Microsoft Hohm Service Discontinuation

Microsoft is discontinuing the Microsoft Hohm service effective May 31, 2012. The service will continue to operate until that time.

The feedback from customers and partners has remained encouraging throughout Microsoft Hohm’s beta period. However, due to the slow overall market adoption of the service, we are instead focusing our efforts on products and solutions more capable of supporting long-standing growth within this evolving market.

At Microsoft, we believe in tackling the incredible energy and environmental challenges of the 21^st century by leveraging the power of information, fostering a collaborative approach to creating and implementing new technologies, and staying nimble in order to do what’s best long term for our customers.

Microsoft Hohm has helped demonstrate the critical role of information in helping people and organizations improve how energy is generated, distributed and ultimately consumed. Microsoft will continue to focus on developing products, solutions and partnership that span a wide spectrum of industries, such as power generation, distribution grids, buildings and transportations systems.

For example, we are working with partners, utilities, universities, governments, building management companies and leaders in the IT industry to accelerate development of energy-smart solutions for growing cities. More energy-efficient cities are among our best opportunities to provide sustainable economic growth and quality of life in the long-term. Microsoft’s Smart Energy Reference Architecture (SERA) also helps utilities develop an ecosystem where thousands of smart devices can seamlessly plug into the grid with common standards and interoperability framework.

Technology is also giving us greater understanding of the resources and systems we depend on. Citizens, educators and scientists are benefiting from the power of information with Microsoft tools such as Worldwide Telescope and Eye On Earth. Microsoft Research has provided individuals a way to estimate the power consumption of their computer through Joulemeter. We joined a number of companies and organizations to launch the Climate Savers Computing Inititative (CSCI), an organization that provides guidance to individuals and businesses on using industry innovations and best practices to improve energy efficiency and power management.

We are also seeing possibilities for energy savings emerge with cloud computing. A recent study found that customers can reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions on a per-user basis by running common business applications in the cloud versus running the applications in their own data centers.

Together with our partners, we will continue to develop technologies that help people and organizations reduce their impact on the environment. Much more work remains to realize a sustainable future, and we believe a collaborative approach with partners, businesses, government, scientists and citizens will play a transformative role. To learn more about Microsoft’s sustainability initiatives and products, visit Microsoft’s Software Enabled Earth blog and Power & Utilities blog. For more information on Microsoft Hohm, please visit the FAQ page.