Albert M. Putnam, VP Technology Operations, Cimetrics, understands the challenge of managing real-time data collection and monitoring in a large commercial building. Cimetrics was one of the pioneers in automatic analytic and diagnostics applications that detect, compile, analyze and synthesize information about building operational issues. Since the BACnet standard was first published in 1995, it has been deeply involved in BACnet’s ongoing development and promotion. According to a recent press, Cimetrics commands 60% of the global BACnet communications software market today.

In an article for the January 2013 edition of automatedbuildings.com, he explains, “There is a vast amount of data available in a large building—if you were to read one sensor every 15 minutes, you would have 35,000,000 data samples after one year! Some buildings have thousands of sensors and actuators. It is not surprising that, to date, most facility maintenance departments do very little effective analysis of building control system data. Understanding how to extract valuable information from building data requires review of each facility’s points list and building system documentation to determine what data should be collected. Then the building automation server has to be set up to capture all this, while ensuring that the security of customers’ systems and data are maintained. To serve data well means to serve the needs of multiple clients, each with different uses cases.” Read the Cimetric’s article here.