Search
Close this search box.

Cloud-Based Facility Operation

We are doing more with less by using Cloud-based anywhere information to amplify your existing building operational resources.

The reality of today’s and tomorrow’s economies is that we will do more with less to manage our buildings effectively. Our saviour is that technology in the form of Cloud-based everything now provides us with a path to improved communications while simplifying the movement of complex building information to the evolving Building Operations Specialist. 

The rapid movement of the building automation industry towards Cloud-based allows us to interweave critical dynamic building information into a presentation anywhere. This allows us to concentrate and amplify our existing building operation resources and operators into virtual operational centres, exposing all critical information to all stakeholders. 

This visible-from-anywhere information allows authorized users to provide the correct input, management and dollar accountability skills to provide excellent comfort/energy performance with total accountability.

A Cloud-based presentation of dynamic building information allows operators to operate from anywhere with full functionality and interact with contractors, equipment suppliers, and consultants to provide valuable feedback and feed-forward information to the building operating equation. Upper management can also participate by having cloud-based bottom-line screens that provide dynamic proof of the success or failure of building performance.

This new concentration and amplification of existing building operational resources and personnel will provide a strong re-focus on the values of sound operating principles. 

This focus will cause management and operations to re-establish communications on what is important and what is required to achieve cost-effective, excellent building operations.

The creation of the new model of data and information and support anywhere provides an excellent opportunity to simplify and increase the ease of access to critical building operations. As the “DDC Revolution” exposed the complex relationship between controls and equipment, the “Cloud Revolution” will reveal our lack of understanding of today’s buildings’ complex cost/comfort/safety issues. This will cause us to economically invest in the need for increased knowledge to operate today’s complex buildings cost-effectively.

The cloud-based presentation of static and dynamic building information on what is required to achieve the best client comfort while maintaining excellent indoor air quality for the least cost per square foot will be an eye-opener for all. As these dynamic models evolve, reflecting the realities of day-to-day building operations, management will be required to re-evaluate the real cost of having less than the best possible operation people; they will conclude that the correct operation team can significantly add to the company’s bottom line by enhancing the art of providing desirable cost-effective buildings.

The new Cloud-based media access and presentation has the power to simplify and teach while greatly aiding the comprehension of building operations. Creating a Cloud presence for each complex allows critical building information to be located in one organized place. Inter-weaving the actual dynamic building information will enable contractors and consultants to understand complex building problems quickly. 

The fact that this information is exposed puts pressure on the building operation staff to achieve excellence. If it becomes evident that existing personnel cannot operate the building effectively, areas of responsibility can be easily shifted to someone who can. Aggressive and talented operators will take on more, and some existing operators will be re-employed as maintainers. 


As the “DDC Revolution” exposed the complex relationship between controls and equipment, the “Cloud Revolution” will reveal our lack of understanding of today’s buildings’ complex cost/comfort/safety issues. This will cause us to economically invest in the need for increased knowledge to operate today’s complex buildings cost-effectively.

Of course, the day-to-day operation of the building remains relatively unchanged. Only the complex operational issues and decisions are separated from day-to-day operations. The operating team would also control day-to-day issues to solve complex operating problems caused by equipment failure. The operating team would determine if equipment problems were best solved by on-site personnel or outside contractors.

The building’s operational website and virtual operational centre seem to be the logical place to control and store equipment maintenance information. An added advantage of control from this point is that maintenance is driven by the necessity to operate the building for the lowest cost per square foot while maintaining an excellent environment.

This includes dialogue and insight into these critical building operational issues:

  • A redefinition of the essential issues; 
  • Cloud-based everything;
  • Establishing accountability networks;
  • Online energy accounting with immediate feedback; 
  • Creating your buildings’ operation cloud;
  • Understanding and utilizing inherited Cloud features;
  • Online training and mentor support to create super-operators;
  • Hiring high performance super- operators;
  • Computerized maintenance is driven by performance;
  • Cloud-based knowledge management systems;
  • Documenting the design variance;
  • Defining success indicators;
  • The advantage of Cloud-based building operations.

A REDEFINITION OF THE ESSENTIAL ISSUES

One of the advantages of moving your complete facility operations to a Cloud-based model is that it is an opportunity for you to provide a full review of the primary facility operation issues while re-establishing critical communication between the management and personnel operating the facility. All unnecessary information and tasks can be eliminated by mutual agreement. Only the fundamental problems need to be created, linked and catalogued on the building cloud. This review, on its own, is of extreme value to most facility operations.

At an after-dinner talk at a BACnet Seminar on October 24, 1996, I concluded my talk with the following summary:

“I predict we will see the separation of the vendors’ involvement in the graphics and data presentation. Either Internet or Intranet type HTML multi-platforms are available anywhere presentation will become the standard. This will allow the data to be easily organized into a common non-proprietary presentation application. We are presently working in this exciting area. Existing vendors must concentrate their traditional hardware data into TCP IP protocol to pass information to a dynamic Internet database.”

“Virtual operating systems will allow control from any browser on the Internet or Intranet. As apparent seamless national and international automation occurs, companies will organize themselves by function, not geographically as they are now. DDC will be expanded into many non-traditional applications. Integration will occur on a non-proprietary level, and vendors will have trouble keeping up with hardware and installation demand for the new breed of system as the number of applications will greatly increase.”

These were bold comments in 1996, but today, Cloud-based presentation of real-time control data is the norm. The part I missed, of course, was that the net on its own would become the de-facto standard for organizing complex building operations, and it would be expected for each building to have its multi-faceted website. IBB

This has been fun. I just changed the word Web to Cloud. And let Grammarly work its magic on this 2002 article.

CoPilot AI rewrite

We are doing more with less by using Cloud-based anywhere information to amplify your existing building operational resources.

The reality of today’s and tomorrow’s economies is that we will do more with less to manage our buildings effectively. Our saviour is that technology in the form of Cloud-based everything now provides us with a path to improved communications while simplifying the movement of complex building information to the evolving Building Operations Specialist.

The rapid movement of the building automation industry towards Cloud-based allows us to interweave critical dynamic building information into a presentation anywhere. This allows us to concentrate and amplify our existing building operation resources and operators into virtual operational centres, exposing all critical information to all stakeholders.

This visible-from-anywhere information allows authorized users to provide the correct input, management and dollar accountability skills to provide excellent comfort/energy performance with total accountability.

A Cloud-based presentation of dynamic building information allows operators to operate from anywhere with full functionality and interact with contractors, equipment suppliers, and consultants to provide valuable feedback and feed-forward information to the building operating equation. Upper management can also participate by having cloud-based bottom-line screens that provide dynamic proof of the success or failure of building performance.

This new concentration and amplification of existing building operational resources and personnel will provide a strong re-focus on the values of sound operating principles.

This focus will cause management and operations to re-establish communications on what is essential and required to achieve cost-effective, excellent building operations.

The creation of a new model of data and information and support anywhere provides an excellent opportunity to simplify and increase the ease of access, analysis and action on building performance data. This will enable us to optimize our buildings for comfort, efficiency and sustainability.

Join our discussion at https://www.mondaylive.org/

LinkedIn
Twitter
Pinterest
Facebook