Niagara AX hype?

[expat]

I've been working in Asia for the past 5 years and an old colleague told me to look into Niagara AX. Besides a slick marketing video, what advantages does Niagara AX have over a standard BMS like JCI, Honeywell, etc?

[Pascone10]

JCI and both honeywell use Niagara for a line of their products.

JCI= Facility Explorer

Honeywell- Webs

[MatrixTransform]

I've been working in Asia for the past 5 years and an old colleague told me to look into Niagara AX. Besides a slick marketing video, what advantages does Niagara AX have over a standard BMS like JCI, Honeywell, etc?

Um, it ain't hype. Tritium talks to pretty much everything. 5 protocols running concurrently in the same controller...no prob. The framework is extensible and open.

[makeitwork]

Welcome back. I've been involved with AX for a little over 9 years now, and it's not a gimmick. The product has reached full maturity, and as described above its a flexible, extensible, open framework.

Think of AX as an operating system, a tool for grown ups. Think of the "standard BMS" as Fischer Price toys...

If you need just a temperature control solution, then I'm sure the "standard BMS" will fit just fine. If your looking to integrate with disparate systems, not be locked in by a single service provide, utilize a future proof solution, harness the power of web services, define customized solutions for optimization and efficiency, and more; then AX is your tool.

[jbeckham]

Agree with all the above statements but would like to add that Niagara 4 (which is the evolution of Niagara Ax) will most likely continue to progress and expand the success of the product.

It is a very powerful tool with just its standard functionality, but even more so if you have a background in Java programming.

[ahansen]

People can develop, sell and deploy their own software on Niagara. The software ecosystem is constantly growing.

[fisha]

It was a brilliant idea and they have cornered their market, actually they created the market. They have all this different people from different brands working from the same framework. It ends up creating an indirect collaboration. ALC tried to do something similar with ALCSHARE.COM but their community was so small it never took off.