BENEFITS
Cybersecurity
The Scope
of the Problem
We hired a white hat group (good guy hackers) to scan the United States for all BAS/BMS systems that were wide open to the internet. They discovered over 38,000. Here is a heat map of their work:
Top 5 Exposed Services
Tridium Fox
15,716
30718
7,521
BACnet
5,460
Modbus
3,058
Automated Tank Gauge
2,528
Top 5 Exposed ISPs
Comcast Business
4,573
Verizon Wireless
4,497
Mediacom Cable
3,162
AT&T Internet Services
2,260
CenturyLink
1,753
That’s 38,000 BAS/BMS systems that are accessible just by typing in the IP address, with no login required.
With the explosion of installed technology list here, it is estimated that over 820,000 CRE building systems (everything from Access Control to Visitor Management) are similarly wide open to the internet.
Cybersecurity Solved at the Asset Level
With zero intrusions since our founding in 2010, Intelligent Riser’s enterprise-class cybersecurity mitigates the liability, financial, and brand damage risk associated with cyberattacks. For larger organizations, Intelligent Riser ensures cyber compliance at the asset level.
Building Technology Requires a Cybersecure Foundation
Building technology relies on the network infrastructure as a foundation. A simple lobby view demonstrates how many systems require cybersecure network connectivity:
Redundancy
CRE organizations are increasingly reliant on data sent to and from the building. Building operations teams are increasingly reliant on remote and cloud connections. As this reliance increases, so does the ripple effect when an outage occurs.
As network infrastructure experts since 2010, Intelligent Riser has always been designed for redundancy. While there are many design elements involved in achieving redundancy, here’s an example:
You’ll notice two things:
- There are two internet circuits (always from two different ISPs). If the primary experiences an outage, the backup kicks in and the building stays up and running.
- There are two firewalls. If the primary fails, the backup takes over and the building operations continue.
While these are just two of many redundant design elements, they are indicative of the expertise we apply to each installation in order to meet the 99.999% (five 9s) uptime standard.
Savings.
Quantifiable and Real.
Capex
Once the Intelligent Riser is installed, you have network infrastructure throughout the building. This means that each time you add or upgrade a system, the building saves the following capex:
- Network equipment and labor (vendor does not need to install any)
- Cabling labor and materials (vendor only needs to connect to the nearest existing switch)
How is it quantified? Simply ask the vendor to add a scope reduction line in their estimate for the reduction in labor and materials for network equipment and cabling. Depending on the size of the new system or upgrade, you’ll see savings of $5K to $100K+.
For new construction projects, scope reduction capex savings consistently come in between $100K and $1M, depending on the size of the building. The earlier we are brought in, the greater the capex savings.
Opex
Most buildings have 5-10 internet circuits running different building systems, each representing a point of failure with no backup. Intelligent Riser uses two internet circuits from different ISPs, configured to be redundant (if the primary fails, the backup kicks in and the building stays up and running).
Once you have the Intelligent Riser installed, we’ll help you cancel all of those extra internet circuits, providing quantifiable opex savings.
Energy
While networks don’t use a lot of energy, they do operate 24x7x365. One converged network replacing the typical 6-8 building networks delivers a quantifiable energy reduction, which we provide upon request.
Single Point of Contact
Once installed, the Intelligent Riser team becomes your single point of contact to ensure moves, adds, and changes are provisioned and installed to code and cyber compliant standards.
The Intelligent Riser team allows you to offload the inefficiency cost and resource drain related to projects like:
- Installation of any new building system
- Upgrade of any existing building system
- Lobby remodel
- Addition or renovation of:
- Fitness center
- Conference center
- Any other tenant amenity space
- WiFi needed anywhere in the building
- Vendor wants to add new equipment
- Vendor requests internet access or remote access
- Building outages and power shutdowns
- Any project that involves building systems or building technology
Included in our monthly fee (no extra charges), we provide the following and much more:
- New projects, moves, adds, changes: communication with third-party vendors to obtain their specs, equipment, and device locations. We work directly with the vendors as long as it takes until all devices are securely connected to the network.
- All third-party software, cybersecurity, and support subscription fees
- All firmware and software updates
- Provisioning port connections
- Provisioning WiFi SSIDs
- Provisioning building-approved secure remote access
In short, Intelligent Riser acts as the building-level support structure, maintaining standards over time and ensuring every building remains secure, up, and running.
Standards Maintained Over Time
Buildings operate on standards. The more consistently standards are applied, the more efficiently the building operates. As we are all painfully aware, building technology is rarely installed with a consistent set of standards!
With Intelligent Riser, every future move, add, and change in the building is performed within a framework of consistent, cyber compliant standards, while ensuring connectivity is maintained to the enterprise-level 99.999% (five 9s) standard.
Benefits by CRE Role
Executives
Compliance
Intelligent Riser ensures cyber compliance-related initiatives are implemented at the asset level, and that all future compliance-related initiatives are implemented within a framework of enterprise-level standards.
Portfolio Visibility
Intelligent Riser’s client dashboard provides executive-level visibility into cybersecurity, connectivity, and threat protection.
Asset-Level Risk and Liability Mitigation
Enterprise-class cybersecurity, monitoring, and maintenance mitigates the risk associated with increasingly interconnected systems.
Consistent Application of Standards and Initiatives
Having a single point of contact at the building level ensures corporate standards and initiatives are implemented consistently throughout portfolios.
Facility Managers and Engineers
Building-Level Visibility
The Intelligent Riser client dashboard provides high-value information to Facilities staff. For example, there is an always-current as-built diagram that shows all building system equipment, where it is located, and how it is connected.
Single Point of Contact
All building system moves, adds, and changes are connected with a simple phone call or email, offloading the “to dos” around new building technology and upgrades.
A Trusted Advisor
Intelligent Riser does not sell, partner with, or receive compensation from, any other vendor. Building staff relies on our staff as neutral, trusted advisors for smart building solutions and IT expertise.
Secure Remote Access
Authorized facilities staff are able to remotely access systems, with enterprise-class security built-in. All third party vendor access is vetted through our formal approval process, ensuring secure access only to specific, authorized systems.
Property and Asset Managers
Building and Portfolio Visibility
Whether one building, multiple buildings, or a portfolio, the Intelligent Riser client portal provides visibility into cybersecurity and connectivity.
Cybersecurity and Standards
Liability and risk are mitigated at the asset level with the consistent implementation of enterprise-class cybersecurity and change management standards that meet the compliance requirements of North America’s largest real estate organizations.
A Trusted Advisor
Intelligent Riser does not sell, partner with, or receive compensation from, any third party vendors. As a neutral party with deep technology experience, property and asset managers routinely contact our staff for advice on:
- Technology-related capital improvements and TIs
- Vetting of third-party solution providers and scope
- Network design
Our experience results in significant capex savings and improved project outcomes.
Single Point of Contact
With decades of building infrastructure expertise, we provide cost-efficient, fixed-price estimates (network, cabling, electrical), saving significant time in scope development and bidding processes.
Budgeting
Having worked extensively with CRE infrastructure since 2002, we understand the budgeting process and have many options to help “make the sausage.”
Data and IT
Visibility
The Intelligent Riser client portal provides both high-level and granular visibility into building network performance and health. Dashboards, real-time as-builts, device-level views, and threat reports provide the information you need when you need it.
Support at the Asset Level
You have enough to do without the distraction and resource drain of managing base building system networks. Most often, these networks are not managed by anyone, creating barriers to the implementation of data collection, new technology, and corporate initiatives. Intelligent Riser is the support structure for Data and IT at the building level, allowing your focus to remain on the implementation of higher-level technology projects.
Reliability
Building data is only useful when it is received consistently. Brittle building networks cause data loss for hours, and sometimes days. Intelligent Riser’s robust infrastructure, redundancy, and efficient failover mechanisms ensure the building network remains up and running to the enterprise 99.999% (five 9s) standard.
Single Point of Contact
One call or email for port provisioning, secure remote access, or installation of approved new technologies – all performed to your corporate and cybersecurity standards. Intelligent Riser supports these and much more on its hardened, cybersecure infrastructure.
Compliance
Cybersecurity compliance requirements have arrived. The Intelligent Riser client portal makes building-level compliance reporting simple. Just select the reports you want to export, then export them in the format of your choice.
Sustainability Managers
Sustainability relies on receiving building level data consistently and reliably. Without it, gaps in the data can make KPIs and reporting inaccurate, hindering sustainability initiatives and ROI. Intelligent Riser supports these initiatives through its reliable, cybersecure network connectivity. In fact, the redundancy built into the IR network ensures the network remains up and running to the enterprise 99.999% (five 9s) standard.
While networks don’t use a lot of energy, they do operate 24x7x365. One converged network replacing the typical 6–8 building networks delivers a quantifiable energy reduction, which we provide upon request.
