How Cisco is using analytics to build better, smarter cities

Ninety percent of all data has been generated within the last two years. With 500 million tweets per day and 6 billion google searches daily, it’s easy to see why.

But these numbers are actually small when you compare them to what lies ahead. Today there are 14.9 billion devices connected to the Internet. By 2025 there will be 82 billion, according to market researcher IDC.  The task at hand is how to take this data and turn it into insight to benefit communities and the cities of the future.

At IFSEC 2017 Stu Higgins, Head of Smart Cities and IoT for Cisco, outlined a number projects Cisco is working on to do just that.

• At Place de La Nation, Paris is using sensor technology to monitor people, traffic flow, waste management, temperature, air quality, among other things. Cisco is working with town planners on how to make changes to improve traffic. They are also developing other use cases for the data they are collecting.

• Conserve: Glasgow is looking at analytics to improve environmental processes. Currently if a flood occurs, only a police officer can confirm it—usually 4 hours later. If a citizen could record the flood with their mobile phone and share the video with the government, the amount of time to report the flood is reduced, potentially saving $5B pounds a year, said Higgins.

• • A project called City Verve in Manchester is looking to technology to focus on health and care, transport and travel, energy and the environment and the community and public realm. This $10M grant, involving 21 technology partners, is testing everything from smart parking to smart lighting to a talkative bus stop which encourages people to walk to another stop, get exercise and then get on the bus for free.

• Meanwhile in Swindon, the C-ITS Project is taking real-time video and using analytics to spot congestion. Funded by the Department of Transportation, the project managers are considering ways to integrate the data with an in-vehicle app. They could also share the data with logistics companies in order to avoid traffic jams.
• Last, Project Swift is looking to create a 200-300MBtye permanent connection on their train from Glasgow to Edinburgh. A real-time, always-connected system has a variety of applications.

Higgins told the audience at IFSEC 2017

“The key is how you pick the bits that are important and spot patterns in that data.”

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