Today’s buildings and building management systems face two core problems: Infrastructure and Interoperability.

​

Infrastructure is a challenge, especially at the edge boundary between on-prem systems and the cloud. Interoperability is a problem because most on-prem systems are not designed to work with other systems, but to run in a 'silo' for their specific needs.

​

The Interoperable Building Box (‘IBB’) addresses both of these problems with a vision of a plug-and-play platform that manages the necessary networking infrastructure while automatically matching the capabilities of systems with each other with minimal user intervention.

​

The 'Infrastructure Problem'

The IBB addresses the Infrastructure Problem by replacing the current mashups of gateways, applications, and protocols with a single extensible cloud-native software platform that resides on a physical or virtual server in the building. Your applications run in standardized containers on a Kubernetes cluster in the IBB, and they enjoy the benefits of cloud-native technologies while being inside the building.

​

The 'Interoperability Problem'

The IBB addresses the Interoperability Problem by replacing hard-to-manage proprietary APIs with an open-source orchestration platform. This enables vendors and integrators to spend less time on integration and maintenance and more time creating new innovations and solving customer problems with better tools.

​

The IBB Ecosystem: from the edge to the cloud

The IBB model can be applied up and down the stack of operational technologies in a building: from tiny IoT edge devices and gateways to cloud-based enterprise systems. Manufacturers are developing and shipping IBB-enabled products. The IBB Ecosystem report shows you what's happening now.
 

A detailed introduction to the IBB, including the architecture, the types of IBBs and components, and a discussion of adoption paths and implementation considerations, is available in the IBB System Overview document.

​

Please scroll down for videos and articles about the IBB and its underlying concepts and technologies