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Verizon and Ambient Offer Open Smart Grid Communications Network for Utilities By SGN Staff Jan 19, 2010 - 3:10:09 PM
Vendors have finally figured out that utilities have finally figured out that open, standards-based systems are the best way to go. So they are now religiously including "open" in all of their product announcements. In point of fact, we don't yet have all of the open standards in place. But some of them are in place — especially Internet Protocol. So it's great that companies such as Verizon and Ambient are climbing into the open bandwagon. Fair warning — we haven't examined this system, so we don't know how it stacks up. But in the past in other industries, vendors have supported low-level open standards but crammed all of the good stuff into proprietary extensions. When that happens, buyers still end up at risk for vendor lock-in.
Verizon Wireless and marketing partner Ambient have launched their Open Smart Grid Communications Architecture, which offers an integrated Smart Grid solution and open communications network for utilities.
The companies say their architecture is easily deployed, reliable, secure and flexible. The bonus for utilities is that the highly-adaptable system can help them speed up their Smart Grid deployment plans by saving them the investment and maintenance costs of a proprietary network. It also allows utilities to pick and choose the Smart Grid devices and applications they want.
The Ambient Smart Grid® works on the Verizon Wireless network infrastructure and offers utilities virtual private networks and the company's security, reliability and speed.
Ambient CEO John J. Joyce said, "Through our joint marketing agreement, we have worked with Verizon Wireless to create a Smart Grid network architecture that utilities can rapidly and easily deploy, allowing connectivity to smart meters and other IP-based technologies.
Verizon and Ambient announced their joint marketing agreement last year.
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