IBM Smart Grid Strategy: The Grid’s Only ‘Super Integrator?’

. As the Smart Grid goes mainstream, I have been trying to keep you up-to-date on the major players. Most recently, I talked with you about The Good News and Bad News about Cisco’s Smart Grid Strategyand about GE's Smart Grid Problem: Cool Little Pieces, No Glue .   Now I want to give you a quick IBM update. I haven't covered Big Blue as often as I should have. For one thing, IBM is so ubiquitous, I almost forget to call them out. For another, it is hard to put IBM into a pigeonhole. Even its own executives are not quite sure what to say, usually settling for something such as "end-to-end partnering from initial strategy all the way through life-cycle management."

End-to-end partner? Hmmm. From where I sit, IBM is the Smart Grid's first and only "super integrator." Wikipedia defines a systems integrator (SI) as a company that “brings together component subsystems into a whole and ensures that those subsystems function together.” Jessepedia defines super integrator as a company that “can act as an SI anywhere and everywhere along the value chain.”

Super integrators are best known in the defense industry. Lockheed Martin leads the pack there, followed by companies such as BAE Systems, Raytheon, Boeing Computing Services and others. Although the Smart Grid has many fine systems integrators, only IBM covers the waterfront so thoroughly that it can be called a super integrator. (Accenture may come close; use the comment form to agree or disagree.)

Below I've listed a few brief insights into IBM Smart Grid strategic opinions and directions. Use the Quick Poll to tell me which you’d like to hear about in more detail. (And whether you’d like a discussion of IBM’s strengths and weaknesses.) Use the comment form to nominate other topics, or to share your opinions on IBM's role in our ecosystem.

·         Integrating outage management and distribution management. Hoping to "mature the layer" and lower the cost of integrating OMS with DMS, IBM will soon release a software development kit (SDK) for the systems integration layer. It was originally developed for IBM’s current OMS/DMS engagements.

·         Next-generation distribution management systems on the way. Yesterday’s systems were built for one-way power flow from centralized plants. Tomorrow’s systems will handle many-way flow from distributed generation and renewables.

·         Sophisticated asset management is on the way. Transformers and other high-value assets will get some of the sophisticated monitoring and maintenance applications now applied in other industries (such as avionics monitoring).

·         Head-butting between back-office and operations. Like Cisco, IBM wants the operations side of the house to have access to the same tools and data as the IT/back office side. In the meantime, IBM foresees continued turf wars, as with the fight over which side should own the networks inside substations. One challenge: The IT side operates in minutes, while the ops side deals in milliseconds.

·         New emphasis on partners and partner applications. IBM is on the hunt for partners with Smart Grid applications; what’s more, it is beginning to choose a few “preferred partners.”

There’s more to say about IBM and where it is going. Use the Quick Poll to tell me what you want to talk about next.

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(Note: IBM is an advertiser on Smart Grid News.) 

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