This roadmap and productization for the smart buildings market segment is just the beginning of Dell’s service offerings. Look for more to come on IoT and building automation in the future! (Source: AutomatedBuildings: July, 2014 Edition)

Dell is introducing new research on smart buildings and will join Intel to discuss its findings at the Intelligent Buildings Conference (IBcon) in Las Vegas today. Enabling building automation is a key element of Dell’s strategy of supporting customers around the world and across various industries in realizing their vision for the Internet of Things (IoT). Dell and Intel are helping architects and organizations imagine the next generation of integrated, open-architected, IP-centric, connected, high-performance, sustainable, energy-efficient, operationally efficient, and intelligent buildings.

Dell is taking its IoT focus a step further by collaborating with others in the industry (including Intel) to help architects and IT organizations capitalize on these transformative technology approaches for smart buildings and the Internet of Things. In a Dell white paper made available today, Dell outlines its recommendations for organizations interested in the smart building trend:

1. Define Organization’s As-Is and To-Be state: Take stock in the current systems and subsystems in a centralized list. Use a Maturity Matrix as an engagement method to assess where the organization is, and how to get to where it wants to be. Focus first on the business outcome or user experience that the organization wants to create.

2. Technology and Project Timeline: Outline the desired outcome, time requirements, and standard building blocks required to achieve your desired business case objectives and end result. This fosters discussions that determine business relevance and return on investment (ROI).

3. Open Reference Architecture: Utilize a non-proprietary, open reference architecture system that takes into account the existing infrastructure, as well as the types of connected systems the organization wants to create.

4. Industrialization: Architect an industrial environment and provide a Software Development Kit (SDK) for the architecture, so teams can develop software across disparate systems. A great reference point to develop an SDK is to break the systems up along the lines of automation and analyze the data,