Global CIO: Oracle Smart Grid Study Reveals Deep Cost ConcernsGlobal CIO: Oracle Smart Grid Study Reveals Deep Cost Concerns

"Develop organization-wide priorities and strategies that include information architecture and transition timelines. . . . Open communication, transparent processes, and standards-based IT tools will help utilities extract the full value from smart grid implementations and minimize data duplication . . . . Plan ahead and partner with key technology providers that can help define information management strategies and architectures to capture, protect, analyze, use and share data effectively and in real-time across your organization . . . . (and) engage with industry thought leaders and share their experiences with their peers."

Again, good for Oracle for trying to offer this highly caffeinated smart-grid marketplace some objective perspectives on what utility executives are thinking about these days (and then for proposing some not-so-objective solutions—they'd be silly not to).

But what these results show above all else is that in spite of all the hype and hope and potential, while the nascent smart-grid business might eventually need some pretty sophisticated information architecture, what it needs even more right now is simply information itself: about costs and responsibilities and regulations and customer benefits.