Cisco today launched its EnergyWise software, which can reduce IT energy use and carbon emissions by monitoring and controlling the electric use of network-connected devices. But Cisco is aiming much higher with EnergyWise: It hopes one day to essentially control the energy use of entire enterprises, not just IT equipment.
The software is designed to allow IT staff to centrally manage the power consumption of any device attached to a network, and to do in an automated way. IT staff can set power consumption rules for each device, and the software will automatically apply those rules to the devices and manage them.
That means that the software will be able not just to manage IT equipment such as switches, storage and servers, but individual PCs as well, because it can manage any device with an IP address.
That, though, is just the first beginning of how Cisco hopes EnergyWise will be used. The key here is that the software can control any device with an IP address connected to a network. Increasingly, devices of all kinds are network-connected, notably hardware that controls lighting, heating and cooling in an enterprise.
In the same way that the software can monitor and manage energy use of a switch, it can do it for entire buildings. So, for example, it may set rules that turn on and off electricity and power automatically, or power down heat and night and power it up in the morning. It could even turn off the lights to an office when employees swipe badges to leave the building.
Cisco has made it clear that it is targeting entire enterprises with the new software, not just the IT department. Consider this excerpt from its product literature:
EnergyWise can promote companywide sustainability by reducing energy
consumption across an entire corporate infrastructure and affecting more than
50 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions created by worldwide building
infrastructure, a much greater effect than the 2 percent generated by the
IT industry.
For more information about EnergyWise, visit
Cisco's Web site about it. For downloadable product literature,
click here.
