Cool company alert: RuggedCom Inc.
I’ve got a story in today’s Toronto Star about a local company that makes ruggedized or “hardened” Ethernet switches and routers for utilities. Woodbridge, Ont.-based RuggedCom Inc. isn’t a direct cleantech play, but its product is an enabler of the smart grid and the kind of two-way data systems that will be required in the future for distributed, renewable electricity systems. Using RuggedCom’s networking products, utilities can operate their systems remotely and more efficiently, be more effective at troubleshooting, keep better track of assets and their operating status, and eventually make their electricity systems adaptive and self-healing. It’s an interesting, profitable, fast-growing company that’s often called the Cisco of the smard grid. An IPO is planned for later this year, assuming it doesn’t get scooped up in an acquisition prior to that.
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper. Tyler can be reached at tyler@cleanbreak.ca