Lynxspring Technology Blog

The amount of data created by equipment, systems and devices has exploded in recent years. As this data velocity has risen, companies must be able to get the right data, understand it and help solve specific problems and address specific issues.

The data, however, can be very hard to organize and use across different applications because it is stored in many different formats, has inconsistent naming conventions and very limited data descriptors. Data lacks information to describe what it means. Without meaning, a time-consuming manual effort is required before analysis and value-creation of the data can begin. Without proper analytics, this data is not useful. Many companies struggle with data, despite their best efforts, because data is very hard to organize and use across different applications.

The smart buildings technology market is expected to grow rapidly with the global building automation and control systems market expected to be worth over US$26 billion by 2019, according to the latest published report from World Market Intelligence’s 2015 World Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS) study.

So what’s driving this growth?

When it comes to building automation and management systems, while they were once separate, they are now firmly integrated within a company’s network infrastructure and should not be treated differently when it comes to cyber security and threat protection. Just like an IT network, building automation networks should have a strategy, multiple layers of defense and protection as well as policies and procedures that are continuously addressed.

Lynxspring has been at the forefront of cyber security for today's commercial building automation systems with LYNX CyberPRO™ and an industry educational leader on the subject.

The Internet of Things has finally arrived. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, it shows that 96% of the global business leaders surveyed expect their businesses to be using IoT in one form or another by 2016.

In a previous article titled, “I’ll have IoT with That Please”, I wrote about how there was a lot of discussion on what IoT means and how it impacts and relates to the world of commercial real estate and buildings. Back then I said that IoT is an important aspect to the overall ecosystem within commercial real estate and has and will continue to play a key role in how we interact, collaborate, operate, manage and “smarten up” our buildings. IoT is emerging as the third wave in the evolution of intelligent buildings.

Building Automation Cyber Risks It’s not about numbers; it is a business issue.

As business people we hate spending money on things that don’t help our businesses operate better and more efficiently, perform at maximum levels or improve the products and services we deliver to the market. And yes, we know there are necessary expenses in business that require funding. The thought of spending money on things that are only used in a worst-case scenario and risk management are not attractive options when it comes to the allocation of our important resources---funds. They are however, a must. So what do we do? We look at things such as what is the payoff going to be. Are there risks? What are the risks and where do they exist? How likely is our business and operations going to be affected? What is the potential impact? These are questions that need to be answered. The bottom line, we want a solid business case as to why the risk or reward to the business warrants the expenditure.