Last week, networking infrastructure company Cisco announced that the Orlando community of Lake Nona will be the site of the first of the company's nine planned "Smart+Connected" cities, which will endeavor to "unify urban development and IT."
In the shadow of Disney World's Tomorrowland attraction, which exhibits visions of a "future that never was," Cisco and Bahamas-based private investment firm Tavistock Group, will build their own vision for the integrated city of the future over the next fifteen years.
As Tim Conneally explains, "the Smart+Connected initiative
is Cisco's experiment with building the communications infrastructure
that connects all aspects of a community, from government to health care
to education to enterprise to home and beyond. More than simply a
communications ecosystem, the initiative is squarely focused on
preparing for the nascent "Internet of things" era."
"This means the project will touch on all of the community-focused
communications we've seen developing independently over the last decade:
wireless voice and data communications, fiber to the home networks,
digital signage, IP video surveillance, 'smart grid' energy management,
and more than 20 other 'smart services' across the entire Lake Nona
community."
Read the full story: Cisco's Lake Nona experiment: A marriage of urban planning and IT
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