News Release

Cisco Collaborates with Living PlanIT to Develop a Sustainable, Intelligent and Connected Community in Portugal

PAREDES, Portugal – June 28, 2010 - Cisco today announced
cisco_building_corporate_002-jpg-1889882-1-0
Jun 28, 2010

PAREDES, Portugal – June 28, 2010 - Cisco today announced the signing of a strategic Letter of Intent ("LOI") with Living PlanIT, a leading urban technology company that enables intelligent sustainable urban development and operations. The LOI sees the expanded collaboration of two visionary companies with complementary skills, capabilities, technologies, and solutions to create smart, sustainable communities of the future. The strategic collaboration builds on a shared vision of sustainable urbanization, Cisco® Smart+Connected Communities architectures, Living PlanIT's technology and to be applied and advanced in the development and operations of PlanIT Valley, a next generation intelligent sustainable community in the Municipality of Paredes, northern Portugal, and a Portuguese Project of National Importance ("PIN").

The LOI between Cisco and Living PlanIT builds on an earlier Memorandum of Understanding aimed at bringing more robust solutions to world markets, building upon the two companies' technologies and shared vision. The two companies will work together towards a new model for greenfield and urban revitalization and to accelerate innovation applied to urban development, operations and community services. Living PlanIT is also working with Cisco to drive Cisco's Smart+Connected Communities design and architectural vision throughout PlanIT Valley. In recognition of the vision demonstrated by Living PlanIT, the companies are discussing the establishment of a global innovation center for sensor networks at PlanIT Valley, focused on the convergence of computing, network and sensing platforms within the fabric of buildings and places.

Highlights / Key Facts

  • Cisco shares a common vision with Living PlanIT that cities of the future require urban services to be delivered more innovatively and managed more efficiently using technology that enables new models of managed and hosted services within public-private partnerships. The two companies are helping accelerate the development of such smart and connected cities.
  • Cisco's Smart+Connected Communities initiative is designed to transform physical communities to connected communities running on networked information, to achieve economic, social and environmental sustainability.
  • PlanIT Valley will feature Cisco Smart+Connected Communities Solutions and is the first of a new generation of greenfield cities in the world to be built on Living PlanIT's robust, repeatable modular technology and materials platform.
  • PlanIT Valley will be the world's global innovation center for sensor networks for the following reasons:
    • Living PlanIT's PlanIT Valley has been designed to be a globally respected center of sustainable community innovation and research, and developed and operated in collaboration with some of the world's leading companies, research and educational institutions. In PlanIT Valley, emerging technologies are developed, perfected, experienced and taken to market by Cisco, Living PlanIT and their partners.
    • Living PlanIT's design and manufacturing platforms enable the convergence of computing, network and sensing technologies with the fabric of buildings and places, demonstrated at urban scale in the development and operations of PlanIT Valley.
    • PlanIT Valley will integrate tens of millions of sensors with Cisco's network and computing platforms and integrate and demonstrate Cisco®'s Smart+Connected Communities technologies and solutions at urban scale.
  • Cisco and Living PlanIT will collaborate to explore new and innovative methodologies, technologies, services and business models for PlanIT Valley. The two companies will create a market development plan and other go-to-market strategies to help achieve mutual business success.
  • Cisco will provide routing and switching, application networking, data center, digital media, IP interoperability and communication systems, mobility, security, storage networking, Cisco TelePresence, unified communications, video, virtualization and related services, in addition to providing the network infrastructure for Living PlanIT's Xtreme Construction (XTCTM) and Urban Operating System (UOSTM) platforms.
  • Cisco and Living PlanIT will work together to define their strategic collaboration in detail over the coming months, through a series of discussions and definitive agreements.

Executive quotes:

  • Wim Elfrink, chief globalisation officer and executive vice president, Cisco Services:
  • "Cisco envisions a future where successful communities and cities will run on networked information enabling economic development, better city management and an improved quality of life for citizens. By working collaboratively toward a common vision of Smart+Connected Communities at PlanIT Valley, Cisco and Living PlanIT are committed to driving social, economic and environmental sustainability for the residents. We are honored to collaborate with Living PlanIT to drive social, economic and environmental sustainability at PlanIT Valley. Our collaboration will help develop new business models for managing and delivering urban services using the network as the platform for transforming cities and communities. Everything connected to the network in these Smart+Connected Communities can be greener, more intelligent and more secure."

  • Steve Lewis, CEO, Living PlanIT:
  • "We have been working with Cisco since the inception of PlanIT Valley and are delighted with both the announcement and the special relationship that has developed between our companies. Cisco has proven to be the perfect partner - their collaborative, innovative and entrepreneurial culture coupled with their deep domain expertise and commitment to research and development has proven the essential ingredients in the delivery of our urban computing platforms and environment. Cisco's collaboration with Living PlanIT and their willingness to consider locating a possible innovation centre for sensor networks at PlanIT Valley will further cement this strategic relationship and create greater opportunities for us to develop the city of the future."

RSS Feed for Cisco:

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/rss.html