Smart Buildings Need Smart Networks
By Chris Dyke, Sales Director UK & Ireland, Allied Telesis.
Today’s buildings can do more for us than ever before, and they should. By improving satisfaction for tenants or employees, smart buildings can increase staff retention and maximise occupancy, helping ensure ROI for landlords. Add the role that smart buildings play in the reduction of greenhouse emissions, and the case for them is strong.
According to Gartner, IoT expenditures in smart buildings were $53 Billion in 2020 and are expected to reach $108 Billion by 2030. So, it’s worth taking a look at the drivers behind the development of smart buildings and recognising that there is a common denominator that underpins them all, which is that smart buildings need smart networks.
Flexibility, Comfort & Landlord ROI
In a smart building, occupancy patterns allow for smart comfort levels in both open spaces and meeting rooms, and this can be extended to individual preferences by making adjustments before meetings start or at a simpler level controlling temperature in meeting rooms only when they are booked and occupied. This extends to lighting level and fast start meeting rooms.
Flexibility to allow changes, the ability to accommodate personal preferences and to monitor for individual health and workplace security are reasons why tenants remain for longer. According to research, renters are willing to pay 20% more on average to live in a smart building. Energy efficient buildings also sell for 17% more than standard building stock, generate 35% more rental income, and have 18% higher occupancy rates. But smart buildings don’t have to be created from scratch. Retrofitting existing buildings increase return on investment with payback taking less than two years and delivering 25% energy savings annually.
A Converged Network Should Be A Smarter Network
Blurring of the line between Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) has been happening for many years. In telephony, IP has been the norm for 15 years and during this time other technologies have been repackaged as IP applications and moved from the facilities department to IT; with electronic security in the form of CCTV and access control soon following telephony’s lead. The smartest buildings run a centralised Building Management System (BMS) made up of IT and OT over a single converged IP network. A BMS on a converged IP network further interlinks Facilities Management and Property Management and enables instant notifications about issues which reduce downtime.
John Dente, Technical Director at ExcelRedstone, a pioneer in smart building integration, comments that: “The benefits of data flowing across a converged network are that it can easily be presented to a single pane of glass dashboard, allowing intelligent rule-based changes to a building’s settings as well as allowing predictive maintenance decisions to be made from real-world live data. This has a major benefit in smart enabled buildings as integrations between systems are predominately made at the network level.”
Security Is The Priority
The danger for OT equipment relying on IT is that they can become more easily exposed to security breaches. IT, however, is experienced in keeping its network safe, which is another way that the convergence of OT and IT allows for better use of resources while delivering a single IP network that is well protected and is accessible to all building and business systems. The best converged IP networks for smart buildings also enable a network security system that watches for unusual activity such as repeated failed user logins, user logins at unusual terminals or devices, unusual user movements, data leaks, and unusual network activity. AMF-Sec can isolate the resources in real-time, giving IT or management time to investigate and remediate.
The intelligent services that make a building smart, such as layout and user flexibility, access control, heating and lighting, security, and more, require 24/7 connectivity to the BMS to ensure operational efficiency and provide the best possible user experience. A converged data network that delivers a wealth of information reliably from the many end devices and systems to the BMS is essential for optimal building performance. Look for a network partner experienced in providing secure resilient, always-on networks that underpin smart building operations.
Click the article to enlarge it.
