Page 25 - REALCOMM EDGE-Fall 2017-FINAL

cost effective monitoring of building
use and assets throughout a portfolio a
real possibility for the first time.

RC: Were there any challenges or road-
blocks you had to overcome?
Golan: A lack of convergence and stan-
dardization in the IoT space has made
it difficult for us to accumulate data at
times. It’s hard to get the industry on the
same page due to its size and complex-
ity. Historically, the real estate IT industry
didn’t focus on security and, as a result,
most IT departments segregate their
networks. This makes true convergence
difficult, and this is particularly true at
Google. Given the amount of information
we have access to, we are hyper-vigilant
in ensuring the integrity of our network.
This can sometimes make it difficult
for us to deploy new technologies that
require network connections.
Another challenge the industry as a
whole faces is that many technologies
we’d like to use on a more regular basis
aren’t cost effective yet. This is particularly
true in the areas of real time utilization or
people/asset tracking. Some of Google’s
innovations in our core product areas
have tremendous promise to create
breakthroughs in these domains. An allow buildings to anticipate user needs environment in a comprehensive and
example I mentioned before is Tango, so they can adapt without human inter- granular way that wasn’t possible in the
which allows you to three-dimensionally vention, such as changing equipment past. This was a missing element for the
map a physical environment down to settings based on existing conditions. intelligent building. In fact, many forms
the size of a marble with just the use of Virtual and augmented reality of intelligent behavior are based on pat-
a smart phone. The good news is that technology will become increasingly in- tern recognition and this isn’t possible
many of these technologies are progress- volved in redefining what ‘place’ means. without a rich data set.
ing very quickly and should lead to some AR in particular will have significant RC: What one piece of advice would
interesting capabilities in the near future. impact both from an operational and you give a corporate real estate peer
user standpoint. For example, imagine regarding digital transformation and
RC: What are three technology/automa- a technician being able to see through how it impacts owning, leasing and
tion/innovation trends you see having ceilings or walls to inspect building el- operating buildings?
the most impact on the industry over ements while simultaneously receiving Golan: Assess how your building will be
the next decade? information about the manufacturer, able to adapt to likely changes in the
Golan: It’s difficult to overstate the maintenance and settings. From a user future. All of the technologies and
importance of Artificial Intelligence standpoint, imagine a conference room advancements mentioned above make
and Machine Learning—it changes table where some people are actually it difficult to future proof buildings. It
everything. Arguably the most powerful present while others are sitting on takes three years to build the average
technology ever produced, AI has the chairs virtually and it’s hard to tell the project and we’re attempting to design
potential to automatically fine tune difference. This is closer to reality than and execute structures that need to
all aspects of building commissioning people realize. remain relevant for at least 30 years. At
and settings as well as predict or even IoT will help drive changes by the speed technology is moving, that is
prevent equipment failures. It will also allowing buildings to sense their no small task.

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