Korea IT Times   Monday, November 30th, 2009

The 2010 edition of Electrical Building Technology Guangzhou will take place 9 – 12 June 2010 at the China Import and Export Fair Pazhou Complex, Guangzhou, China. The show is organised by Guangzhou Guangya Messe Frankfurt Co Ltd and supports the growing industry trend of eco-friendly buildings using intelligent building design and building automation technology.

Mr Jason Cao, General Manager of Messe Frankfurt in China said: “Electrical Building Technology Guangzhou not only serves as an important sourcing hub for architectural technologies, but as an international platform for building professionals to meet and update themselves with the latest industry developments, energy-efficiency technologies and construction policies in China. Much of this information is available at the Electrical Building Technology Symposium through renowned government, university and leading corporation speakers.”

With today’s building industry moving faster than ever before towards energy-efficiency and eco-friendliness, the annual Electrical Building Technology Guangzhou show offers an important sourcing hub and industry platform for electrical engineering and intelligent building and building automation providers. The show’s electrical engineering zone offers building professionals the opportunity to view the latest electrical installation equipment, information systems, security systems and network technology.

Intelligent building and building automation solutions are also showcased, supporting the global trend towards enhancing commercial and residential properties using these technologies. Building automation systems and innovative solutions in measurement technology and control engineering are a vital component of integrated systems engineering which help to bring about cost savings and energy efficiency. Their successful interlinking requires integrated planning for early integration of all disciplines.

Electrical Building Technology Guangzhou will be held alongside the Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition which is Asia’s biggest lighting forum. Last year the combined shows attracted nearly 53,000 trade visitors.

“There is great synergy in holding these two fairs alongside each other because many visitors to the lighting show include building contractors, developers, building authorities, architects and designers,” adds Jason Cao.

Electrical Building Technology Guangzhou and the Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition are part of Messe Frankfurt’s architecture and technology shows, headed by the biennial Light+Building event in Frankfurt. To find out more information about Electrical Building Technology Guangzhou, please visit www.building.messefrankfurt.com.cn.

If you take a close-up look at your facilities, you’ll discover that energy is being wasted in ways you didn’t realize

By Leah B. Garris

The T5 lamps and energy-efficient HVAC systems are in place, and the building-automation system is up and running. Now you can just sit back and watch the energy bills plummet … right? Not so fast. If you really want to get serious about saving energy, there’s still more you can do.

The most obvious energy issues in your buildings – the ones having to do with efficient, effective operation of building systems – have probably been noted (and addressed). But, we’re betting that the 11 items mentioned here are things you’ve never realized could make such a big dent in your energy management program.

1: LEAVING ELECTRONICS & APPLIANCES TURNED ON

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, office equipment makes up about 16 percent of an office’s energy use. And, in U.S. organizations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that more than $1 billion each year is frittered away on electricity for computer monitors that are left on. But, there are a few things you can do to keep office equipment from using unreasonable amounts of power.

One viable option for computers: Install power-management software to control monitors and CPUs. It allows computer equipment to enter sleep mode during idle periods. While this might seem like an insignificant action, sleep mode can slash energy expenses by up to 50 percent.

As Pradeep Kapadia, president of energy services at Elk Grove Village, IL-based Lime Energy, points out, the EPA provides free power-management software to anyone who wants it: “You can download it on an individual basis or on a network basis (to allow the entire network to go to sleep when a keyboard is not touched for a certain amount of time).” And, to put many IT and FM concerns to rest, the software won’t cause any problems with network security.

Whether you’re using the EPA’s power-management software or another version, the EPA recommends that computers enter standby (hibernate) after 30 to 60 minutes of inactivity. Desktops and laptops vary in terms of power settings/options: On laptops, change the settings for AC power and DC (battery) power. To be even more proactive, you can set monitors to enter sleep mode after 5 to 20 minutes of inactivity.

As well as putting computers to sleep when they’re not in use, encourage tenants/occupants to turn computers off before they go home. According to San Francisco-based Flex Your Power, shutting down just one computer/monitor nightly and on weekends saves up to $80 per year. “We encourage [some businesses] to shut off copy machines, computers, and monitors at night. Some businesses need the CPU unit left on at night because that‘s when everyone’s hard drive or data is backed up. But, in those cases, you should still turn off the monitor,” says Dwight Klippel, vice president of business development and principal consultant at Carmel, IN-based Energy Consultants Inc.

Tenants and occupants should be advised to unplug things that aren’t in use. Otherwise, most equipment will still siphon energy to sustain timers, clocks, etc. (experts even say that some pieces of equipment use as much power when they’re off as when they’re on). Although it might be hard to control, encourage tenants/occupants to unplug electronic devices after they’ve been charged. Things that need to be charged every few days (BlackBerrys, cell phones, cordless tools, etc.) should be unplugged as soon as charging is complete. If the charger is kept in the outlet, it’s still using energy.

With equipment being used less frequently (adding machines, radios, small fans, etc.), ask tenants/occupants to keep the machines unplugged until they’re needed and then unplug them after they’re done.

When shopping for new equipment, look for “all-in-one” products, if appropriate. A printer that also serves as a fax machine and a copier will save energy: It’s one piece of equipment plugged into the wall, but it serves three purposes. Some office machines also have built-in sleep modes that activate when the machine senses periods of no use.

Office equipment with the ENERGY STAR^® label will cut down on energy use as well. It’s estimated that, if an organization replaces old equipment with ENERGY STAR equipment, the energy cost to power each item will drop by 15 to 30 percent.

2: DIRTY FILTERS

Clogged filters reduce airflow, which makes the blower work harder to push air through (which increases energy consumption). “But, that’s the least of it,” explains Kapadia. “The fact that the blower has to work harder to push air through may cause an imbalance between the cooling coil and the blower. The cooling coil is getting its cooling from a compressor; with the airflow either going too fast or too slow, you may end up with icy situations. You’ve got so much blockage that you’re not getting enough airflow across the cooling coil. The cooling coil is saying, ‘I need cooling because my thermostat is calling for cooling.’ Now, all of a sudden, it’s opening that valve and causing a lot of cold water or refrigerant to go through that coil, but the air isn’t dissipating that cooling energy properly; therefore, you’re getting very cold temperatures at the HVAC unit, you may get freezing, you may get extra condensation along the coils. The problem isn’t just an energy problem, but an entire mechanical problem.”

Large buildings often use filters with static pressure sensors on two sides of the filter. As Tal Rabiah, supervising mechanical engineer, Syska Hennessy Group, San Diego, explains, these sensors connect to the building-automation or energy-management system. When the static pressure rises to a predetermined setpoint, the building-automation system receives a message from the sensor stating that the filter needs to be changed. But, for smaller buildings that don’t employ this technology, checking filter status might mean physically inspecting all filters. This can be time consuming, and smaller teams don’t have the manpower required to keep up with that commitment. For these situations, instead of using sensors that monitor pressure differential across the filter, use products that measure how hard the fan is working (if it’s working harder than usual, it’s time to change the filter). The motor amps on the blower are monitored continuously – when they reach a certain point, the sensor sends a message indicating so.

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy recommends that, during peak cooling and heating seasons, filters be changed or cleaned monthly. It estimates that dirty filters can cost up to $5 extra per month (in addition to overworking your HVAC equipment and circulating dirtier indoor air). Five bucks doesn’t seem like much, but multiply that number by how many filters there are in your buildings – you’ll be surprised at how quickly it adds up.

3: DRIPPING FAUCETS

Everyone knows that leaky faucets waste water (which is problem enough). But, have you ever thought about how a dripping faucet might up your water-heating bill? According to Scottsdale, AZ-based Earth911, water heating in an office can account for up to 9 percent of total energy load (in hospitality and healthcare facilities, it can be even higher). One hot water faucet that leaks at a rate of 1 gallon per hour wastes $30 to $120 in energy per year.

Rabiah recommends going touchless with restroom faucets to reduce this problem. If that’s not an option, make it a priority to circle through your building every few weeks to make sure faucets aren’t dripping. If they are, fix them right away.

4: UNNECESSARY VENDING-MACHINE COOLING AND LIGHTING

Vending machines use electricity 24/7. But, they’re frequently overlooked when it comes to trimming energy use. “We recommend shutting off refrigerated drink vending machines at night and on weekends. Do not turn off refrigeration, of course, for ice cream vending or other refrigerated foods that might spoil,” says Klippel.

Don’t worry about the beverages getting too warm: “If you imagine 200 pop cans in a machine, after they’ve been cooled to whatever temperature they’ve been cooled to, there’s a thermal mass of cold pop in that machine. That mass stays cold with a little bit of cycling of the compressor, but it doesn’t need to be kept that cold all the time,” says Kapadia. He points to sensors that can be installed close to (or on) vending machines to keep tabs on nearby traffic; these sensors lessen cooling when people are scarce. “For products like these, the payback is usually under 2 years,” Kapadia says.

De-lamping vending machines can also save energy and money. Assuming an average operating cost of 6.39 cents per kilowatt-hour (and approximately 40 watts of consumption), one machine can cost $225 or more to run. De-lamping that one machine can save $100 per year.

For vending machines that sit outside your facility or in parking garages, make sure they’re located in shaded areas to keep the sun from unnecessarily affecting the cooling cycle. Also, clean the machine’s condenser coils regularly (dust will reduce efficiency).

5: CLEANING AT NIGHT

Recently, Larry Spielvogel, a consulting engineer based in King of Prussia, PA, conducted utility-bill evaluations for high-rise office buildings in Philadelphia. The local utility there segregates electricity into on-peak and off-peak hours (in Philadelphia, on-peak hours are from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday). “In most of these buildings, what I found was that more than half of the electricity consumption occurred during off-peak hours,” says Spielvogel.

Your janitorial staff, whether it’s in-house or a third party, expends energy during off-peak hours when it comes in to clean. There are a variety of ways to lessen this energy usage in the evening.

“If cleaning could be done during the day without being too disruptive, you can turn building systems down sooner at night,” explains Klippel. This way, cleaning is done while building systems are up and running anyway for tenants/occupants. Just make sure the cleaning won’t interfere with tasks occurring inside the building.

If cleaning during the day isn’t an option, ask custodial staff members to move throughout the building as a team, cleaning one floor at a time and turning on and off the lights as they go.

Your custodial staff can also serve as an asset when it comes to energy management: Ask members to check out office equipment as they travel from floor to floor, and to turn off equipment that was accidentally left on.

6: DIRTY WINDOWS AND SKYLIGHTS

This is an easy one: Keep your windows and skylights clean. If dirt and dust block daylight from entering, tenants/occupants will compensate by turning on more overhead lighting, more task lighting, etc. “If daylight harvesting is being done with photocontrols, dirty windows and skylights can also impact [those] savings,” explains Klippel. How often the windows and skylights should be cleaned depends on the location of your building, your budget, etc.

7: NOT OPTIMIZING EQUIPMENT START-UP TIME AND SEQUENCING

Think about when your equipment is turning on, how many pieces are turning on at the same time, and when it’s all shutting down. “This can have a fairly significant impact,” emphasizes Klippel. “In one hospital, we saw a fairly significant spike in demand when they brought on an additional chiller. By monitoring loop temperature as it was getting close to the time to bring on another chiller, they backed down on the running chiller to about 60 percent, then started the additional one, and then let all rise to meet the load.”

As the U.S. EPA states, if each piece of equipment in your facility is starting up at 8 a.m., your peak demand will be much higher than if equipment starts up sequentially at 7:45 a.m.: Bring your equipment online throughout a period of about 30 minutes or so. Test out some different options to figure out latest possible start-up times. Do the same thing when it comes to powering down equipment.

To stay within code while still cutting energy use, Kapadia recommends preventing additional cooling or heating in the last hour of operations. “You can close a chilled water valve or modulate a damper, but you can’t prevent the system from pulling in the outside air. The way it’s done lately is, rather than pushing all the air into the space that you normally would, during hours of low occupancy, you control the amount of air through the space by putting in CO2 sensors – something that sniffs out stale air from not-stale air.” It will let you know when it’s necessary to pull in more outside air or let the fan run at a higher speed. “To me, the cost of that sensor pays for itself within days,” he says.

8: THERMOSTATS MOUNTED IN THE WRONG LOCATIONS

There are several factors that affect thermostats and the temperatures they pick up. Direct sunlight, drafts, vents, people walking by, space heaters and fans, etc. all affect thermostat readings, calling for heating or cooling when it’s not actually needed.

“Usually, thermostats were initially installed in the right spot, and other things were then put in to make them in the ‘wrong’ location,” says Kapadia. “Moving a thermostat isn’t that easy because it involves tearing portions of the wall to move it to a new spot. If you have a suspended ceiling, you can go above the ceiling, move the wire, and just punch it out to another area; even then, a thermostat doesn’t have that much wire, so you might need to extend the wiring, which, for a sensitive measuring and control system, isn’t as easy as it sounds.” He recommends conducting a thermostat audit and relocating the items around the thermostat that might impact its ability to function correctly. In situations where items surrounding the thermostat can’t be moved, its relocation should be considered.

For correct placement of a thermostat, position it about 4-feet above the finished floor on a flat, interior wall away from equipment and diffusers. Don’t place copiers, fax machines, coffee machines, or other types of heat-generating equipment nearby. “Also, place it where people don’t walk by it – when they walk, people create drafts,” says Rabiah.

9: EXHAUST FANS THAT RUN ALL THE TIME

Depending on the type of facility you own/manage, the operation of exhaust fans may be bumping up energy usage. “We draw the line between hospitality and non-hospitality facilities,” explains Kapadia. “In a hotel, guestroom bathrooms do not have their own fans. The bathroom exhaust air is basically shafted up to the roof, and there is one exhaust fan per shaft. And, that shaft would pull exhaust from each room continuously.” Because of this, there is no real way of cutting exhaust-fan operation when a guestroom isn’t occupied.

He says that, in hospitality environments, you can turn down the exhaust volume for certain periods of time (between 1:30 a.m. and 4 a.m., for example) so that you’re not exhausting as much air. If you do this, make sure you’re also reducing the corresponding amount of intake air.

“Everything else is fair game,” says Kapadia. “We see office parks, high-rises, retail stores, small fast-food chains, etc. where the exhaust fan exhausts about 100 cfm per stall, and it’s meant to run 24/7 – regardless of whether the place is shut down or not.” In those situations, he recommends shutting off the exhaust fan 15 minutes after the last person probably uses the bathroom for the day. “It’s a no-brainer,” he says. In retail chains (fast-food restaurants), you could also connect toilet exhaust fans to light switches or occupancy-based sensors with a 15- to 30-minute time delay, controlling fan use that way.

Also, check your exhaust systems to make sure they’re only exhausting the amount of air required (and that they’re not running at speeds higher than necessary).

10: COVERING UP VENTS, GRILLES, ETC.

Inevitably, tenants/occupants will move furniture and put items in places that block airflow. Sometimes it’s because they’re purposely trying to make it cooler/warmer in their space; other times, it’s because they just need a place to put something and don’t realize the consequences of their actions.

“The best way to handle this is to have the operations people walk through the spaces to see what’s happened, what’s been moved, etc. You’ll find that things have migrated to where they shouldn’t have,” says Kapadia. He indicates that many hot/cold complaints have to do with diffusers being blocked. Someone from your staff should walk through the building once before peak cooling season (March or April) and once before peak heating season (October or November) to check things out.

11: INCANDESCENT EXIT SIGNS

Exit signs are small and (hopefully) not relied on very often. Combined with the fact that they’re oftentimes overhead, you can see why facilities professionals tend to miss opportunities to save energy with these devices. Older exit signs that use fluorescent and incandescent lights draw more power than newer LED exit signs.

One incandescent exit sign can cost $25 per year to power at 7 cents per kilowatt-hour. LED-based signage costs approximately $1 per year. As with some of the other suggestions made throughout these pages, $25 vs. $1 per year may not seem like much, but count up how many exit signs exist in your facilities before you decide it’s not worth the effort. Between the energy costs saved and the reduced maintenance costs (since you won’t need to replace bulbs as often), payback occurs in less than 3 years in most cases.

Leah B. Garris (leah.garris@buildings.com) is senior associate editor at Buildings magazine.

Full article can be found at

http://www.controlglobal.com/articles/2009/AutomationProfession0909.html

By Walt Boyes, Control’s Editor in Chief.

The Automation Federation was set up by ISA to, among other things, be a cheerleader for the automation profession, and in lobbying the U.S. government on behalf of automation professionals, it’s having some significant successes.

Recently, the federation produced a detailed description of what an automation professional’s skill set needs to be for the U.S. Dept. of Labor, and on July 14, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) wrote, “The topic of automation cuts across all levels of industry, rather than serving as a stand-alone technology, and particularly affects the fields of control systems’ cybersecurity, industrial wireless sensors, systems interoperability and other basic automation technologies necessary for the success of industrial enterprises.”

As part of the report language to accompany H.R. 2847 (Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act) when it was reported out of the Senate Appropriations Committee (the bill has already passed the House), Mikulski continued, “NIST is encouraged to consult and collaborate with independent experts in the field of automation to support the agency’s efforts in working with industry to increase innovation, trade, security and jobs.”

That’s the good news. We’re beginning to be recognized as a discipline. There are still attempts to get rid of the control systems engineer designation in the U.S., which doesn’t exist in other nations. This is partly because automation is a multidisciplinary activity, not just an engineering discipline.

Know-it-Alls (Almost)

An automation professional’s skill set is varied and large. As Mikulski wrote, automation cuts across all industry verticals, so not only are the technical skills required to understand how control systems function and are designed, but the domain skills in multiple verticals are also required, so we know how to use the control systems we install.

Control columnist Greg McMillan says no amount of advanced process control or fuzzy logic algorithms can compensate for a half-hour of physical loop lag time in a pH loop. This is a large body of knowledge. In fact, the late Vernon Trevathan, a Process Automation Hall of Fame inductee, who led the great Monsanto process engineering team, produced a book for ISA Press that was called A Guide to The Automation Body of Knowledge (2nd edition, ISA Press, 2006). A planned edition of the ABoK is projected to be twice as large.

ABoK was Trevathan’s attempt to produce a one-volume overview of automation. There are 37 subject areas and an appendix (see sidebar). It shows how all-encompassing automation is in discrete, hybrid or continuous applications. The number of processes that can be operated in manual for any length of time, even in an emergency, is vanishingly small.

Further, we must also must possess interpersonal, project management, business understanding and project justification skills, besides our engineering and technical abilities.

Because engineering licensing requirements are different in every state and vary worldwide, ISA produced a certification for automation professionals with or without formal training. The skill set ISA described for certified automation professionals is at ISA Certified Automation Professional (CAP) Classification System (www.isa.org/~/CAPClassificationSystemWEB.pdf).

Where Do You Go to Learn?

The bad news is that automation is an interdisciplinary subject that simply isn’t taught in school. You can pick up some automation technician skills in maintenance training programs, such as the Multi-Skilled Maintenance Technician Program that ATS Inc. produced with junior colleges in Illinois and South Carolina (www.advancedtech.com/mstcp.aspx). Or, you can get some skills from union apprenticeship programs and training courses such as the IBEW’s electrician apprentice program. A few companies provide on-the-job training, but only at the technician or basic operator level.

What you can’t get is a full-scale college education in the disciplines that make up the profession of automation. There are reasons for this, and most of them center on how the discipline of engineering is taught in colleges.
For example, my own alma mater, the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) established its Baskin School of Engineering long after I graduated, and it’s now considered one of the finest engineering departments in the University of California system. Yet, if you examine Baskin’s course descriptions and syllabi, you’ll look for a long time before you find courses in industrial automation. You can find courses in control theory, sensors for environmental control, nanotechnology, and game system design, but few appropriate for working in automation. There is a degree offered by UCSC in mechatronics, but it’s offered by the Theater Arts department. Go figure.

It seems the automation practicum just isn’t academic enough for most engineering departments. Process Automation Hall of Fame inductee Russ Rhinehart from Oklahoma State University had his control systems program cut last year. Fellow inductee Dale Seborg from the University of California at Santa Barbara is highly unusual in that he insists that his graduate chemical engineering students learn practical automation. “Throughout my career,” Seborg says, “a key research objective has been to help bridge the acclaimed gap between control theory and industrial practice. In particular, I require my Ph.D students to do some experimental work as part of their Ph.D program.” That used to be okay.

In the past, companies would hire operators, engineers and technicians and spend one to two years training them. Even with the coming knowledge drought, companies are refusing to spend to bridge Seborg’s gap. As a result, many people seek out training courses offered by ISA, vendors and others, such as IDC Technologies and the OPC Training Institute. Most firms won’t pay for it, so you have to look at it as funding your continuing education.

I’ve described the automation profession as being similar to Ginger Rodgers, the famed 20th-century dancer and actress. She did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards and in high heels. We are dancing, and we are dancing faster. We are critical to the economic recovery, and we’ll find out that managements are beginning to notice automation and automation professionals’ effect on growth, sustainability and profits.

The Disciplines of Automation

Here’s a list of the 37 subjects in Trevathan’s “ABoK.” You can see from these chapter headings just how complex the profession of automation has become:

• Process instrumentation
• Analytical instrumentation
• Continuous control
• Control valves
• Analog communications
• Control system documentation
• Control equipment
• Discrete input/output devices and general manufacturing measurements
• Discrete and sequencing control
• Motor and drive control
• Motion control
• Process modeling
• Advanced process control
• Control of batch processes
• Environmental issues
• Environmental monitoring
• Building automation
• Alarm management
• Reliability
• Process safety and Safety Instrumented Systems
• Electrical installations
• Safe use and application of electrical apparatus
• Digital communications
• Industrial networks
• Manufacturing execution systems and business integration
• System and network security
• Operator interface
• Data management
• Software
• Custom Software
• Operator Training
• Checkout, system testing and startup
• Troubleshooting
• Maintenance, long-term support and system management
• Automation benefits and project justifications
• Project management and execution
• Interpersonal skills
• Control equipment structure

Oct 08, 2009 00:00 ET

Cisco Names Winners of ‘Think Inside the Box’ Developer Contest

Worldwide Contest Showcases Innovative and Creative Business Applications Built on Best-Selling Router’s Application Extension Platform

via http://www.marketwire.com/mw/rel_us_print.jsp?id=1056663

 SAN JOSE, CA–(Marketwire – October 8, 2009) – Today Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) announced the winners of its “Think Inside the Box” Developer Contest. Launched last fall, the competition challenged application developers around the world to develop applications that run on the Cisco® Application Extension Platform (AXP), which resides on the popular Cisco Integrated Services Router (ISR).

Cisco launched this contest to encourage collaborative development through the use of Web 2.0 technologies, promoting what Cisco calls the Human Network Effect. The winning teams were determined by a panel of seven industry experts who selected the following applications as the most innovative, implementable and relevant to businesses. More than 100 qualified teams from 75 countries entered the competition. The finalists demonstrated the business relevance of the AXP in solving real-world problems, in areas of unified communications, security, advertising, cloud architectures and energy management.

Highlights / Key Facts:

The Winners:
The panel of seven judges narrowed the 100 submissions down to eight finalists. You can view the demos of their applications here. The criteria for selection were innovation, effective use of the AXP platform, feasibility, and project plan documentation. From those finalists, the following winners were selected:

• First Place: Team MADnetwork, led by David Perez in Spain, won US$50,000 for the Building Automation Service application (BAS). Created with branch offices and multitenant units in mind, BAS helps businesses remotely monitor and manage building operations.

  By integrating the service management capabilities on AXP, the application minimizes the need for external servers to manage disparate facilities (HVAC, lighting, plumbing, presence, fire, flooding and smoke detectors), which reduces capital and operational costs. The solution also saves energy costs by determining, in real time, which resources are being consumed, and to what degree, by working with a remote management solution.

• Second Place: Team Enhancers, led by Rajesh Kotagiri in India, won US$30,000 for the Local Advertising Mesh Network Platform (LAMP) application. LAMP creates a distributed ad-serving platform hosted on the AXP. This platform will reside on ISRs targeted initially toward retail deployments: For instance, retail stores can display ads on LCD units in various locations. With this solution, businesses can tap potential new revenue streams by shifting some of their advertising efforts to their existing networking infrastructures.
• Third Place: Team BugsBernie, led by Bernhard Beckmann in Germany, won US$20,000 for the Integrated Surveillance System application. With this application, Internet Protocol phones can be turned on during nonworking hours to monitor any audio signals in the offices. When abnormal audio signal patterns are detected (crossing a configurable threshold), the application notifies external security services or devices such as mobile phones, computers and video monitoring systems. Sabotage of telephony equipment is also detected.

  The Integrated Surveillance System is a simple and cost-effective means to enable a security solution in branch offices by taking advantage of an existing IP-telephony network. The application improves manageability of security systems by providing an integrated security framework to an existing network.

The ISR and AXP Platform:

• The Cisco AXP offers tighter integration between the network and business applications to help branch-office customers achieve greater business efficiencies and innovation. As a result, in tandem with the Cisco Integrated Services Router, the AXP helps lower the total cost of ownership in the branch.
• Cisco opened its industry-leading access routing platform to third-party developers in April 2008 with the introduction of the Cisco AXP.

Cisco Developer Network:

• The Cisco AXP is part of the Cisco Developer Network, which offers a fast-growing social networking community of more than 14,000 individuals who collaborate via wikis, blogs and forums to share development ideas, support and feedback on Cisco networking technologies.

Quotes from the Cisco “Think Inside the Box” judges panel:

• Marie Hattar, vice president of network systems and security solutions at Cisco

  “This contest has proven to be a vibrant approach to sparking innovation. Finalists developed their applications in a span of 90 days with no formal training or router knowledge,” commented Marie Hattar. “And with the Cisco Developer Network (CDN), this opens up a whole new way to engage the developer community as we expand on the vision of the network as a platform. We look forward to the CDN community being able to deliver more value to our customers by building more intelligence and capability into our routers.”

• Brett Galloway, senior vice president, Wireless and Security Technology Group at Cisco and executive sponsor of the developer contest

  “I am extremely impressed with the breadth and depth of the applications the teams brought to the table in this contest. It’s exciting to see innovation outside of the company matching that of inside the company and clearly solving real customer business problems. We saw applications ranging from unified communications, to interesting new business models, as well as new opportunities to take our current network infrastructure and expand it to other technology domains.”

• Paul McNab, vice president, Enterprise Mid-Market Solutions Marketing at Cisco

  “The AXP contest was a true proof point for leveraging the network as the platform for business responsiveness. If you look at CEOs today, in this current climate, they want to know how they can respond to opportunities globally in 90 days. I was amazed at what could be accomplished on the AXP within this time. Looking at the proposals submitted, I think the three we chose show the breadth of the approach we take to stimulate creativity and innovation.”

• Dominic M. Del Balso, vice president, Enterprise Technology and Operations at KeyCorp, Cisco customer and judge

  “Cisco continues to impress me with the level of thought and innovation that goes into its portfolio. A contest such as this highlights their thought process with regard to looking for multiple sources for their next solution or building blocks for their next solution.”

• Brian Proffitt, community manager for the Linux Developer Network and Linux.com, on behalf of the Linux Foundation

  “Cisco is providing an open door for people to come in and innovate, and this contest demonstrates that innovation can come from anywhere or anybody. Innovation has not been taken out of the hands of developers, and the sheer number of submissions to the contest tells me that there is significant interest in developing on the AXP.”

• Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president, Yankee Group

  “Resulting applications from the AXP contest show the ability to manage branch offices remotely on the AXP, allowing companies to put in a centralized policy to turn off and on business systems automatically, lessening the need for on-site management.”

• Bola Rotibi, principal analyst, MWD Advisors

  “Sometimes the challenge of applications is determining how you feed it into the market and get people to adopt it. In this situation, the ISR is already in place for many. You don’t have to create the market. The market is there.”

Useful Links:

• Cisco CTO Congratulates AXP Developer Winners
• View and share the finalists’ applications with this presentation
• Cisco “Think Inside the Box” developer contest home page
• Contest: Terms and Conditions
• Feature Article: Cisco Courting Developers to Make Routers Smarter, More Valuable
• Twitter: Follow CiscoGeeks for up to date information on Cisco routing and switching
• Subscribe to Cisco news
• Cisco Developer Network website

Tags / Keywords:
Cisco Think Inside the Box Developer Contest, Cisco, AXP, ISR, router, routers, access routers, applications, developers, branch optimization, branch, application integration, network as a platform, MADnetwork, BugsBernie, Enhancers

About Cisco Systems
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com

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Via http://aronsmetana.blogspot.com/2009/09/10-reasons-why-windows-7-could-fail.html

The reviews of Windows 7 have thus far been favorable – so why does Jack Wallen think the new OS may tank? Here’s his take on the impending release.

October 22nd is the big day for the official release of the latest iteration of the Windows operating system. Many have dubbed it the savior that will bring the glory days back to Redmond. Many have said that it will pretty much wipe clean the foul stench left behind by Windows Vista. I, and a few others, think that Windows 7 will not be the success most pundits are proclaiming. How can I say that? I will give you 10 reasons why Windows 7 could easily fail.

1: It’s too much like Vista

I have yet to run into a PC user who actually likes Vista. Oh, there maybe a few scattered fanboys out there who have decided that Aero is the prettiest of all interfaces and that the User Access Control is the be-all-end-all of security. The truth of the matter is, Vista is a horrible operating system. And what’s going to surprise the public is that Windows 7 is a lot like Vista. Oh sure, Microsoft has made a lot of changes under the hood. But average users won’t know that. They will see the Aero interface and the UAC and turn their noses up at the latest offering. And why not? Microsoft should have made a complete 180 from Vista. Instead of improving on Vista, it should have picked up XP (the best of the Microsoft OSes) and given it a boost to hardware recognition and maybe added a prettier interface. Unfortunately, Windows 7 is going to suffer simply because it looks and acts too much like Vista.

2: It will cost too much

People are going to be turned off by the cost of the operating system itself, as well as the cost of the minimum hardware requirements. Yes, if your hardware can run Vista, it can run 7. But most people are still running XP, and that hardware won’t cut it with Windows 7. Last I checked, we’re still in an economy that has people cutting back. Having to drop extra scratch on both an operating system and a new machine is going to be at the bottom of the list for most people. And most businesses are still clinging to XP.

3: XP is still too popular

Picking up where #2 left off… Windows XP is still the king of Microsoft operating systems. According to a survey done in February 2009, more than 71% of all business machines are still running XP. A Forrester survey had suggested that Windows Vista would overthrow XP as the business operating system of choice. That never happened. And the only way Microsoft will pull XP off of business machines around the world is when it reaches its end of life for support. But did that actually stop users from using Windows 2000 altogether? No. In fact, some people are still clinging to that version of Windows. But overall, XP is still the keeper of the crown for Windows operating systems.

4: The editions are too confusing

Which version of Windows 7 do you want? Oh, you thought Professional sounded like the best, only to find it doesn’t have features you need… so maybe it’s on to Ultimate. And Starter sounds like it would be a good version to start with — as in ‘new to Windows’ or ‘cheapest version.’ But no, Starter is for netbooks. So you have to look at it like this:

• Starter is for netbooks.
• Premium is for those who want next to nothing.
• Professional is for those who need to work from home and office.
• Ultimate is what Windows should sell and nothing less.

I remember when Vista came out. Trying to get the version that included my name nearly required the creation of a matrix or a spreadsheet, and still many people came out with the wrong version.

5: No upgrades are available for XP (and Europe)

Hello XP users, you can’t upgrade. Only a clean install for you. Which, of course, is smart anyway — but that means you have to pay full price. And guess what, European countries: Because you won a suit against Microsoft that prevents it from shipping Internet Explorer with Windows, you get no upgrade version for Windows 7. Yes Microsoft is going to offer EU the full version for the upgrade price, but that price will still wind up being close to the full version price, if history repeats itself.

6: It’s no good for netbooks

The Starter version of Windows 7 is a joke. Yes, Microsoft did remove the ‘three apps at a time’ restriction. But there are other limitations (beyond the hefty hardware requirements) that make it a poor candidate for netbooks:

• No streaming media
• No desktop customizations
• No legacy app support

The first point is the real killer. Because most users don’t want to clog up their limited drive space with multimedia, not being able to stream media means they won’t be enjoying their tunes while they work. Too bad, Windows 7 users!

7: Single sign-on apps will fail

As it stands now, applications using biometric, smart card authentication and/or VPN authentication will fail unless they’re upgraded. This could be a bad problem if the applications were created in house, or if they aren’t upgradeable. The real problem is that many of the companies that create applications that use (or depend upon) single sign-on have not made the leap to Windows 7 support. So if a business depends upon single sign on, Windows 7 is going to be a big problem.

8: There are better alternatives

You knew this was coming. Both OS X and Linux have made strong headway in the market. With modern releases of Linux getting better and ever-more user friendly, the race is on to see what’s going to happen. And every time Microsoft makes a misstep, it’s another gain for the competition. Windows Vista was a huge misstep, and it’s going to take more than a rework of that disaster to keep the competition at bay. As more and more people become disillusioned with Windows, they’re going to look for alternatives. I have good news for you disillusioned Windows users: Ubuntu 9.04 is one of the most user-friendly Linux releases to date. And with OS X Snow Leopard’s addition of Exchange support, Microsoft should really be concerned.

9: XP Mode may not help you

If you want to run applications that ran on Windows XP but not on Vista, you will have one solution — virtualization. Here’s the problem: If you want to do this, you need a machine with at least 2 Gigs of RAM and a processor that supports on-chip virtualization. XP Mode consists of two pieces: Virtualization software and a fully licensed version of Windows XP. Windows XP does not ship with Windows 7. You will be able to download it for free if you have a licensed version of Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise. The big issue is the on-chip virtualization. Scott Woodgate, director of Windows enterprise and virtualization strategy, said this about which chips include virtualization support: ‘Some PCs have it and some don’t… It’s not as clear as it should be relative to which PCs have support and which don’t.’

10: You’ll have to contend with DRM

Yes, DRM is the bane of users’ existence, and Windows 7 includes it. One little bit of DRM is a piece of code whose purpose is to ensure that no ‘prohibited device’ is connected to the machine. By ‘prohibited device,’ I mean a device that could be used to record the output. Digital outputs are polled every 30ms, and analog outputs are polled every 150ms. Other ‘features’ also use or require DRM, and most of these are in place in case Hollywood needs them. In other words, Microsoft is giving the recording industry a bit of leverage against the user, should they need it. This will not sit well with the user base, should it show its ugly head.

Your turn

Read enough to make you think twice about migrating to Windows 7? Perhaps not. But with the Windows 7 pitfalls, one of these issues might bite you — making you wonder why you bothered to ‘upgrade.’

What’s your take on Windows 7? Join the discussion and share your thoughts.

It is ironic that right as Gartner released research showing engineers are managing 20% to 30% more network components than they were last year, networking pros are about to receive even more on their plates by way of facilities management … of all things.

This week the IP for Smart Objects (IPSO) Alliance announced a certification and compliance program to ensure vendors release IP-based smart objects that interoperate. You may be thinking, what the h&%ll do I care about smart objects? What is a smart object?

Believe me, you should care. Smart objects are sensors and actuators that run in a range of applications from smart grid management to building automation. The IPSO alliance is hoping to accelerate the use of IP in these devices. That means that enterprise lighting systems, for example, can be networked into the LAN. Among the many use scenarios, facilities management systems will communicate to network managers when a system is wasting power without actual use. It is feasible that these systems could save enterprises as much money as greening data centers.

On a larger scale, IP-based energy and building management means that utilities will implement smart meters in enterprises and homes that will warn home base of outages and waste. These smart meters will be part of larger IP networks laid over utility grids. In addition to enterprise and consumer savings, regional governments will spend less, enabling them to direct money to other crucial projects.

Cisco has already moved in on the action with its EnergyWise software initiative. EnergyWise is embedded into Catalyst switches and used to control not only power within the network, but also on PCs and building control systems. So it’s no surprise that Cisco is a member of the IPSO Alliance, along with Ericsson, SAP, Sun Microsystems and Google.

All of this innovation may be exciting, but for network engineers it means the need to gain more skills (possibly even certifications), more responsibility and assuming an even greater role in every enterprise. As this happens, they will have to demand the manpower and support necessary to expand in this new direction.

Via http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/networkhub/hey-network-engineers-you%E2%80%99re-not-doing-enough-try-facilities-management-too/

On the face of it, the high-level draft of a standard for a new Smart Grid power distribution system is a noble effort to make the entire country more energy-efficient.

 
Its key goals include cutting oil imports in half, reducing carbon dioxide emission by 25 percent and cutting urban pollutants by 40 to 90 percent. To accomplish this, the Department of Energy has empowered the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop a set of technology standards and specifications of unprecedented scope.

 
An initial cursory scan of the draft standard presented today by U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke finds comforting phrases such as the Smart Grid network as much as possible should be based on IP networks that work in a way where an event on one part of the network does not affect performance elsewhere.

 
But then the document goes on to describe 77 existing or new standards that to one degree or another will need to be enhanced or developed to create the Smart Grid. Those standards include everything from basic networking to XML and modeling languages and a range of new cyber-security technologies. For example, the BACnet standard commonly used in building automation systems will need to extended to interoperate with a number of other networking and security technologies that comprise the Smart Grid.

 
None of that is necessarily a bad thing; it’s just probably not clear to most people the extent to which the U.S. government will now be defining a lot of standards that previously got hashed out in smoke-free backrooms by the vendor community. This is a good thing in that vendors typically leave standards half done when it comes to interoperability in the name of their own self interests. But all the same, the U.S. government might want to be a little clearer about the scope it intends to play in setting the agenda for technology standards under the guise of the Smart Grid program.

 
Despite the lack of clarity, there is a huge potential for good here, including shoring up existing IP network technologies, adding missing layers of security into our networks, and the development of so-called bi-directional smart meters. All in all, the Department of Energy will spend roughly $11 billion to transform over 3,000 miles of electric transmission systems and the development of over 40 million smart meters. The DoE is also spending $3.3 billion on Smart Grid technologies to support manufacturing, purchasing and installation of Smart Grid technologies. Counting private organizations outside the government, total investment in smart meter technologies is valued $40 to $50 billion.

 
Given that level of spending and the associated weight that goes with it, don’t be surprised to wake up one day to discover that the Smart Grid project not only made us more energy-efficient, it going forward in one way or another, shapes the development of every technical standard on the “smarter” planet.

via ITBusinessEdge

Access Control

The fact that you are trusting your sensitive business data to an outside party is a considerable security risks in itself. This is because relying on an outsourced service bypasses the physical, personal and logical controls employed for internal environments. For this reason, you want to gather all the information you possibly can to learn more about the parties that you will be handling your data. Ask the provider about privileged administrators and what level of access they will have to your data.

Data Security

In the end, you are responsible for ensuring the security and integrity of your own data. This is the case even when it is in hands of a cloud computing service provider. With that said, most companies are subject to third-party audits and security certifications in order to meet regulatory compliance. This works in your favor but since nothing is guaranteed, it is up to you to find out what measures the provider is taking to protect your data before making any commitments.

Learn About Location

When leveraging the cloud, there is a great possibility that you will have no idea of where your data is actually stored. Due to the prevalence of global cloud networks and infrastructures, you might not even know what country it is located in. If you are truly concerned about the protection of your data, you should seek out a provider that makes a commitment to storing and processing this information in certain jurisdictions while ensuring that all privacy policies are upheld.

Dependable Encryption

In most cases, cloud data is stored in a shared environment, meaning it is residing beside information owned by other customers. While encryption is effective, it is not the cure-all solution to security. Therefore, you need to find out what is being done to protect data while it lies resting in the cloud. A reliable provider will only utilize encryption schemes that have been tried and tested by security experts. The use of a viable cryptography system is crucial because encryption flaws can make data completely inaccessible and result in excessive downtime.

Backup and Recovery

Should you sign on for a cloud computing solution and you cannot find out where your data will be stored, the host should still be able to let you know the consequences in light of a disaster. However, if they are not backing up your data and applications on a regular basis, then you are more susceptible to losing everything you placed in the cloud. To ensure business continuity, make sure the firm has the ability to provide complete restoration in a timely manner.

Seek Out a Long-Term Solution

In an ideal situation, your original cloud computing provider will never go out of business due to the lack of financial resources or being acquired by a larger firm. In the real world, you need to make sure that your date remains accessible even if such a scenario should be the case. Find out how your data would be affected under these conditions and learn how it can be retrieved and imported into alternative cloud applications.

Via WebHostingFan