Past Industry Highlights

2018 Realcomm Conference: 5 Observations

June 2018

Last week I attended the Realcomm Conference in Las Vegas where Realcomm celebrated the conference’s 20th anniversary with over 2,000 attendees from a broad cross-section of real estate professionals from all parts of the globe. The Realcomm organization brings industry leaders together to discuss, demonstrate, and debate the latest innovations impacting the commercial and corporate real estate industry, and does this through their annual conferences, webinars, workshops, CIO Forums and other strategic services.
Having recently returned to the world of IoT after a six-year hiatus, I had a unique opportunity to gauge the industry’s progress over this period with fresh eyes and a new perspective. The conference featured 150 exhibitors providing a wide range of technology solutions in the areas of building automation, data analytics, asset management, business solutions, lighting, wireless communications, and even drones. Here are my top 5 observations:


  1. Cloud computing and its subscription-based business model for software products and services is now the standard offering across the industry.
  2. Wireless communication, both from a cellular and Wi-Fi perspective is the dominant approach to network solutions, particularly for in-building applications.
  3. Wireless sensing and monitoring is carving out new solutions and expanding on what was previously available from established building control and building automation suppliers.
  4. Data analytics software is now a very well-established technology segment because of its proven ability to identify faults, optimize utilities and lower operating costs.  Of the 150 exhibitors, I counted 17 companies offering solutions within this category.  An emerging concept within this segment is the idea of creating a “digital twin” of the physical assets of each building, that combines static information about each asset with real-time data and analytics.
  5. Cyber vulnerability has generated much more attention from the OT (Operational Technology) space and there are now several innovative solutions emerging at the network level to mitigate significant portions of this risk.

Six years ago, accessing data from various types of building control systems and various suppliers was a true challenge for the real estate community. Today, due to the availability of integration frameworks, device drivers and open protocol standards, this problem has been solved. The present and exciting opportunity in front of us is to take advantage of this real time and historical data to further lower our utility bills, minimize the life cycle cost of our mechanical and electrical systems, and operate our facilities more productively.  Using the power of data analytics, wireless sensing and communications, and the limitless scalability of cloud computing, building owners and operators now have the technology enablers needed to achieve such results.


To learn more about the conference and exhibitors, visit https://www.realcomm.com

IoT market expected to exceed $1 Trillion by 2020

May 2018

According to an IDC Forecast, worldwide spending on the Internet of Things will reach $772.8 billion in 2018, growing to $1.1 trillion in 2021.  55% of the spending on IoT projects will be for software and services, with manufacturing, transportation and utilities representing the top 3 industry categories.  Consumer IoT spending will be the fourth largest segment, led by growth in smart home and small appliance products and services. The installed base of IoT devices will surpass 20 billion, almost double what is expected to be in place in 2018.  


Due to this impressive growth, IoT has captured the attention of computing giants Amazon, Microsoft, Google and IBM, all of which offer dedicated IoT solutions for their respective cloud platforms.  But the excitement is also attracting many new entrants particularly in areas such as robotics, autonomous vehicles, and an array of consumer products for the home.


To continue learning about IoT, we recommend this article: https://betanews.com/2018/05/17/3-predictions-for-iot-in-2018/ from IT news provider BetaNews, 3 Predictions for IoT in 2018.