English | EN The City Cloud: Don’t Waste Atoms, Spend Bits – But How?
May 22, 2014
Exactly what does it mean to be a Smart(er) City – technologically that is? A few weeks ago, I assessed IBM’s Smarter City Challenge in detail, and top 10s tell citizens if they can be proud, and for what reasons. Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Vienna, Barcelona, Paris, Stockholm, London, Hamburg, Berlin, Helsinki, and Seattle, Boston / San Francisco, Washington D.C., New York, Toronto, Vancouver, Portland (Oregon), Chicago, Montreal. But what basic digital technologies made all these winners win? Wouldn’t that be a smart question to ask? Are there any architectural and structural best practices evolving?
My short answer is YES, definitely! Just look for instance at the above comprehensive SMART+ architecture by MAAT International, which is a nice blueprint template for what I call a City Cloud.
Areas / Depts / Operating Systems
My somewhat longer answer I borrow from Paul Doherty, President and CEO of The Digit Group. About a year ago, the McGraw-Hill Financial Global Institute published Mr. Doherty’s Smart Cities report. His 10 common areas/departments/operating systems seen as leading indicators of smart cities include:
– Transportation
– Infrastructure
– Energy
– Water
– Waste
– Public Safety
– Education
– Healthcare
– Green/Smart Buildings
– Citizen Services
City Cloud Constituents
In the Information Communication Technology (ICT) section of the report, the following contemporary constituents are being discussed:
– The Intersection of Policy and New Information Technologies
– Machine to Machine (M2M) and the Internet of Things (IoT)
– The Cloud
– Platform and Apps
– Mobile Communications and Devices
– Authenticated Big Data
– Smart Buildings
– Buildings as Servers, Cities as Networks
Authenticated Digital DNA
The magic of utilizing valuable data to make better decisions depends upon identifying, locating and then turning latent data into actionable data. With advances in ICT, like cloud-based technologies, there has been great improvement in a city’s ability to gather vast amounts of data regarding city infrastructure in a cost effective manner.
With both new and existing cities, the data intelligence process begins with a proactive approach of identifying, capturing and managing a city’s digital DNA. 3D visualization tools need accurate, authenticated data to “build” a 3D view of the city. These data reside in an array of city departments; any department, in fact, where there is collection and management of vast amounts of data, which, when viewed as a whole, create the virtual representation of a physical city.
The building blocks to effectively and efficiently use this city data will ultimately reside in a city’s ability to repurpose its existing data and documents associated with the built environment, which is the Authenticated Digital DNA of all cities.
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