Open standard data: unlock your data’s full potential

It’s now well understood that data holds the key to transforming organisations’ productivity, efficiency, sustainability and flexibility.

Helping IT and OT speak the same language

Connecting Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) systems so data can flow freely enables an enterprise to analyze and optimize its entire ecosystem.

But not all data is created equal.

Raw data with no context can be of little value for training machine learning models until it is labeled with additional identifying information, for example.

And data must also be understandable; in an increasingly connected world, the challenge isn’t always generating data but getting all IT and OT to speak the same language.

That’s a particular challenge with OT data when an organization has grown organically, with hardware and software being added over time that don’t share a common language.

This prevents seamless data exchange, hampering opportunities to optimize operations.

Keeping an open mind

It’s a key issue that relies on technology providers using open standards for their data to create smarter solutions and then having the technology stack to bring systems together.

Open standard data is created in a format that can be accessed, used, and shared by different systems and users.

Using open standard data ensures that devices and systems from different vendors can communicate and exchange data seamlessly.

That transparency gives organizations complete oversight of their operations so they can identify opportunities to innovate and create efficiencies and spot potential security vulnerabilities.

It also means that organizations aren’t reliant on a single vendor when they invest in new systems or machinery and can shop around for the best solutions, which can lead to significant cost savings.

Andrew Smyth, Head of Sustainability for Smart Infrastructure Buildings at Siemens UK & Ireland, explained, “If you think of an office building, you often have huge volumes of disparate tech from different suppliers that will all be sharing data that can’t be understood by each other.

“But if we can get the CCTV linked to the motion sensors, the HVAC, and the lighting, then we have a great opportunity to achieve huge energy efficiency savings by only using energy where it’s needed in a building.”

If you think of an office building, you often have huge volumes of disparate tech from different suppliers that will all be sharing data that can’t be understood by each other. But if we can get the CCTV linked to the motion sensors, the HVAC, and the lighting, then we have a great opportunity to achieve huge energy efficiency savings by only using energy where it’s needed in a building.

A. Smyth, Head of Sustainability for SI Buildings

Integrated and actionable

Microsoft and Siemens are tackling this challenge by making their smart building platforms - Microsoft’s Azure IoT Operations and Siemens’ Building X - interoperable.

“This collaboration is a significant step forward in making IoT data more actionable,” said Erich Barnstedt, Senior Director & Architect, Corporate Standards Group, Microsoft.

The collaboration will help building managers to cut the effort required to connect and integrate all the various devices in a building by up to 80%.

Andrew Smyth continued, “We’re using open standards, which means this isn’t some closed system. It can work with many different vendors and devices.

“The collaboration ultimately allows building managers to monitor and improve energy efficiency, air quality, and space usage much more easily and to get real-time updates on how everything’s performing.

“That helps them spot ways on how to save money and reduce carbon.”

A blurry image of a person's face with a blue background.

Simply, using open standards puts data to work in a way that is impossible if it is trapped in siloed systems, making the most of your most valuable resource.

So, it makes sense that open standard data should be the first choice for all operational technology suppliers.

This is a key philosophy behind Siemens Xcelerator, the open business digital platform that brings together a portfolio of hardware and software solutions in an ecosystem that leverages open standards to facilitate easier, faster, and scalable digital transformation.

It means that businesses, collaborators, and customers can work together without any restrictions.

And it is expanding the possibilities of what smart buildings can do around the world.

Like Ankara City Hospital in Turkey, which uses a single management platform to monitor and control 22 subsystems from energy supply to fire protection, HVAC, lighting, access control, and CCTV, enabling critical infrastructure to run smoothly.

It's a vision of the future that's now open to organizations of all sizes.

So, now is the time to unlock your data’s full potential with open standard data.

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