How Smart Buildings can Earn You Profits
Tech majors believe that advanced software can let managers know if their buildings and the systems inside are operating at maximum performance and profitability. IBM plans to work with Tridium to develop new solutions that will allow companies to maximize efficiency of their new and existing buildings while keeping an eye on profits.
Tridium, part of Honeywell’s Automation and Control Solutions group, is a global provider of software and embedded hardware that allows for integration and control of the devices, systems and networks found in commercial buildings and retail structures.
Tridium’s Niagara and Sedona software enable the integration and control of virtually every system and device in any facility from HVAC equipment, lighting and generators to gas pumps, ovens, and medical devices.
The companies plan to integrate IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Energy Management and IBM Maximo Asset Management enterprise software with Niagara and Sedona to create secure, Internet-enabled networks.
The idea is to ensure new levels of energy management, integrate thousands of disparate systems and devices, and analyze vast streams of real-time data.
Applying IBM’s software will let managers know if their buildings and the systems inside are operating at maximum performance and profitability, a major concern in many industries, including retail, says IBM.
For example, instead of a convenience store’s failed refrigeration unit or broken coffee machine going unnoticed, the systems planned by IBM and Tridium will automatically generate work orders and dispatch repairmen to the scene before the store manager is even aware the ice cream is melting or the java has stopped flowing.
Tridium technology supports hundreds of key protocols and networks used by the providers of building-automation systems — including open-standards-based software, cellular networks and Internet Protocols.
These protocols allow different physical objects to communicate to each other, often called “the Internet of Things.”
IBM, a member of the Internet Protocol for Smart Objects (IPSO) Alliance, works to build interconnected infrastructures from smarter buildings, cities, utilities, offices, transportation systems and operations in every industry.
