Collaborating for the Future of Smart Buildings

Collaborate, so you can innovate

More than one hundred years ago, in 1885, Warren Johnson, a university professor in Wisconsin, invented the first electric room thermostat. The building controls industry was born, and our ability to construct and build vertically was born. Our city skylines today—in some respects, our way of life3have grown from this humble invention and the industry that came out of it.

Not long after that, in 1914, Edwin Booz, a young college graduate led by a passion to help companies overcome challenges by consulting with them and focusing on “people, not products,” gave birth to the modern management consulting profession.

Buildings generate and possess data. They consume almost 40 percent of the energy used in the United States. Today’s buildings are smart, but that’s not enough—they need to be cybersmart. As with many other technological advances driven by human nature, the building controls industry has opened new doors for users—energy management, decreased costs, interoperability and more. But the investments in cybersecure building systems have lagged by comparison.

This must change.

So how do we change an industry? Surely when you have industry credentials and history like Johnson Controls and Booz Allen Hamilton, you have the resources to “go it alone” and attempt to autonomously push an industry forward, but is that the best way to work through this new challenge.

Take two industry leaders, with combined 200-plus years of subject-matter expertise in their fields and tens of thousands of dedicated professionals, and you truly can change mindsets, expand innovation and drive an industry forward. Together, we can deliver cybersmart buildings that exceed owner and operator expectations by breaking down old silos, sharing expertise across domains (e.g., OT and IT) and —together—deliver the vast potential that today’s buildings hold within them.

Click here to read “Cybersmart Buildings: Securing Your Investments in Connectivity and Automation,” a recent white paper from Johnson Controls and Booz Allen Hamilton.

At SIA GovSummit, physical and cybersecurity experts discuss the threat landscape surrounding connected building systems. Check out the full agenda and register at www.securityindustry.org/summit.

Experts from Johnson Controls and Booz Allen Hamilton will discuss “Cybersmart Government Buildings: Securing Investments in Connectivity and Automation” a​t SIA Gov Summit on June 29 at The Liaison in Washington, D.C. For more information and to register for the conference, visit www.securityindustry.org/summit.

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts and/or profiles are those of the authors or sources and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Security Industry Association (SIA).