Gartner estimates that 1.6 billion connected things will be used by smart cities in 2016, an increase of 39 percent from 2015.
“Smart commercial buildings will be the highest user of Internet of Things (IoT) until 2017, after which smart homes will take the lead with just over 1 billion connected things in 2018,” said Bettina Tratz-Ryan, research vice president at Gartner.
Commercial real estate benefits greatly from IoT implementation. IoT creates a unified view of facilities management as well as advanced service operations through the collection of data and insights from a multitude of sensors. “Especially in large sites, such as industrial zones, office parks, shopping malls, airports or seaports, IoT can help reduce the cost of energy, spatial management and building maintenance by up to 30 percent,” added Ms. Tratz-Ryan.
The business applications that are fueling the growth of IoT in commercial buildings are handled through building information management systems that drive operations management, especially around energy efficiency and user-centric service environments. In 2016, commercial security cameras and webcams as well as indoor LEDs will drive total growth, representing 24 percent of the IoT market for smart cities.
IoT deployment in commercial buildings will continue to grow at a rapid pace over the next few years, and is on pace to reach just over 1 billion in 2018. “Incentives into the deployment of IoT in commercial real estate will fuel its development,” said Tratz-Ryan.
“The U.K.’s building information modelling (BIM) mandate, for example, requires that all public sector construction commencing in 2016 complies with BIM (level 2).” BIM utilizes data models coming from various information sources including IoT, which will be used by commercial real estate in the future.
