Smart buildings will become smart cities, and smart cities will change everything. But first, let’s start with our own campus. That’s the philosophy behind a Microsoft project called 88 acres, after the 88 acres of land Microsoft chose for its headquarters in 1986. Microsoft’s campus counts 125 buildings and 41,664 employees. A small team of engineers is using a “Internet of Things meets Big Data” approach to achieve energy savings and other efficiency gains using a data-driven software solution. It works so well, that they are now bringing the software to the rest of the world. And as they write themselves: “commercial buildings consuming an estimated 40 percent of the world’s total energy, the potential is huge.”
The software tracks thousands of building sensors like heaters, air conditioners, fans, and lights, harvesting billions of data points per week. That data provided deep insights and thus allowed more intelligent decision making.
“Give me a little data and I’ll tell you a little, give me a lot of data and I’ll save the world.” Darrell Smith , Director of Facilities and Energy Microsoft
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