Niagara Community

Based on the number of Niagara instances deployed today, we estimate that the Niagara Community has connected over 20 million devices into a wide range of applications both inside and outside of intelligent buildings.

Sublett: The Niagara Community is a strong Connection Community. It has been prolific in connecting devices into advanced solutions to the benefit of the intelligent buildings industry. Based on the number of Niagara instances deployed today, we estimate that the Niagara Community has connected over 20 million devices into a wide range of applications both inside and outside of intelligent buildings.

But Niagara is not just about connecting devices, it is about connecting people. The problems being solved by the Niagara Community today are increasingly complex and no single organization or technology has all of the necessary pieces. It takes open technologies like the Niagara Framework and others, as well as open, collaborative attitudes to meet today’s challenges.

In a single system, it is commonplace to see devices connected into Niagara from many different manufactures and an equal number of protocols, with an analytics framework from one vendor, visualization and reporting tools from another, asset and work order management from another, and system integration and service from yet another. It’s exciting to see when it all comes together.

Sublett: Because the Niagara Framework is a key enabler in the ecosystem, access to the technology is an important first step. With over one hundred OEMs and distributors worldwide, and over 20,000 trained systems integrators, thankfully access is not a major hurdle.

But membership in the Niagara Community doesn’t mean selling Niagara. Niagara isn’t just a Connection Community, it is a Solution Community. If you have an interesting problem or part of the solution, you will find others in the Niagara Community willing and able to complete the puzzle.

There are as many products based on Niagara as there are OEMs, but that’s not the end of the story. Because Niagara is not tied to any one protocol, the Niagara Community is inclusive of other communities. Niagara wouldn’t be anywhere without the BACnet community. And the emerging Haystack community promises to take solutions including Niagara to even greater heights and value. We’re all about bringing new technologies into the mix and collaborating to achieve valuable results.

Sublett: To experience the Niagara Community online, Tridium hosts an active community forum, and in addition, there are several groups on LinkedIn and other industry sites. If you would like to experience the Niagara Community in person, Tridium is hosting the bi-annual Niagara Summit starting April 27, 2014 at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. The previous Niagara Summit had over 1,200 attendees with over 50 exhibitors showing a wide range of products and services including controllers, advanced software applications and frameworks, services, and more. We’re already seeing a lot of enthusiasm for this year’s Niagara Summit and it promises to be another great event.