Christopher Luongo, Writer/Strategist, IBM Communications
By Christopher Luongo
More school systems across the U.S. are looking for ways to balance their commitment to providing a top-notch education with the pressure of keeping their buildings in tip-top shape. To achieve this, some schools are moving away from paper-based systems and putting all their data, from operational and maintenance information to real estate and resource data, online. Doing so, however, is creating a whole new set of issues as the schools are now left to deal with the management of “Big Data.”
Since it’s unreasonable to build brand new, energy-efficient buildings from the ground up, more school districts are looking within and starting to leverage and exploit the Big Data of building information. They’re starting to sift through critical data to make school structures more energy efficient and more cost-effective.
School districts from Portland, Oregon to Palm Beach, Florida are taking this approach. And with IBM’s help they’re finding highly profitable solutions that are helping to cut costs, save energy and enable schools to make smarter decisions on how school buildings are maintained and used.
In times of tight budgets, being able to do more with the data has huge benefits. For schools, this enables them to cost-effectively and easily maintain old buildings that consume enormous amounts of energy and continually demand unexpected expenditures for equipment repairs.
Here are just a few examples of schools that are putting Big Data to work in their buildings with positive results:
