Bengaluru, INDIA, February 12, 2009 - Cisco today unveiled its holistic blueprint for "Intelligent Urbanisation," a global initiative to help cities around the world use the network as the next utility for integrated city management, better quality of life for citizens, and economic development.
Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers, speaking from the launch at Cisco's Globalisation Centre East in Bangalore, India, said; "With the number of people living in urban areas growing from three billion today to five billion by 2030, urbanisation is a global trend impacting citizens, governments, and industries. This trend will also significantly impact the environment - the 20 most populous cities alone are responsible for 75 percent of the planet's energy consumption. In a world where all things are becoming connected, the network has become the next utility, enabling the holistic, intelligent and environmentally sustainable creation and management of cities, industries and public services."
Building on the thought leadership developed through Cisco's ongoing efforts with Connected Urban Development (CUD), the Intelligent Urbanisation initiative will bring together a broad portfolio of Cisco's products, services, partners and solutions. The initial focus will be on global sustainable solutions for public safety and security, transportation, buildings, energy, healthcare and education.
Jointly with the chief minister of Karnataka, B.S. Yeddyurappa, Cisco also announced a pilot program with the State of Karnataka to develop the roadmap for an intelligent, smart and sustainable Bengaluru city. This collaboration builds on Cisco's thought leadership and technology expertise with Connected Urban Development (CUD), a public-private partnership that includes cities like San Francisco, Amsterdam, Seoul and Singapore, which develops replicable ICT solutions to help promote sustainable, intelligent urban development practices.
As another step towards its focus on intelligent urbanisation, Cisco today announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Incheon Metropolitan City in Korea to mutually collaborate to transform the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) into a center of globalisation expertise in Asia Pacific. As part of this collaboration, Cisco will provide its experience and technologies around creating intelligent urbanisation for Incheon Metropolitan City. The model will be partly based on Cisco's previous globalisation projects in major cities in Singapore, India, Malaysia and the Middle East. The two parties also agreed to launch a joint task force to investigate legal, technical aspects of this cooperation.
Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalisation Officer and EVP, Cisco Services, said: "The Internet is quickly expanding from mobile devices and computers to become the 'Internet of Things', as it begins to encompass not only the consumer and business internet but now the industrialisation of the Internet. Cities which are run on information will transform the quality of life for citizens, drive economic growth and improve city services and management. Particularly in these tough economic times, cities that use the network to accelerate and multiply their infrastructure investments will be those who not only survive challenges but thrive and lead into the future."
"The network is also key to addressing one of the 21st century's most significant issues -environmental sustainability," Mr. Elfrink said. "While technology contributes to about 2 percent of the world's carbon emissions, it can be a substantial part of the solution. It is estimated technology can reduce carbon emissions by 15% by 2020; an environmental saving of 1 ton of CO2 per capita that translates into US$946 billion dollars in financial savings. Additionally, cities that run on information can improve their energy efficiency by 30% within 20 years."
Cisco's Commitment to Intelligent Urbanisation
Cisco's holistic Intelligent Urbanisation blueprint builds on the company's long history as the world's networking leader and its existing investments in intelligent urbanisation.
"We will continue to build on our strong foundation in intelligent urbanisation to drive an entire new industry and ecosystem. Academic programs, technical certifications, global partnerships and innovative new products, solutions, and services built and delivered around the globe will be part of the roadmap," added Elfrink. "We see this as a major global market transition being driven and enabled by the network; and we intend to be the leader of this emerging industry."
Within the past month alone, Cisco has announced several products, acquisitions and solutions key to its Intelligent Urbanisation initiative, including:
Cisco-Karnataka Government sign MoU (12 February, 2009): Jointly with the Government of Karnataka, Cisco announced a pilot 'Intelligent Urbanisation' initiative to assist the Government of Karnataka develop a roadmap for an intelligent, smart and sustainable Bengaluru city.
Strategic Investment in Majitek (10 February, 2009): Cisco made a strategic announcement in Majitek, a leading provider of software platforms, which enables an environment where everything is connected and available as a service in the network, fitting into Cisco's 'Intelligent Urbanisation' vision.
Cisco and Tata Consultancy Services Announce Strategic Alliance (10 February, 2009): Cisco and TCS announced a strategic alliance to jointly develop and deliver information technology (IT) service solutions to address customers' needs in mature and emerging markets around the world.
Cisco and Incheon Metropolitan City to Open New Chapter in Globalisation (12 February, 2009): Cisco and Incheon Metropolitan City announced an MoU to mutually collaborate and transform IFEZ into a globalisation centre in Asia Pacific as well as build IFEZ into a global and environmentally sustainable city.
Everything Connected to the Network Can Be Greener with Cisco EnergyWise (29 January, 2009): Cisco launched EnergyWise Technology, for Catalyst Switches, an integral part of the company's technology roadmap to provide organisations an intelligent IP network as a key enabler for energy efficiency.
Cisco Completes Acquisition of Richards-Zeta Building Intelligence, Inc. (29 January, 2009): Cisco completed its acquisition of Richards-Zeta Building Intelligence, a leading provider of intelligent middleware technology for building systems that enables the convergence of building systems onto an IP network, resulting in increasing operations efficiency while reducing costs.
Related Information:
Research and Education: Building on the Connected Real Estate (CRE) Academy, Cisco will introduce an internal training and education program to develop new skills and services as well as continue to work with leading universities and organisations to support awareness building, develop new thought leadership, education and training around the world.
Training and Certification: In order to build capabilities and address market opportunities, Cisco will explore the creation of an academy focused around educating, training & certifying individuals across the entire gamut of Intelligent Urbanisation concepts ranging from governance and business models to implementation of the key pillars - CRE, smart grid, transportation, safety and security, etc.
Connected Urban Development: This was born from Cisco's commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative, which is a public-private partnership aimed at developing replicable information and communications technology (ICT) solutions, led by Cisco Corporate Affairs and the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), to address the unique environmental problems confronted by urban areas around the world. It demonstrates how to reduce carbon emissions by introducing fundamental improvements in the efficiency of the urban infrastructure through information and communications technology (ICT).
Cisco will also pursue the development of additional certifications, academic partnerships and training around the world.
