Their Heads In The Cloud: Why Buildings Are Embracing Nonphysical Data Solutions

The way people work continues to evolve, and building management needs to evolve with them. 

Hybrid work models, where employees only come into the office part of the time, have bolstered the need for new, cloud-based smart building initiatives that can enhance operational efficiency from anywhere. In addition, the rise of government regulations and societal pressures for buildings to embrace more sustainable solutions calls for the adoption of smart lighting, better HVAC and energy management, and greater data collection related to environmental, social and governance goals. 

These are the findings of a recent research report from S&P Global and Brivo, a mobile cloud-based access management and smart spaces platform company. The research found that sensor- and cloud-based technologies “may provide enhanced integrations and flexibility to enable smart building deployments.”

Companies and building owners have traditionally relied on physical systems and sensors to manage their building operations, including security, HVAC systems, decarbonization efforts and more. Cloud-based access management, or CBAM, can better streamline these operations and offer more proactive data management. 

They can also be integrated across platforms seamlessly, said Hansel Oh, director of product marketing at Brivo. 

“In general, CBAMs save time and resources for building owners who might have, in the past, needed an extensive technical staff to manage their buildings,” Oh said. “Updates are automatic, systems can be managed remotely and these systems are built on large computing infrastructure to allow buildings to easily scale and expand.”

He added that many modern buildings are now equipped with Internet of Things devices that can track anything from building management and energy consumption to internet security. Implementing CBAM allows buildings to unify these systems and apply artificial intelligence analytical models to collect data and detect potential anomalies and security risks or better understand HVAC and energy management. 

In particular, security-critical industries like oil and gas, manufacturing and retail have benefitted from CBAM systems by monitoring their many locations across the country or even the globe all from one platform. The same is true of companies that may now have employees working remotely away from the central office, he said. 

The problem, Oh said, is that many companies are still relying on outdated systems that do not give them the confidence or data they need to manage their buildings in an increasingly high-tech world. The 2024 report on global security trends found that 40% of respondents lack full confidence in their 2024 security systems, citing disconnected systems, outdated solutions and evolving security perceptions in the AI era.

The good news is more companies are adopting CBAM solutions to prepare for the future. The report found that 49% of oil and gas companies, 47% of transportation and logistics companies, 40% of government agencies, 40% of manufacturing, 37% of automotive and 35% of utility companies surveyed are adopting these systems for remote site management, real-time reporting and monitoring and more. 

Brivo’s facility management software, Brivo Access, can offer access control and video surveillance from one centralized, cloud-based platform. 

“As an open platform enabled by analytics and features to assess risk and protect facilities, Brivo Access is one the most powerful yet flexible cloud-based platforms for security and space management,” Oh said. 

The report also found that these types of systems are particularly well-suited for midsized and large organizations since the more employees an organization has, the more resources it needs to manage its facilities and keep them secure. CBAM solutions can help them save time and money on those resources. 

“By unifying insights and providing analytics to support site-to-site benchmarking and resource allocation across multiple sites or facilities, CBAM can contribute to a holistic view of access across environments,” the report stated. “Cloud-based access management can free up security personnel across sites through automated provisioning and anomaly detection. This central management approach allows security teams to manage, detect and deploy maintenance remotely.” 

Oh said that as organizations continue to embrace CBAM solutions, they will find more opportunities to leverage AI to harness the data from IoT devices to provide deeper insights for companies, building managers, security managers and more. 

“AI will continue to learn as more data becomes available, providing more intelligence to detect threats with the appropriate response,” Oh said. “AI’s role will increase, providing the insights for building managers and security personnel to become more proactive rather than reactive as they have used these systems previously.” 

This article was produced in collaboration between Brivo and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.