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July 2, 2012 By News Staff
South Bend, Ind., became the first city in the world to manage its water systems in the cloud, according to a recent IBM press release. Partnered with local business EmNet and by using IBM’s Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities software as a service, South Bend will avoid $120 million in infrastructure investments and $600,000 in potential government fines through its new water management system.
"Anticipating and preventing incidents before they happen is key. Viewing all our aggregated data in real time via the IBM SmartCloud will help us predict where incidents can occur and safeguard our citizens. Through creative collaboration and IBM's powerful smarter city solution, we can create a smarter city and solve problems that, until now, seemed insurmountable," said Gary Gilot, a member of South Bend’s Board of Public Works. "We have had huge measurable benefits, and with IBM's continuing partnership with the city, Notre Dame and local entrepreneurs like EmNet, we will produce more."
The University of Notre Dame is also helping South Bend with research and development of a water system that will help manage combined sewer monitoring and control. Use of the city’s new system has reduced wet weather overflows by 23 percent, and reduced dry weather overflows from 27 down to one in the first year of operation. The city has also reduced the flow of water through its plants by 10 million gallons per day by keeping river water out of the system.
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South Bend is not that large a community to require $120 million of management software "infrastructure". I think the citizens of South Bend should be informed - and the readers of Government Technology - as to what comprises $120 million dollars of cloud based "infrastructure".