ubiquitous that it touches every part of a business. Why not exploit this to give the network more relevance, and solve bigger problems than just passing packets? And this was just the beginning.

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Posted by Marie Hattar at 01:01PM PST

Avoid the Rush. Test Drive Demand Side Management Now

I once heard a sage piece of advice for two-income families who plan to become single-income families: test drive the one-income lifestyle. While you still have both your jobs, stash the income from the job you’re considering dropping and try living on the income you intend to retain. See what changes you’ll need to make while you still have some margin for experimentation and adjustment. This “test drive” lets you find the perfect RoI for your family before the change takes effect. 

Thinking about it, the same piece of advice is good for business and residential customers who plan to use demand side management (DSM) to cut energy costs. A key feature of the smart grid, demand side management lets utility customers cut energy costs by shifting energy consumption to times when power costs less. While off-peak pricing may not be available from your utility now, it will be in the future. And it can make a big difference in your energy costs and your carbon footprint. But taking advantage of DSM requires planning, and that’s something you can start right away. Working with an energy Demand Response (DR) expert such as EnerNOC (www.enernoc.com) to plan your DSM program is immensely helpful, but first do some homework on your own.

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Posted by Tere' Bracco at 08:24AM PST

Modeling Your Efficiency

We’ve recently embarked on an logical extension of the Advanced Services we’ve been providing for efficiency assessments for the last 24 months.  Our Facilities Design Specification Service is uncovering some interesting new approaches to energy efficient data center design.  Since you only get a very finite window of opportunity to make changes to an environment like a data center, modeling is key.

We use 6sigma from Future Facilities for highly detailed thermal modeling and good old Visio for everything else.  However, we are using with great success an intermediary application, Google SketchUp. Hats off and many thanks to the Google crew for giving this incredibly powerful yet simple tool away.  While we do use the pro version, most of our customers can use the free version to simply convey design intent.  Say goodbye to whiteboards.

You may have already used it and most likely have seen the 3D buildings in Google Earth.

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Posted by Rob Aldrich at 08:26PM PST