Big Data

Thinking about Snowden and Smart Grids

in , , ,

Privacy activists have long warned about the massive data collection enabled by smart grids. Utility representatives have long defended the smart grid by asserting that they have no interest in analyzing the lives of their customers. The recent revelations of government activity in the US make that defense irrelevant, as company after company confesses to have shared operational data with the government agencies. The lesson of current headlines is that it does not matter who collects big data, or what their motives are. Big data is a honeypot that will attract surveillance by someone.

One of the oldest stories of smart grids is of early researchers attempting...

Read More

Energy and the Microsoft ROC

in , ,

Yesterday I had the pleasure of a tour Darrell Smith, Director of Microsoft Facilities & Energy, of the Redmond Operations Center (ROC). Facilities & Energy provides internal support; it is not a product line. The ROC applies Big Data to the operations of buildings on Microsoft’s home campus. In concept, the ROC is much like the Enterprise Building Management System (EBMS) at the University of North Carolina that I have written of. The results at Microsoft, though, are much more successful.

Darrel avoided the trap that we fell into at UNC,...

Read More

Big Data, Buildings, and the Internet of Things

in , , , , , , ,

Big Data is the hot new buzz-phrase for something that buildings system integrators have long struggled with. Last Thursday (3/29), the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) launched its public initiative on big data for government, the Big Data Research and Development Initiative.

The purpose of big data is to support analytics, that is the massive...

Read More