T professionals may be surprised at how quickly buildings are changing and, more importantly, at how much computing power is deployed in buildings. The state of IT in buildings today is outlined here, emphasizing the hospitality market. Intelligent building concepts have seen a revitalization recently because of the proliferation of IT and Internet services. Many of these developments have begun to elevate average structures to intelligent buildings.

One indication of this trend is the widespread use of the same terms when referring to IT and building technology. Convergence is used to describe how building systems are blending with IT and the Internet. IT people use convergence to refer to blending of data and functionality from several software applications. Terms like standard, E-business, and real-time are used the same way for buildings and IT. Grid is a common term, but IT people are talking about grid computing while buildings people mean the national electric system. Other terms like integration, collaboration, optimize, Internet-ready (or enabled), and intelligent have varied meanings and cause confusion in both worlds. Nonetheless, both industries are using the same language.

THE EMERGENCE OF IIT

Intelligent buildings are real, but more important, so is the integration of IT (including business processes like finance) with independent special systems for building automation and other functions. Integrated IT is the new IT or (IIT); it is just another way of saying "intelligent building.