In their latest Technology Insight, THE PROMISE & PROGRESS of SMART SYSTEMS & IoT PLATFORMS, Harbor Research reviews the marketplace for IoT software platforms as part of their assessment on the state of the market. We are excited and honored for SkySpark to be recognized as a leader by Harbor.

Here is a quick excerpt from the report:

“A handful of startups are accelerating the pace of development, catching larger established rivals off-balance and threatening fundamental shifts.” SkyFoundry is recognized as one of these companies. They go on to say - “Their strategies reflect the increasing importance of the convergence of distributed computing with open information architectures; the combination of these capabilities is a fundamental requirement to effectively enable large scale collaboration networks and ecosystems. These players understand enabling completely fluid information, interoperating devices, people and systems requires a simple, flexible, and universal schema that will make information truly portable in both physical and information spaces.”

Performing analytics on equipment systems is the most visible end result provided by SkySpark and forms most people’s view of what SkySpark is all about. But the capabilities of the SkySpark Everywhere platform go far deeper. The layers of technology that make SkySpark‘s advanced analytics possible form a comprehensive end-to-end, distributed computing software platform for working with IoT devices and their data. From connecting to diverse devices over multiple industrial and IT communication protocols, normalizing multi-structured device data with a schema-less, high-speed database, visualizing data, and performing analytics to monitor device health and the performance of the end application, SkySpark provides a comprehensive end-to-end IoT architecture.

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We are excited to announce that SkyFoundry introduced automated replication today at the opening of our SkyPosium 2018 User Conference in Denver, CO. The replication feature enables databases from distributed SkySpark nodes to be automatically replicated to a central server or cloud platform for backup and high availability data access.

SkySpark Everywhere addresses one of the key challenges in implementing next generation IoT applications, which is the ability to move advanced analytics to edge devices and connect those devices together in a unified, seamless distributed computing system that can scale to thousands of nodes, millions of points, and trillions of data samples.

The introduction of SkySpark Everywhere in 2017 changed the game for IoT data analytics by embracing the reality that the IoT is a distributed computing challenge. The addition of automated replication takes SkySpark’s analytics-at-the-Edge technology to the next level. SkySpark's powerful visualization tools automatically leverage replicated data to ensure full user access to replicated databases even when those systems cannot be communicated with. Replication is available in SkySpark version 3.0.17, which is being released immediately after the SkyPosium event.

Read the SkySpark Replication Press Release here

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The EDGE is becoming one of those over-hyped words, but the concepts are actually very simple, and important to our industry – especially in the application of analytics to the IoT and equipment systems.

When we talk about analytics at the “edge” we are referring to performing data acquisition and analytics functions as close to the data source as possible. For example, running SkySpark analytics on small IoT devices mounted directly on equipment systems or embedded within equipment controllers. The ability to run analytics at the Edge provides important benefits for many applications.

• Greater reliability of data collection and reduced data latency
• Isolation of Fieldbus Networks
• Reduced data transfer costs and better performance on “constrained” networks
• Improved application reliability and process continuity
• Engineer data acquisition and tagging once

In this highly informative article SkyFoundry’s John Petze helps demystify the term and highlight specific benefits from applying analytics at the edge. Read the Automated Buildings article by John Petze here

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Our inaugural 2017 “SkyPosium” Community event was a resounding success and this year we are bringing SkyPosium to Europe as well. SkyFoundry’s SkyPosium events are designed for the entire community of SkySpark users—our reseller partners, end users, engineering consultants, SaaS providers and OEMs — everyone that uses or applies SkySpark. With the majority of sessions delivered by community members, SkyPosium's unique format provides attendees with the ability to learn best practices and share experiences among actual users and practitioners.

Attendees will benefit from an excellent educational program that includes presentations by community members, a full-day developer workshop, and announcements and demonstrations of major new product features. Anyone involved with the use of SkySpark is encouraged to attend these informative events.

The EU event will be held Oct 2-3 in Amsterdam.

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Lynxspring Inc., a SkyFoundry OEM Partner and premier developer and provider of open, IP-control solutions for building automation, energy management, and edge-to-enterprise integration, has announced the full release of their Onyxx® SkySpark® Edge Analytics solution which embeds SkyFoundry’s SkySpark® Everywhere™ Analytics software in the Lynxspring Onyxx® Hardware platform.

The Lynxspring Onyxx® Hardware platform was specifically designed to bring advanced IoT software applications to the “edge.” The Onyxx® Hardware family of modular, open, hardware, bridges and gateways support edge-to-enterprise and Cloud applications across multiple market segments.

SkySpark® Everywhere™ enables the full capabilities of SkyFoundry’s SkySpark® Analytics software to be deployed in a distributed architecture where multiple nodes work together to perform analytics at the edge, while still providing users with a unified view of their data and analytic results.

By embedding SkySpark® Analytics on the Onyxx® Hardware platform, Lynxspring has created an advanced control and analytics solution that performs data acquisition, storage, automated analytics and provides the full suite of SkySpark visualization Apps locally at the device-level, providing real-time intelligence without requiring data to be sent to the Cloud for analysis.

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We are excited to announce that again this year, multiple projects utilizing SkySpark were recognized with awards in the Smart Energy Analytics Campaign. The campaign is part of the Better Buildings Challenge of the US Department of Energy.

Major energy savings, Improved maintenance, Solid data management – the organizations recognized for the 2nd Annual Spring Awards by the Smart Energy Analytics Campaign have seen these benefits and more from their installation of Energy Management and Information Systems (EMIS) with analytics.

The Spring 2018 Campaign recognized five participants for their exemplary implementation of EMIS at their facilities. Of the five projects to receive awards, 3 utilized SkySpark analytics. Award recipients were announced as part of a special webinar in which they shared an overview of their project and tips for success. Each organization has also been featured in a Smart Energy Analytics Campaign Success Story as shown below.

Energy Performance in a Portfolio U.S. General Services Administration - Chip Pierpont, GSA Facility Technologies

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We are excited to announce the release of SkySpark 3.0.15 and the introduction of SWIVEL, which we believe is one of the most powerful data analytics tools ever developed. Swivel is a new feature that allows you to slice and dice your data AND analytic results in virtually any way you want – with absolutely no programming required.

In this issue of the Insider we provide an overview of this powerful new data analytics tool and the suite of all-new, Swivel-enabled Apps - Spark, KPI and Energy.

Find the June 2018 Insider newsletter here

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We would like to highlight a new article by SkyFoundry’s John Petze in College Planning & Management magazine. Higher Ed facilities are a significant user of SkySpark analytics and experience excellent results. We are excited to have this recognition by an industry leading publication.

You can read the article at this link

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We are excited to announce that BuildingFit ™, has signed with SkyFoundry as an OEM partner.

BuildingFit™ was launched in 2017 as a software services spin-off of ETC Group, utilizing the 30 years of experience working with millions of data points to develop advanced analytic rules, algorithms and deployment options for building owners and operators. The power of this deep experience is now packaged and offered to other engineering firms, controls contractors, service providers and facility owners.

BuildingFit™ has always used SkySpark® as its platform and the move to become an OEM creates an even stronger partnership advancing the use of analytics in buildings for improved performance and operational savings. BuildingFit’s tag line “Making SkySpark® Work for You,” speaks to the specialized rules, algorithms customization and service offerings provided by BuildingFit™.

Read the BuildingFit announcement here

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We are excited to make you aware of a new Realcomm Advisory article by SkyFoundry's John Petze. Here's a quick overview of the main theme of John's article,

...Embarking on a project to apply data analytics to facility and equipment system data should be viewed as a process of exploration, very different from other investments commonly made by real estate professionals...

We tend to look at anything we do in the built environment as an engineering project – something that can be predefined down to the finest detail, and if executed correctly, will provide us with a known end result. For example, we design and construct a building, we design and install an HVAC system, or engineer the details of an equipment upgrade project. All these things can, and should, be ‘engineered’ in detail. We wouldn’t break ground to build a new facility without having completed the detailed engineering work to ensure success...

...Applying analytics to building system data is very different than other investments, and requires owners to look at these projects in a new way...

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