Cisco has announced another catalyst for faster internet speeds that will make cloud computing, SaaS (Software as a Service) and off site managed hosting services and solutions more feasible.  The fuel Cisco added to the bandwidth fire is a new CRS-3 internet backbone router.  This new carrier routing system boasts impressive performance and capability improvements over the current system.  Cisco had a very rough time around 2004 with their CRS-1 router, which almost didn’t make it out of research and development.  Cisco’s CRS-3 router has 12 times the speed performance of its original CRS-1.

PC World reports Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers as saying: “At full scale, the CRS-3 has a capacity of 322T bits per second, roughly three times that of the CRS-1, which was introduced in 2004. It also has more than 12 times the capacity of its nearest competitor. The CRS-3 will help the Internet evolve from a messaging platform to an entertainment and media platform, with video the emerging “killer app”.”

This announcement has very close timing with the National Broadband Plan heating up, which promises to deliver 100mbps connectivity to 100 million homes by 2020.  Google’s Fiber for Communities initiative is also gaining steam, and the promise from Google is over 1 gigabit speeds to communities selected for their pilot program.  We’re not sure how Cisco’s CRS-3 announcement fits into all of this, but when these three behemoths (US Government, Google and Cisco) are pulling in the same direction it makes it more believable that they will reach their goals.

What we’re seeing here is the infancy of another significant evolution in computing. As these speeds become attainable the applications are endless. Technology sets and solutions poised to benefit include: Cloud Computing, Managed IT Services, SaaS (Software as a Service), Disaster Recovery, Infrastructure Hosting, Streaming Video and Audio, Off Site Backup, Server Hosting and Outsource IT Services. It’s exciting to be a part of it.

Google filed an application for market-based rate authority on December 23 under the name Google Energy.   On Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Google’s application.  This essentially allows them to buy and sell energy.  As with some of Google’s other moves, there is a lot of buzz about their intentions.  I see some interesting parallels with the National Broadband Plan and the latest news around Google.  Their most recent moves are eerily aligned with the details the FCC has released thus far.

In October, Google announced that Energy Inc. will be the first device partner for PowerMeter, which monitors electricity consumption in real time and offers feedback on how to reduce consumption.  The tool, which was first announced in February 2009, lives as a secure widget on iGoogle, and communicates with smart meters.  On a related note, an article in the WSJ reports that the FCC released gives some details about the National Broadband Plan, and there is a reference to consumers needing the ability to remotely monitor their electricity usage via the internet.

Another interesting correlation (in the same article) is in a statement from FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, which states that ”100 million U.S. households should have Internet service of at least 100 megabits per second by 2020.”  If you refer to my earlier post on Google Fiber for Communities, you will see the connection.

Google is clearly making bold moves to continue to position themselves as a leader of innovation through technology.  Both of these recent developments push their own Managed Services and Cloud Computing agenda, but also serve to position themselves as pushing innovation for the greater good.  If it means faster internet service and cheaper electricity we won’t complain, and that’s what they’re counting on.