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Hey friends,
The filterable Nexus Labs content library on our website tells me that since 2020, we’ve published 21 podcasts, 16 newsletters, and 10 members-only events on the independent data layer, building operating systems, digital twins, or single “pains” of glass.
What do all these buzzwords topics have in common? They’re all used to describe the technologies at the data layer of the smart buildings stack. They’re all used to bring data from multiple silos together so it can be leveraged in software applications for better outcomes.
They have more in common than separates them, and yet marketers love to create new categories, and then position their products as leaders in that imaginary domain. This creates a lot of confusion in the marketplace, as evidenced by all that content we’ve produced as we’ve tried to understand it for ourselves and make sense of it for all of you.
Despite the confusion, things aren’t slowing down. Even after tracking this category for several years, I’ve learned about two new companies providing the data layer just this week!
As a buyer, you can’t let the confusion prevent progress. The choices you make at the data layer determine the speed, flexibility, costs, maintainability, and extensibility of your smart buildings program. To illustrate, consider a few stories from our conversations with buyers over the last few months.
A private university in the southeastern US decided to build its own data layer using a generic data historian product. Now, the “biggest hole” in making their smart buildings program “continue to work” is finding “an IT person who is really excited about being an OT person” to maintain their in-house data layer.
A mixed-use developer and operator in London wanted software applications for FDD and centralized supervisory control. But instead of buying from separate vendors that specialize in those categories, they bought a data layer provider that can provide both of those categories AND give them extensibility for future use cases. They chose to work with one vendor rather than 2-3, even while acknowledging the potential downfalls of that choice.
A global financial institution wanted to deploy several different software applications that needed data from building systems. They wanted to select one vendor that collected the data and normalized it, BUT they wanted the best of the best in each different application category. They chose the independent data layer provider that enabled them to assemble that “best of the best” stack.
Needless to say, this is an important layer to get right, but we can’t act like there’s one right answer for everyone.
That’s why we’re excited to bring you next week’s webinar, the Buyer’s Guide to the Data Layer.
Here’s the agenda:
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Until next week,
—James Dice, Founder and CEO, Nexus Labs
Hey friends,
The filterable Nexus Labs content library on our website tells me that since 2020, we’ve published 21 podcasts, 16 newsletters, and 10 members-only events on the independent data layer, building operating systems, digital twins, or single “pains” of glass.
What do all these buzzwords topics have in common? They’re all used to describe the technologies at the data layer of the smart buildings stack. They’re all used to bring data from multiple silos together so it can be leveraged in software applications for better outcomes.
They have more in common than separates them, and yet marketers love to create new categories, and then position their products as leaders in that imaginary domain. This creates a lot of confusion in the marketplace, as evidenced by all that content we’ve produced as we’ve tried to understand it for ourselves and make sense of it for all of you.
Despite the confusion, things aren’t slowing down. Even after tracking this category for several years, I’ve learned about two new companies providing the data layer just this week!
As a buyer, you can’t let the confusion prevent progress. The choices you make at the data layer determine the speed, flexibility, costs, maintainability, and extensibility of your smart buildings program. To illustrate, consider a few stories from our conversations with buyers over the last few months.
A private university in the southeastern US decided to build its own data layer using a generic data historian product. Now, the “biggest hole” in making their smart buildings program “continue to work” is finding “an IT person who is really excited about being an OT person” to maintain their in-house data layer.
A mixed-use developer and operator in London wanted software applications for FDD and centralized supervisory control. But instead of buying from separate vendors that specialize in those categories, they bought a data layer provider that can provide both of those categories AND give them extensibility for future use cases. They chose to work with one vendor rather than 2-3, even while acknowledging the potential downfalls of that choice.
A global financial institution wanted to deploy several different software applications that needed data from building systems. They wanted to select one vendor that collected the data and normalized it, BUT they wanted the best of the best in each different application category. They chose the independent data layer provider that enabled them to assemble that “best of the best” stack.
Needless to say, this is an important layer to get right, but we can’t act like there’s one right answer for everyone.
That’s why we’re excited to bring you next week’s webinar, the Buyer’s Guide to the Data Layer.
Here’s the agenda:
Until next week,
—James Dice, Founder and CEO, Nexus Labs
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