The Smart Buildings Challenge gives smart building technology suppliers the flexibility to collaborate with their customers to create more targeted, outcome-based solutions. Our goal is to help overcome existing technology barriers to address the high volume of untapped opportunities in the market.
It’s happening again; this time, we’re obsessing over all things “smart.” At first, there were just smartphones. Then came smart watches, smart homes, smart grids, smart switches and smart cities. At some point, the term “smart” became diluted as marketers started applying it to more and more solutions. It’s time to stop and ask: What do we really mean by “smart”? Hidden in that definition is the need for connectivity and the ability to inform the user in order to guide decisions.
The building construction industry touches every part of our lives – from our homes, schools and workplaces, to our community spaces and general infrastructure.According to IFMA, one in every three buildings is more than 50 years old. More than 70% of buildings are 20 years old, or older! It is safe to assume that these existing buildings overall are not “smart” and accessing information about any aspect of them is difficult and in many cases, cost prohibitive.
For commercial building owners and operators looking to find ways to become more energy efficient, identifying your biggest energy offender is a great place to start. According to a study published by the Department of Energy, on average 40% of energy costs in commercial buildings go to HVAC. With this in mind, finding the right HVAC controls solution is crucial to helping commercial buildings manage energy spend.
Each generation of Wi-Fi arrives like the tide, slowly building up, not arriving all at once, but unstoppable nevertheless. Cisco has been preparing for Wi-Fi 6 for some time now. The standard is finalized. 802.11ax (aka Wi-Fi 6) certification of radios, access points, and controllers is underway. Manufacturers are busy incorporating Wi-Fi 6 chipsets into their new products.Whether your organization is expanding with new buildings, adding employees, or moving to cloud services, upgrading to Wi-Fi 6 will provide many immediate benefits and prepare for future growth.
According to the World Economic Forum, cyberattacks are one of the top 10 global risks of highest concern in the next decade with an estimated price tag of $90 trillion if cyber-security efforts do not keep pace with technological change. The next victim of cyberattacks could be buildings. Digitising buildings is a major trend, but it comes with new security issues, according to Frost & Sullivan’s IT/OT Security Convergence for Building Technologies report.
Technology can’t be an afterthought for new builds. Here’s how architects and developers can ensure that their new builds are intelligent from the outset.
ABB Electrification has launched an interactive ‘Smart City’ tool that shows some of the safe, smart and sustainable solutions that can contribute to the design of a comprehensive ‘smart city’. The Smart City tool breaks down the collective technical elements of smart buildings, e-mobility, energy management and data centers, all of which can contribute to the design of a comprehensive ‘smart city’.
In a mere four years, more than one billion users will rely on 5G. The emerging fifth-generation broadband network promises speeds at least seven times faster than the average 4G LTE browsing experience. While the average 4G browsing speeds run at an average of 56 Mbps, 5G would bump speeds up to 490 Mbps. That increased speed and powerful connection means big things for businesses seeking to pull off competitive digital transformations. But a broader, faster network also brings greater risk. Cybercriminals are always on the lookout for new, sophisticated ways to attack, so they’ll naturally take advantage of 5G’s promise.
New solutions deliver IoT innovations from cloud to edge. Microsoft’s new capabilities simplify the customer journey and deliver highly secured IoT solutions. IoT Central is a fully managed app platform that provides solution builders with built-in security, scale and extensibility needed to develop enterprise-grade IoT solutions.
