Being a huge fan of the rock band, The Who, it's only natural for me to think about their song, Going Mobile, when the subject of using moble devices to move building automation systems into the cloud comes up. In the words sung by Roger Daltry:
I can pull up by the curb
I can make it on the road
Goin' mobile
I can stop in any street
And talk with people that we meet
Goin' mobile
Keep me movin'
Out in the woods
Or in the city
It's all the same to me
When I'm drivin' free, the world's my home
When I'm mobile.
In an article on this subject written on the AutomatedBuildings.com website, contributing editor Manny Mandrusiak writes that smartphones, and other mobile devices, have "essentially shifted the way that daily tasks are setup, accomplished, and archived. We can perform banking transactions, use GPS services, and we can even access devices in our own homes from our phones thanks to devices like the WeMo Switch by Belkin (locks for your home that use a key, fob, or an application on a smartphone). The WeMo Switch provides end-users with the ability to control devices such as fans, lamps, and heaters directly from a smartphone using a downloadable app as a client."
He goes on to talk about the development of apps for controlling other functions in the homes over the years and wonders whether "the accelerated growth of apps and cloud-based functions in our private lives fuel the adoption of these types of interfaces when it comes to not only controlling building automation systems, but getting data out of them for better business intelligence?"
Good question.
He goes on to say that in his opinion, not only will cloud-based building automation solutions be a trend to watch based on an increased push toward mobile device accessed cloud-based services, but so will the need for cloud-based business intelligence platforms."
There's no doubt in my opion based on the massive push by the Googles and Microsofts of the world for expanded use of "The Cloud" for information technology, data storage, Smartphone/tablet application access, and so much more. To me, it only makes sense that buidling automation systems find their way "up there" as well.
Read Mandrusiak's entire article here.
The fact that The Who wrote about mobile technology in 1971, proves to me that besides being one of the best rock bands of all times, they had technological forsight as well. Now how cool is that?
