Sending data from equipment, instruments and sensors in a building to cloud servers is an effective way of collecting the data and then performing analytics to monitor and manage the devices and systems to improve effective use, says IBM Smarter Planet Industry Solutions VP David Bartlett.

“There are streams of data from a range of intelligent assets that must be monitored and managed. Using a cloud service is the quickest way to enable our customers to access a smart infrastructure service, which improves operational dexterity and opens new profit opportunities,” he says.

Business infrastructure is an inhibitor to rapid business change and information technology (IT) can used to increase the agility of businesses through effectively managing systems and resources and reducing operational costs.

“We can use a cloud service to improve business infrastructure, which also increases the speed at which we are able to deliver a smart infrastructure management program, also known as platform-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service.”

Making this service available to mobile workers also enables companies to manage maintenance and downtime in real-time. This, in turn, enables companies to reduce transportation costs, save energy and predict use over time for different systems of the infrastructure.

“Visibility [of systems] to enable con- trolled automation should be applied across all physical infrastructure, which will provide a view of the best- and worst- performing portions of the infrastructure and business.”

Visibility and automation of systems through the use of intelligent analytics also removes the human element from infrastructure management, reducing delays and mismanagement. The system can also be used to model and test actions prior to changing the equipment, enabling companies to generate new models of infrastructure management and practices, notes Bartlett.

Phantom loads on devices can be detected and users can do effective energy and water- resource management using the existing devices that companies have.

Data resolution, which is the amount of information received from equipment or systems, can be increased by increasing the parameters measured and the number and range of sensors, while intelligence gained from the data can be increased by analysing data in relation to all other processes, Bartlett explains.

A cloud service also enables the analytics engine to de-duplicate data, reducing the storage space required, and also back up data in real-time for disaster recovery.

Bartlett is a biological scientist and IT engineer by trade and implemented this system in 2010 at IBM’s Minnesota facility, in the US. Energy use was reduced by 22%, while time taken to repair equipment was reduced by 34%, and calls to building management services was reduced by 16%.

“We also fixed problems before equip- ment broke. We could ask ‘what-if’ questions to establish where we could reduce energy use and use the data and intelligence gathered from the analyses to determine operating rules for different systems and equipment pieces.”

He highlights that there is significant potential for companies to use existing data from equipment to start smart infra- structure management immediately, without installing additional sensors.

The world’s population is more than 7-billion and buildings use about 40% of electricity produced and about 50% of water. This makes the IT arms of companies instrumental in operations, facility management, maintenance and using resources more efficiently, concludes Bartlett.