IBM has launched its comprehensive smarter buildings offering ‘Intelligent Building Management software’ that applies IBM’s analytics and automation software to make sense of buildings’ data.
The company is showing off the potential of applying its new software in three projects in New Orleans, New York and Minnesota.
With a comprehensive view of energy and facility operations, the software provides insights into the real-time operations of buildings. It also flags potential maintenance issues to improve equipment management and reliability, said the company.
Buildings consume a third of the world’s energy, according to recent reports. It is estimated that by 2025, buildings will become the largest energy consumers, overtaking both transportation and the industrial sectors combined.
Meanwhile the smarter building market is growing. IDC Energy Insights said in a report that the global smart building market is expected to grow to $10.2bn by 2015 from $3.1bn in 2010.
Most smarter buildings have sensors and building control systems which generate constant data on lighting, air conditioning, computer usage, etc. These in turn generate millions of data points to be reviewed and acted upon.
IBM Smarter Buildings vice-president David Bartlett said organisations are struggling to find ways to reduce their buildings’ energy use.
Bartlett said, "IBM sees a tremendous opportunity to help organisations listen to and make sense of a building’s operations by applying a real-time, analytic approach."