Cisco EnergyWise allows organizations to monitor and reduce the energy used by IT equipment, which accounts for an estimated 25 percent of energy costs in commercial buildings. This energy management technology, embedded into Cisco Catalyst switches, reduces power use of all devices connected to a network, from Power over Ethernet (PoE) devices such as IP phones, PCs, and laptops to building and lighting control systems.

In FY10, we continued to extend EnergyWise functionality across our range of networking products, including the Cisco ISR series used by smaller offices as both a switch and a router. We also introduced the EnergyWise Orchestrator, which extends power management to all PoE devices, giving users control over 60 percent of the power used by their IT assets. By using EnergyWise to implement a nightly shutdown and other energy policies, an organization with 10,000 PCs could cut energy costs from those PCs, and related emissions, by more than half.

Data center virtualization reduces the number of servers needed to hold the same quantity of data, making more efficient use of equipment. This in turn helps reduce power needs for supporting infrastructure such as cooling, as well as reducing impacts from the manufacture of unnecessary equipment.

Improved energy and cooling efficiency are important motivators. Cisco data center solutions achieve resource savings of up to 70 percent through virtualization.

Cisco Connected Grid solutions enable electrical utilities to create a "smart grid" using an end-to-end communications infrastructure that interconnects critical areas of the electrical system, from generation to consumption. The two-way, real-time information and control capability delivered by these solutions will support demand management programs with consumers, enable more efficient integration of renewable energy sources, and reduce power outages.

The substation automation solution, featuring the Connected Grid switch and router, allows utilities to consolidate services onto a single network, predict failures with remote diagnostics, and reduce service disruptions.

The home energy management solution allows utilities and their customers to monitor and reduce energy consumption or shift demand to off-peak times to reduce pressure on the grid and enable increased use of lower-carbon sources of electricity.

The Connected Grid portfolio was launched in June 2010, following field trials with several customers (see Story Highlight on Duke Energy).