Cisco's EnergyWise initiative, which starts with adding power management smarts to switches, sounds like a great idea for energy/eco-conscious IT departments. But some aren't buying it.

Nortel's Tony Rybczynski lays out some reasons like security and vendor lock-in to cast a suspicious eye on Cisco's latest move. And then there's this:

Thirdly, painting Cisco routers and switches with EnergyWise paint doesn't make them any more energy efficient. In fact third party tests prove that Nortel switches consistently have lower energy consumption needs than Cisco's.... by a whopping 40%. The Cisco Energy Tax lives on, month after month after month.

Agree, disagree? Sound off in the comments!