The demand for smart building management systems is growing steadily, and the Internet of Things now makes it possible to create a digital twin, which represents building spaces and work spaces in the virtual world. Companies are investing heavily in modern, attractive work environments and in flexible concepts for new ways of working to motivate their employees and ensure high productivity and improve efficiency in their management practices.
The use of EnOcean based maintenance free wireless sensors data can be provided in real time via an IoT gateway to an IoT cloud platform where the data is analysed, whilst a dashboard visualises the results for decision-makers.
Commenting on the announcement, Thomas Frahler, Business Lead Internet of Things at Microsoft Germany said: “As a member of the EnOcean Alliance, we encourage innovation and standardisation in intelligent building control. We are empowering businesses to adapt digital technologies quickly and build their own digital competencies to offer new services to their customers by sharing our expertise as a technology leader, sharing experiences of our own transformation journey and providing advanced platforms and tools. With our comprehensive IoT Platform we are simplifying the entry for companies into the Internet of Things, regardless where they currently are at and independent of cloud, software or devices.”
"IoT brings us huge opportunities. To do this in buildings we need to digitalise building spaces to provide the necessary data required as well as powerful AI analytic and representation tools. I see this therefore as a perfect marriage with EnOcean wireless and maintenance free interoperable sensors from multi-vendors providing the necessary data and Microsoft offering the perfect platform solutions to analyse and optimise buildings. With Microsoft’s long-standing expertise in cloud-based services and IoT, we have gained a very strong partner in the ecosystem. We are looking forward to a successful cooperation to build the future of IoT," added Graham Martin, Chairman and CEO of the EnOcean Alliance.
The EnOcean Alliance offers the benefit of a broad, proven ecosystem of 5.000 interoperable multi-vendor sensors and actuators for intelligent buildings, widely proven in over 1.000.000 buildings worldwide. Easy to install and maintenance free, these solutions look to optimise the utilisation of buildings, create new service models and make buildings more flexible, more energy-efficient and altogether more cost-effective.
Microsoft's Azure Digital Twins enables comprehensive models of the physical environment and its relationship with interaction between people, places and devices. First proof of concepts are currently in progress – for example as demonstrated at the ISH 2019 Expo in Frankfurt in March with partners Microsoft, Steelcase and T-Systems.
The EnOcean Alliance, which has more than 400 members worldwide, is a non-profit organisation that is standardising and developing intelligent building solutions with integrated energy harvesting wireless technology. It brings together representatives of leading international solution providers in the areas of building automation, the smart home and the Internet of Things (IoT), including BSC Computer, Digital Concepts, Eltako, EnOcean, Honeywell, IBM, Vertuoz by Engie and Vicos.