Australia benefits from smart grids

There are $200 million worth of smart grid pilot projects in operation or about to start in Australia with most focusing on the potential for smart meters and demand management, reports PR Wire.

The current activity is being driven by government mandates that will see the roll-out of nearly eight million smart meters across Australia, representing an investment of nearly $2.1 million by 2015.

According to analysts Frost & Sullivan, due to the complexity of the solutions involved in smart grid projects, IT services are expected to play a key role in smart grid implementation. Significant expenditure is anticipated in the areas of outsourcing, systems integration and professional services, support and maintenance.

Fujitsu has unveiled infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) in Japan, starting 1 October, states Benzinga.

This IaaS public cloud service will enable customers to utilise servers and other ICT infrastructure across a network on an on-demand basis.

Fujitsu's IaaS public cloud, known as 'On-demand virtual system service', is a pay-as-you-go service that delivers bundled virtualised ICT infrastructure, including server and storage functionality as well as network and security features, in accordance with the customer's needs over a network.

The European Commission has set aside 780 million euros for ICT research in 2011 as part of the Framework Programme 7, says The Clare Herald.

This is one of the biggest grant funds ever for research into ICT as the commission has promised to maintain a yearly increase of 20% in the research budget for ICT until at least 2013.

Commission vice-president for the digital agenda Neelie Kroes says: "Increasing overall investment into ICT research is crucial for our future. The EU's support to our world-class researchers must be accompanied by substantial additional investments by the beneficiaries themselves. This research will help Europe's industry to strengthen its competitiveness."