IoT, AI, machine learning, and other Azure technologies can help building owners, operators, and occupants save money and live better lives.
Smart buildings can heat and cool themselves, sending energy to the right places at the right times. They can even greet visitors and help them find their way. Predictive maintenance can help building operators know when something is likely to need attention.
Machine learning, Azure IoT Edge, and other technologies can help create safe indoor environments during challenging times. And solar-powered IoT devices combined with Azure services can provide clean, low-cost power, light, and internet service to remote customers.
Watch this short video to get a sense of some of the things smart buildings can do:
Architectures for facilities and real estate
The following articles provide detailed analysis of architectures created and recommended for the facilities and real-estate industries.
| Architecture | Summary | Technology focus |
|---|---|---|
| Azure IoT reference architecture | Learn about a recommended architecture for IoT applications that use Azure platform as a service (PaaS) components. Apply this architecture to smart buildings and other facilities scenarios. | IoT |
| Buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) | Learn how to use Azure IoT to enhance a solution for stores that implement buy online, pick up in store solutions. | IoT |
| Cognizant Safe Buildings with IoT and Azure | Deploy Cognizant Safe Buildings, IoT, and Azure services to help protect buildings from COVID-19 outbreaks. | IoT |
| Connected factory signal pipeline | Learn about the connected factory signal pipeline architecture, which provides a common configuration interface to connect brownfield IoT devices through an OPC Unified Architecture (UA) gateway. Apply this architecture to predictive maintenance scenarios and other scenarios that are related to facilities and real estate. | IoT |
| COVID-19 safe solutions with IoT Edge | Create an environment that monitors social distance, mask/PPE use, and occupancy requirements by using CCTVs and Azure IoT Edge, Azure Stream Analytics, and Azure Machine Learning. | Containers |
| Create smart places by using Azure Digital Twins | Use Azure Digital Twins to create models of smart places from IoT device data. View and control products, systems, environments, and experiences. | IoT |
| Digital image-based modeling on Azure | Learn how to perform image-based modeling on Azure infrastructure as a service (IaaS). You can use this technology to model and measure buildings. | Compute |
| Facilities management powered by mixed reality and IoT | Improve uptime and operations with mixed reality and IoT. Visualize a virtual replica of your physical space with real-time data in the context of your environment. | Mixed reality |
| IoT connected light, power, and internet for emerging markets | View an architecture that uses solar-powered IoT devices with Azure services to provide clean, low-cost power, light, and internet service to remote customers. | IoT |
| IoT device connectivity for healthcare facilities | Learn how to reliably connect building and campus IoT devices to the cloud with improved security and scalability. | Networking |
| IoT measure and control loops | Learn how an IoT measure and control loop keeps an IoT device within the tolerable range of setpoint configuration. This technology applies to smoke sensors, thermostats, and solar panels. | IoT |
| IoT monitor and manage loops | Learn about an IoT monitor and manage loop—a supervisory system that continually monitors a physical system that’s controlled by a set of networked IoT devices. This technology applies to smart campuses and smart metering. | IoT |
| UVEN smart and secure disinfection and lighting | Learn about a system that uses IoT and Azure Sphere to provide smart virus disinfection and healthy, human-optimized lighting. | IoT |
Solution ideas for facilities and real estate
The following are other ideas that you can use as a starting point for your facilities and real estate solution.
