{"id":9384,"date":"2017-09-20T05:07:58","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T13:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/09\/20\/news-3157\/"},"modified":"2017-09-20T05:07:58","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T13:07:58","slug":"news-3157","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/09\/20\/news-3157\/","title":{"rendered":"The digital hub of your building: EcoXpert, BMS and IoT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Martin Feder| Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2017 11:44:11 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the center of connectivity<\/h4>\n

\"BMS <\/p>\n

The role of the building management system<\/a> (BMS) has changed several times. Today the BMS takes center stage again. Yet, this time the place of the BMS as the digital hub and center of connectivity of a building is highly transformational. One of the game-changers is the Internet of Things (IoT)<\/a>. Another is the role of an EcoXpert partner. The results for building owners and for BMS EcoXperts\u00a0partners<\/a> are profound and lasting.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go back a little bit in time to understand the current and future developments that change the face of building management. Before the advent of IP, BMS were typically twisted pair cable systems with relative slow technologies such as Open Protocol Connectivity (OPC) to connect one system to another and share data.<\/p>\n

We still see today that, especially in upgrading projects, there is a de facto need for OPC integration into older systems. Since IT, IP and, more recently, IoT started dominating the BMS space and the amount of data involved is dramatically increasing, it seems<\/span> a bit weird if you compare the 19.2 kilobits baud rates of over a decade ago with today\u2019s 100BASE-T megabits, over a Cat 5 or Cat 6e cable. This is especially so if we see how IoT further increases data volumes and, more importantly, the crucial role of understanding and acting upon all this data as building owners expect.<\/p>\n

The days that IT defined building design criteria are over<\/strong><\/h4>\n

IP made the standards and market shift towards the Internet. BACnet IP<\/a>, LON\/IP and KNX<\/a> have become global standards with BACnet\/IP almost the de facto standard for BMS with many providers nowadays offering IP BACnet controllers. With IP, Internet connectivity and the entering of IT in the market, we went through a period whereby the IT system defined the criteria for the design of the building.<\/p>\n

Those days are over and gone. For a few years the awareness that the BMS is the integrated digital hub of the building instead of the IT system has grown. And it\u2019s only the beginning. Data and data analytics, strengthened by the increasing use of IoT in building management and building automation<\/a>, play a key role in this equation.<\/p>\n

In an interview on the impact of IoT on building management<\/a>, I explained how we are at the verge of IP and IoT moving beyond the enterprise and management level to the field level and the edge whereby hyper-connectedness and autonomous decisions drive us further on the road of data, analytics and even cognitive technologies.<\/p>\n

The building management system as the integration center \u2013 the role of the EcoXpert<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"BMS<\/a>These evolutions are happening at all levels of the building, beyond the BMS as we\u2019ve known it. That\u2019s why our BMS EcoXpert partners<\/a> need to understand what happens across the building overall and why the BMS becomes the integration center of connectivity to other building systems: power<\/a>, lighting<\/a>, energy, lifts, acoustic systems in hospitals, the list is long.<\/p>\n

IP, IoT and other technologies are enablers and driving forces in these shifts in the BMS and all systems it connects with. However, the main factors putting the BMS in the center again are the importance of energy, green buildings<\/a>, all the standards and the regulations.<\/p>\n

We see that the knowledge of our BMS EcoXperts grows in terms of the expansion of their value to business instead of only installing BMS controllers and programming BMS systems. They are coming into a situation whereby they are also able to install their own networks and own the whole BMS infrastructure. With our Schneider Electric network connectivity<\/a> division, we can support them on all levels of these evolutions<\/span> and assist them in delivering more in terms of full building infrastructure, rather than the BMS alone.<\/p>\n

What building owners want from their BMS: EcoXpert partners know how to deliver it<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Another driving factor are the expectations of building owners who want speed, a central view on all building data and insights and BMS partners who can offer them an end-to-end view.<\/p>\n