NXTcomm - Focus on the Environment

I spoke at NXTcomm 08 yesterday.

The topics at NXTcomm reflect the important trends and issues in the telco sector. Almost exactly one year ago I was due to speak on a panel about sustainability opportunities in the ICT sector at a telecom event in Northern Virginia. It was cancelled due to low registrations. But here we are year later and NXTcomm 08 had a panel in the main conference "Environmental Efficiencies - Thinking Beyond the Bottom Line", a 'Green Village' in the middle of the exhibition hall and a conference with the conference "Communications Goes Green". I see this as a significant step change in recognition in the sector of both the need to act and the business benefits of taking action.

Dawn Bushaus from Telephony Magazine put together a great overview of the state of the industry in a report entitled 'Telecom's Green Future' for the conference's daily news.

I spoke on the main conference panel "Environmental Efficiencies - Thinking Beyond the Bottom Line". The panel included speakers from Eltek Valere, Juniper and Insight Research Company. A common theme was the extent to which industry standards would help ensure apples to apples comparison of the energy efficiency of different products and services. The range of different organizations working on such standards became evident as did the complexity of the industry -- from providers of infrastructure components, software, router and switch providers, network and data center operators through to service providers like BT. It is quite conceivable that different standards would be required at each level.