Smart buildings are a rapidly growing sector of the edge computing market. These are connected structures that use automated processes to control the building environment, driving efficiencies and ultimately creating an improved and/or more customized experience for tenants. These technologies have resulted in an explosion of edge devices and data, and Gartner predicts that by 2028 there will be “over four billion intelligently connected IoT devices in commercial smart buildings which CIOs will struggle provisioning, managing, connecting, and analyzing their data. (Gartner, Hype Cycle for Smart City Technologies and Solutions, 2022, Bettina Tratz-Ryan and Bill Finnerty, July 2022.) While challenging, smart buildings also create tremendous opportunity for forward-minded real estate companies looking to digitally transform their own operations.
Switch Automation is a global real estate software company that enables property owners and facility managers to reduce operating costs, improve energy efficiency, and deliver exceptional occupant satisfaction. The company serves customers within several industries, including financial services, retail, commercial real estate, and grocery, among others. Switch provides a comprehensive smart building platform that integrates with traditional building systems as well as Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to analyze, automate, and control assets in real-time.
As Switch planned for the future scale of their platform, they realized they would be challenged by many of the same issues Gartner had highlighted. The company had a growing fleet of connected IoT appliances and struggled to deploy and manage updates for these systems. Limited visibility made it difficult to manage device and application versions, and the lack of a global orchestration solution made it difficult to update systems without delays and impact to service up time, especially as deployments grew.
In order to address these challenges, Switch turned to ZEDEDA to provide a global edge orchestration solution. ZEDEDA provides complete management of the company’s edge devices, including the OS, network, security, and all apps. Switch is able to smoothly deploy devices and applications across their environments, while also ensuring that updates are performed in a timely manner without impact to service delivery. As a result, the company has also been able to reduce the amount of personnel hours spent on these tasks.
“Improving operational management and deployment consistency were the top priorities for us. We had a few hundred IoT appliances connected when we started working with ZEDEDA. Without a fully formed management tool, it was challenging for us to envision scalability for the future. Now with ZEDEDA’s edge management and orchestration solution, we don’t need to worry about limitations.” says Peter Rake, Chief Product Office at Switch Automation.
Read the full case study and learn how the partnership between Switch and ZEDEDA enables them to scale their smart building systems across their customer base while ensuring visibility, security, and ease of use.
