Building A Smarter Planet: A Primer

Building A Smarter Planet

We know the world is becoming smaller… and flatter. Something else is going on that may ultimately have a greater impact on business and society. The world is about to become smarter. This is quite literally about how the world works… the world’s infrastructure is becoming intelligent.

In 2001, there were 60 million transistors for every human on the planet ... … by 2010 there will be 1 billion transistors per human… … each costing 1/10 millionth of a cent.

In 2005 there were 1.3 billion RFID tags in circulation… … by 2010 there will be 33 billion.

Worldwide mobile telephone subscriptions reached 3.3 billion in 2007 and expected to reach 4 billion by the end of this year

One billion camera phones were sold in 2007, up from 450 million in 2006 … 3G devices growing 30% annually.

An estimated 2 billion people will be on the Web by 2011 ... … and a trillion connected objects – cars, appliances, cameras, roadways, pipelines – comprising the "Internet of Things."

The reason we will all begin to transform our systems, operations, enterprises and personal lives to take advantage of a smart planet isn’t just because we can. It’s because we must.

U.S. CPG companies and retailers lose $40 billion annually due to inefficient supply chains.

In North America, up to 22 percent of total port volume is empty containers. The Port of Jersey has 100,000 empty containers sitting in storage – worth nearly $200 million.

In the United States alone, 2.2 million dispensing errors are made a year because of handwritten prescriptions.

The U.S. healthcare system loses more than $100 billion a year to fraud.

In a small business district in Los Angeles, driving around for parking in one year generated the equivalent of 38 trips around the world, burned 47,000 gallons of gas, emitted 730 tons of carbon dioxide. Congested roadways cost $78 billion annually in the form of 4.2 billion lost hours and 2.9 billion gallons of wasted gas.

In the U.S., a typical carrot has traveled 1,600 miles, a potato 1,200 miles, a chuck roast 600 miles… …grocers and consumers throw away $48 billion worth of food every year.

In distributed computing environments 85% of computing capacity sits idle.

In six years the power consumption of a server has risen from 8 watts to more than 100 watts per $1,000 worth of technology.

On average, for every 100 units of energy piped into a data center, only 3 units are used for actual computing. More than half goes to cooling the servers.

We’ve thought about IT as the world of data centers, software, PCs, routers, bandwidth. We’ve thought about infrastructure as the world of buildings, factories, hospitals, roads, pipelines. Those worlds are converging. We’re confident that the world can become smarter. We’re building it with our clients.

SMART HEALTH CARE

IBM is helping ActiveCare Network monitor over 12,000 clinics and provide over two million patients with the proper delivery network for injections, vaccines and other pharmaceuticals. ACN is using IBM software to lower the cost of therapy by 90 percent and reduce time and cost required to develop patient and clinic applications by 60 percent.

SMART ENERGY

IBM leads 7 of the 11 smart meter deployments globally, building intelligence into utilities to lower costs for customers and better balance the grid. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has helped homeowners reduce energy costs up to 10 percent by turning ordinary thermostats into day traders for energy, ensuring the best cost for the customer and better load balancing for the grid.

SMART SUPPLY CHAINS

IBM has helped companies ship smarter, with an innovative tracking system that does more than help shippers manage supply chains; it reduces empty cargo containers and monitors the condition of container contents. The smart shipping system provides temperature and humidity readings, intrusion alerts, quicker customs clearance and more … all communicated wirelessly and shared over the Internet with partners.

SMART TRACKING IBM and Matiq are developing a smarter food tracking solution, the first-of-its-kind in the Nordics … … it uses RFID technology to track and trace meat and poultry from the farm, through the supply chain, to supermarket shelves.

SMART FINANCIAL SYSTEMS

IBM rebuilt the world’s currency markets -- one of the most advanced and complex exchanges -- to help understand risk in real-time.

SMART TRAFFIC

IBM is working with Brisbane, London, Singapore and Stockholm to deploy smarter traffic systems. At least 20 other cities have active bids to do the same. Stockholm has seen approximately 20 percent less traffic, a 12 percent drop in emissions and a reported 40,000 additional daily users of public transportation.

SMART LAW ENFORCEMENT IBM is helping the city of Chicago fight crime by digitizing their law enforcement practices and deploying smarter surveillance systems … … even testing a system that uses audio sensors to direct cameras to locate gunshots, determine the caliber of gun fired and pinpoint its exact location – long before 9-1-1 is dialed.

SMART WATER

IBM and the Nature Conservancy are finding smarter ways to manage water supplies … providing analytics and research capabilities on the behavior of watersheds and the impact of human activities on freshwater supplies. IBM’s Stream Computing system will provide minute-to-minute deep analysis of New York's Hudson River via an integrated network of sensors, robotics and computational technology distributed throughout its 315 miles.

SYSTEMS SOFTWARE SERVICES FOR A SMARTER WORLD