IoT

With the number of applications and IoT-connected sensors already mushrooming in today’s smart cities, firewalls are now largely obsolete.

Munish Khetrapal, Managing Director, Smart Cities and IoT: "The basic thing in Smart Cities is that they need to be connected: if they are not connected, they are not going to be 'smart'.”

Today, everything aspires to be smart: from the ubiquitous—the smartphone in your hand—to sometimes the ridiculous (Google Glass, Fitbit for dogs, Lily the selfie drone). But, if we want our future to be smarter, we need to start thinking beyond "smart for smart's sake" now.

Cities are complex ecosystems that must be run efficiently to function well—and they are growing fast. According to the United Nations, by 2050 the number of urban residents will reach 6.2 billion, 66% of the projected global population.

From 2001 through 2005, Enel, a multinational energy company that serves 61 million clients in 30 countries, began rolling out the world's first Smart Grid.

As an official partner of Rio 2016, IT giant Cisco is providing technology solutions to the Games.