There's been a phrase floating around lately, and if I'm honest, it's driving me nuts. I'm not quite sure why but it just feels irritating. And that phrase is IT vs OT.

In this article I am going to explore a lot of the different IT questions I've been asked by my IT for BAS Students. As you may or may not know, I run an online training program called Information Technology for Building Automation System Professionals.

I've had a lot of good questions from folks in this program. And while I've been going through this program I've had tons of conversations about all sorts of things.

So what is an IP Address?

And why should you care?

In this post I discuss one of the most fundamental concepts of information technology, IP Addresses! And you know what, we're gonna have some fun doing it!

I get asked a lot lately, "What is an API?"

You'd think this would be something you could Google and be done with, but the problem is, apparently no one has told the folks writing all the API articles that the folks reading the articles don't know what API's actually are!

Well, if that's you, you're in luck! This article assumes zero IT knowledge. I will take you through what an API is in such a way that almost anyone can understand it. 

It seems every week lately I get a question about the security of Building Automation Systems.

But, the problem is the folks are asking the wrong questions.

Yes, it is scary that the average BAS technician doesn't have an IT background.

It does keep me up at night that most implementations of BACnet are insecure and that with YABE you can pretend you're a BBMD and connect to exposed BAS's to change setpoints.

What's a Network?

Hey BAM Nation,

This is the second article in the Building Automation IT Guide series.

In my last article, All About IP Addresses, we discussed core fundamentals about IP Addressing, Subnets, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, and Domain Name Servers. In this article, we are going to begin to unpack the mysterious network!

Information Technology, IT, Technology!

Those words strike fear in the eyes of many BAS professionals. Now, before you get defensive, this has nothing to do with capabilities but rather it has to do with training. Up to this point no dedicated training program existed to provide those in the building automation space with the core IT skills they need in today's world.

Today, I had the privilege of attending a one-day seminar put on by IHE USA. IHE, which stands for Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise is one of a few select groups like HL7 that is working towards creating a standardized data exchange framework. I believe, based on my experience as a solution architect designing technology for healthcare environments, there is a chance that interoperability will destroy a hospital's network. There are a multitude of factors as to why I believe this...

Web Servers make the world go round. If you are connecting to your bank online, you're connecting to a web server. Do you like Amazon? Guess what also a web server. Just about everything you connect to out their on the internet is by definition a web server.