Cisco has long stressed its credentials in the IoT field and kicked off Cisco Live 2015 with an event on the Internet of Everything and smart cities in particular. On hand were various stakeholders from Cisco’s partnership with Kansas City Missouri, including the Mayor of KCMO and the CTO of partner Sprint. CBR collected some of their thoughts on smart cities in general and the project in particular.
1. Hans Wilmer, EVP of Industry Solutions and Chief Globalisation Officer at Cisco
"[Smart cities] will take five things. Thought leadership – who has the vision to take it on? Public private partnerships are going to be key. Global open standards that don’t take partners that try to lock you in.
"That also means a new ecosystem of IT and OT – the industrial side and the IT side are going to merge. And perhaps one of the most important things for cities to lead is smart regulation. Our regulation is so outdated. It’s so not for the digital age."
2. Sly James – Mayor of Kansas City Missouri
"It’s a new 21st century network that is as important as any of the other networks that we’ve had to pass regarding other types of infrastructure. Kansas City is going to be able to provide services to residents in a more responsive and efficient way. We’ll identify new sources of revenue and generate cost savings through more efficient service delivery.
"But we’ve never thought of the smart city project as just another thing to make city government better. We know it’s the start of an infrastructure that’s important to Kansas City in the 21st century as were concrete roads and steel in the 19th century."
3. Stephen Bye – CTO at Sprint
"We think an intelligent, managed wi-fi infrastructure is a foundational platform that enables cities to solve critical problems and challenges as well as seize opportunities around parking, traffic management, water and waste management. We think it also provides citizens with access to a broad range of city-wide services. We think it enables cities to close the digital divide, to basically ensure social inclusion and equal opportunity for all."
4. Fred Ellermeier – Vice President, Smart Integrated Infrastructure at Black & Veatch
"The data generated from these smart devices you’ve heard about is going to solve the problems of the future. Energy, water and other city systems are going to benefit from this ability to be interconnected…One of the things that’s overwhelming in all the surveys and reports we do is that the interconnectivity of systems across a wide area in communities and cities are what is going to solve the problems that exist today and allow us to be more safe, resilient and efficient."
5. Munish Khetrapal – MD for Solutions, S+CC Cisco
"From 250 cities, the value that will be created is about $3 trillion over the next ten years. LED lighting is an example – $22 billion value can be saved from LEDs. You have a wi-fi connection that you can open up for public access creating digital advertising revenue. LEDs and improved LED consumption improves the overall value of property and improves public access.
"You add all that together and it adds up to $22 billion."
