The next evolution of the Internet is shaping up to be the
“connection of things.” The Internet of Things (IoT) is the interwoven
network of physical objects— Cars, clothes, appliances, health
devices, buildings and more, embedded with electronics, software,
sensors, and network connectivity—that enables these objects to
collect, communicate and exchange data.
When it comes to our buildings and facilities, over the last five
years we've seen a consistent increase in the creation of smart
building and campus strategies by both real estate and facilities
leadership. Today, it's no longer disputed that the transformation to
smart connected buildings is lowering operating costs, driving the
conservation of energy and better occupant experiences. The Internet
of Things has arrived.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is meeting the challenges of today’s
building operational and performance issues with unified service
solutions that inter-link all the required pieces of connectivity,
real-time visibility, collection, synchronization, organization,
dissemination, security and storage to manage a single facility or a
portfolio of facilities. IoT is empowering advanced building systems
to be data driven with data sharing and inter-operable capabilities
such as Web-enabled data visualization that makes it easier to access,
collect and apply relevant information to analyze the performance of
building operational systems. IoT is permitting automated fault
detection and diagnostics (FDD) that detect and report faults and
facilitating the deployment of Automated Demand Response.
Niagara
Today buildings are equipped with a diverse range of
devices and technology to control HVAC, energy management, lighting,
security and other systems. Effective integration and interoperability
between these systems is critical to improve building performance, to
reduce costs, fuel consumption and carbon emissions and to achieve the
security and comfort levels demanded in modern, dynamic business
environments.
The Niagara Framework® enables for the connection,
normalization, integration and interoperability of diverse devices and
equipment into a common environment and supports multiple embedded
platforms— regardless of manufacturer or protocol. Niagara meets the
need for a strategic, general-purpose automation/information
architecture built on open standards; merges multi-vendor automation
systems, Internet-enabled infrastructure and real-time enterprise
integration into one single, scalable, extensible platform solution
and enables the extraction and exchange of data to help manage and
control building operations.
Cyber Security
Today cyber security protection and risk prevention for building
automation systems is a necessity. Building automation networks and IT
networks should not be treated differently when it comes to cyber
security and threat protection. Just like an IT network, building
automation networks should have multiple layers of defence and
protection as well as policies and procedures that are continuously
addressed.
A comprehensive cyber security program includes a defence-in-depth
strategy and leverages industry standards and best practices to
protect systems, devices and the networks they run on and detect
potential problems along with processes to understand current threats
and enable timely response and recovery. Cyber security should be an
integral part of the design of the automation system and the
deployment, not an afterthought.
Project Haystack
The amount of data created by equipment, systems and devices has
exploded in recent years. Today’s automation systems and smart devices
produce tremendous amounts of data to the point where we have expanded
our reach to a range of devices that can gather and analyze physical
data and react to that data in a variety of applications that we’ve
never seen before.
The challenge is to make the data available in the right format
and deliver it to the right person at the right place and time within
a secured environment. This is the basic requirement to create a data
value chain. To realize the full value of data, it must be collected
securely, in a timely manner, standardized in the correct format, made
ready to be used, put in context with operations and events and
presented to the right persons at the right time to enable timely
decision-making.
Since its formation in March of 2011, the Project-Haystack
organization has been filling a critical need in the effective
utilization of smart, connected devices and equipment used in smart
buildings. Project-Haystack provides the industry with an open-source,
collaborative environment where industry experts work together to
address the challenge of utilizing semantic modeling (also known as
tagging) to make data self-describing thereby streamlining the
interchange of data among software applications. The community has
developed and promotes a flexible, extensible, data modeling approach
and standard models for common equipment systems. The standard
includes detailed documentation describing the data modeling
techniques, significant libraries of consensus approved equipment
models, and software reference implementations to easily enable
software applications to consume smart device data that is "marked up"
with Project-Haystack data descriptions.
The work developed by the Project-Haystack community streamlines
the process of managing, presenting and analyzing the vast amount of
data produced by smart devices and equipment systems and the
techniques can be used with virtually any type of system data.
Data Analytics
Data analytics have evolved from just business analytics to
business and operational analytics. Analytics has become a major force
behind how business decisions are being made and for many
organizations; analytics are looked upon as a strategic asset. The
real value of analytics lies in the insights it yields and how
well organizations can translate those insights into tangible benefits
for their business.
Some of the use cases for data analytics include improving the
effectiveness and efficiency of maintenance operation through the
identification equipment faults. Failure faults can cause equipment to
stop operating as intended or even entirely. Then there is automated
monitoring and verification of energy usage and performance.
With the progress made in building control systems and smart
devices in recent years, we can now take advantage of the wealth of
data they contain to truly understand and monitor the operations of
our facilities and equipment systems. Analytics helps us understand
and reduce energy use, highlight operational issues and improve
overall facility operations, resulting in lower costs, greater
occupant satisfaction and improved performance of our assets.
Big Data
Big data has transformed the business landscape, as companies tap
into increasingly broad varieties of structured and unstructured data
with greater speed and sophistication. This data revolution has
enabled companies to drive innovation, discover valuable new insights,
optimize processes, and make better, more informed decisions. And this
goes for our building and facility environment. The effects of big
data and its influence on decision making for building and facilities
management is no exception. Technological advances in monitoring tools
and software allow facility managers access to vast amounts of data
about a building’s energy use. Today, it is about accessing big data
and doing something with it.
Software As A Service SAAS
Building management systems (BMS) provide centralized management
and control systems to maintain the building environment. Over the
past decade these systems have been upgraded to Building Automation
Systems delivering greater environment sensing and connectivity to
networked management capabilities. Now, through SaaS we are pioneering
ways of leveraging BAS/BMS data already being collected to deliver
in-depth analysis and provide actions to improve BAS/BMS efficiency.
