Cisco Systems has taken the wraps off a new technology enabling companies to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Called Cisco EnergyWise, the innovative architecture encompasses a network-based approach for measuring, mapping, reporting and reducing the energy consumption of both Cisco and non-Cisco Net Protocol devices.

According to Cisco CEO John Chambers, EnergyWise is aimed at helping individuals, companies and even entire countries to become more energy efficient. “It’s about how to be responsible and use the resources we have on that planet in a way that allows us to achieve both our business goals and our society goals,” Chambers said.

The ability of Numbers

EnergyWise employs a strange domain-naming system to measure and summarize data about all the devices attached to a network — including device type, physical location, and ability consumption, said Senior Software Development Manager Mala Devlin. Once armed with “a deep and meaningful view of device ability consumption and behavior,” the network can reduce the ability consumption of individual devices by “applying static or dynamic business policies, making network management less complicated and more scalable,” Devlin said.

For example, a management station can ask the EnergyWise network to summarize the ability of desktop IP phones within a without building, Devlin said. “EnergyWise understands which devices are IP phones, where they reside at, and which ones are designated with the desktop label,” she said.

Enabled networks will be able to command high-priority end points to maintain their full capability. Moreover, lower-priority end points can be programmed for a reduction in potential — or even a temporary shutdown — during off hours, Devlin said.

The establishment of specific power-consumption policies based on clearly quantified goals — together with the network’s ability to recommend changes — will help companies fulfill their cost-saving strategies, Chambers said. “It’s amazing that when you put numerical goals in…

[Source] dhiram