International. Johnson Controls and Microsoft Corp. recently announced a global collaboration to digitally transform the way buildings and spaces are conceived, constructed and managed. Microsoft also announced the general availability of Microsoft Azure Digital Twins.
As a key Azure Digital Twins partner, Johnson Controls' OpenBlue Digital Twin is a comprehensive platform that will support the entire ecosystem of building and device management technologies with digital cloud technologies.
Johnson Controls is a Microsoft partner that leverages several Azure services, including Active Directory Services, Azure Data Lake, Access Control, and Time Series Insights. Microsoft's Azure Digital Twins is the latest service of the Azure platform, integrated into Johnson Controls' OpenBlue platform that aims to enable the creation of next-generation connected IoT solutions that will model the real world. Johnson Controls' platform turns the physical world into computable objects that will allow customers to create detailed digital versions of buildings, goods and physical systems.
Digital twins are digital replicas of physical entities capable of providing deep data analysis and the ability to monitor systems to mitigate risks, manage problems, and use simulations to test future solutions. The use of digital twins plays an important role in helping technicians identify the root cause of problems, thus accelerating their solution. In addition, building managers can support COVID-19 safety protocols, while ensuring the efficient use of energy and other facilities resources.
Azure Digital Twins enables the creation of knowledge graphs based on digital models of entire environments, whether buildings, factories, farms, power networks, railways, stadiums, or entire cities. These digital models provide property managers with actionable insights that enable better products, optimize operations, reduce costs, and create innovative customer experiences.
OpenBlue Digital Twin is a unique platform created with smart buildings and spaces in mind, which allows and unifies all aspects related to a smart building: security, employee experience, facilities management, sustainability, among others. The open system of the platform integrates perfectly with the existing building infrastructure, regardless of manufacturer, make or model.
"Our partnership with Microsoft is an essential ingredient in our innovation strategy, as the company shares our vision of using technology to transform the environments in which people live, work, learn and have fun," said Mike Ellis, vice president & chief digital and customer officer at Johnson Controls. "Digital twins are playing an increasingly important role in the design, construction and ongoing operation of healthy buildings and spaces and can be especially valuable when it comes to analyzing large data sets and predicting patterns and trends to tell our customers things they don't yet know. Our
OpenBlue digital platform, closely related to Microsoft's workplace platform and technologies, represents an unbeatable opportunity to help our customers make shared spaces safer, more agile and more sustainable."
"We have an incredible opportunity to leverage cloud advancements and computing capabilities to help customers reimagine the physical world," said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Cloud + AI at Microsoft. "By integrating the power of Azure Digital Twins with Johnson Controls' OpenBlue Digital Twin platform, our collaboration will provide customers with a digital replica and actionable insights to better meet their changing needs."
Among the numerous pilot projects currently being developed, there is an ambitious initiative at the National University of Singapore (NUS). As part of the university's ongoing efforts to create a smart, safe and sustainable campus for students and staff, the complementary products and services of the new alliance are coming together to test the foundations of an operations platform that works with Digital Twins. The data-driven platform will enable integrated management of buildings across the campus and serve as the foundation for energy and space optimization, predictive maintenance, and off-site operations.
"The National University of Singapore (NUS) is excited about using Microsoft's Azure Digital Twins technology and Johnson Controls' OpenBlue platform in our digital transformation journey that changes the way we design and manage our buildings and infrastructure, while keeping the principles of intelligence, sustainability and security at the core of the entire campus." said Professor Yong Kwet Yew, Senior Vice President (Campus Infrastructure) at NUS.
Working with Microsoft, Johnson Controls will address how people can get back to work by maximizing space and managing facilities safely, including:
- Energy optimization: optimize the use of energy in the maintenance of facilities with the aim of reducing carbon emissions, which saves money and supports sustainability efforts.
- Access control and security: Monitor physical access and security using live video analysis and spatial intelligence, combining Microsoft cloud services and Johnson Controls security access controls hardware terminals.
- Collaboration for facility managers: Integrate facilities management workflows with collaboration platforms for workplaces such as Office 365 and Microsoft Teams to increase productivity and collaboration between remote teams.
- Workspace optimization: maximizing the use of spaces by combining building and occupancy data with experiences in order to generate practical knowledge for facility managers and occupants.
Johnson Controls' OpenBlue platform, launched in July 2020, was designed with agility, flexibility and scalability in mind to enable buildings to become dynamic spaces. By leveraging the platform, customers will be able to manage operations more systematically, offering buildings that have memory, intelligence and unique identity.
