Drones and Data: The Facilities Challenge

As the interest in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — drones — seems to grow exponentially each week, maintenance and engineering managers in institutional and commercial facilities are paying closer attention to the possible applications for drones in and around their buildings.

So far, these uses generally have involved inspections of hard-to reach areas, including facades, rooftops, and smokestacks. But drones also offer benefits involving such uses as infrared imaging, taking facility measurements, and exterior security. Managers in the not-too-distant future are likely to be sitting on a growing pile of crucial data about their facilities, systems and components.

As a result, storing, analyzing and protecting this data will become a bigger challenge and a higher priority. Mary Shacklett, writing for Techrepublic.com, notes that the data will present information technology (IT) and security issues for managers and their organizations.

“As drones enter the big data and analytics space, corporate and IT policies will need to address these issues, as well as the rapidly changing regulations regarding drones,” Shacklett writes. “IT will also need to determine network and internet bandwidth requirements for data transport, as well as devise strategies to prepare and onboard drone-captured data into corporate data repositories.”

Read the article at: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/drones-collecting-big-data-present-new-security-and-it-concerns/

This Quick Read was submitted by Dan Hounsell, editor-in-chief of Facility Maintenance Decisions, dan.hounsell@tradepressmedia.com. Read more about drone use in facilities at https://www.facilitiesnet.com/16438FMD

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