The Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA) held its conference in San Diego at the end of last month at the Handlery Hotel and Resort in San Diego. About 185 executives came out to discuss the real estate market, and some of the key issues facing them when it comes to new strategies like supporting the Internet of Things (IoT) for attracting and maintaining corporate tenants in commercial buildings and cybersecurity. There was also a track of sessions on the evolution of digital homes and their focus on energy management.

There were many companies represented at the event from CISCO, Honeywell, IBM, Intel, Frost & Sullivan, IBM, Realcomm, and Siemon to other national and international real estate and electronics companies like CBRE, Cadillac-Fairview, JJL General Electric, and others.

There was a morning keynote panel discussion on Intelligent Infrastructure and Cybersecurity moderated by Roberta Gamble of Frost & Sullivan. The panel discussed some of the issues facing real estate property owners who need to insure their buildings are not being overrun by hackers or other malicious intrusions. Cybersecurity has become a major issue for building owners as well as those maintaining corporate facilities.

With more companies installing sensors, cameras and other digital devices driven by software and servers, the concern of outsiders hacking into building systems is growing.

As I pointed out on the panel, Much of the efforts done so far in cybersecurity are nothing more than building an ineffective Maginot Line for cyber-defenses.

Most of the panel and audience agreed. We need to strengthen what we have in place.

How it all started

Another panel discussed the evolution of Intelligent Buildings from the 1980s to today’s clusters of Intelligent Business Campuses waiting for upgrades to support initiative of the IoT.

Here is a basic timeline for the evolution of stand-alone, intelligent buildings into intelligent business campuses of today:

1984–1986: Initial concept, initial buildings—The initial idea of new, intelligent amenities versus traditional building amenities to attract a higher-caliber of client. Shared tenant services, early building energy management systems (computerized versus manual controls), initial network infrastructure becoming building owners' responsibilities. The Intelligent Buildings Institute (IBI) in Washington, D.C., came up with some basic definitions. Most of the momentum dropped off when the real estate industry skidded to a slowdown in 1989 through the early 1990s.

(Note: I wrote several papers focusing on the difference between traditional building amenities and new intelligent amenities like computer and telecommunication services as well as concept of comparing buildings in a whitepaper, “Measuring a Building’s IQ” in Real Estate Review in 1985.)

In 1988, Johnson Controls came out with “The Intelligent Building Sourcebook,” published by Prentice-Hall. In this book, I wrote a chapter on “Measuring a Building’s IQ.” The idea of comparing buildings based on their intelligent amenities started over three decades ago when, working with JMB Realty, I designed a building test that measured three areas: information systems, telecommunication systems and building automation systems. I compared six commercial buildings in the downtown Seattle area. This was the first endeavor at comparing intelligent amenities between commercial buildings in a major metropolitan area.

1990s—Some progress in the area of building infrastructure, but other concepts were not really adopted or refined by majority of the real estate industry. The integration of cabling systems grew and a 1999 Initiative in Taiwan started a resurgence (development of intelligent industrial parks (IIPs)).

Fiber optics started to play a larger role in network infrastructure and mission-critical networks.

One of the big breakthroughs was the design of the Chicago 911 center where we demanded that trunks to the two supporting central offices were to be fiber optics and not copper. We also connected 80 police and fire buildings with fiber on a 176-mile network across the city. At that time (1995), no other entity except for a network carrier had so many miles of fiber in the ground for a communications network.

2000s: More adoption, more sophistication, more integration—Evolution to multiple intelligent buildings and campuses occurred, not just single, stand-alone buildings. Clusters of buildings in intelligent business campuses (IBCs) in the United States, more IIPs in Asia (Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, Korea), and use of redundant broadband connectivity (fiber optics, multiple network carriers) .

2010s: Continuing clusters of buildings, more IBCs and IIPs (commercial) across most continents—The new impact of smartphones as the new "edge technology" was being adopted across many areas. Single venue developments for smartphones (NFL stadiums, ball parks), to multivenue intelligent retail/entertainment/convention center (IREC) complex and the new concept of an area covered electronically (the "virtual resort") where multivenue area is developed for impact on regional economic development (cross-marketing of retail, other venues, e-Coupons, e-Discounts, customer demographics (Big Data), increased sales taxes for municipality.

As we move forward, the impact of the growth in devices and sensors in buildings will demand more expertise in electrical contractors and system integrators to ensure all of these systems work flawlessly in a compatible environment.