Silly Cisco, you didn’t expect to own smart grid networking did you?

GigaOM’s Katie Fehrenbacher has a great post today on how IT rivalries, particularly the one between Cisco and Juniper, are spilling into the smart grid space. Already, Google and Microsoft are tackling the home energy management market with PowerMeter and Hohm, respectively. Now, networking titans are making moves to grab a slice of what’s sure to be a huge new market for their wares.

Cisco made waves earlier this month by snapping up Arch Rock, a smart grid wireless networking startup. This week, Juniper announced that it’s teaming with IBM — also an IT giant with smart grid ambitions — providing a potentially attractive and lucrative  blend of Big Blue’s smart grid software, design and consultancy business with Juniper’s hardware presence which has already established a firm foothold in several utilities.

Looks like a fight’s abrewin’! Check out Katie’s post for more insights.