Microsoft Power and Utilities Blog

Visualizing Information: “GeoFlow” for Excel delivers 3D data visualization and storytelling

MSPowerUtilities — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 23:06:20 GMT

One of my favorite books during my career in computer science was Edward R. Tufte’s Envisioning Information. Why? It made me think differently about how represent the real world of information that is complex, dynamic and multidimensional. It’s a landmark book with amazing examples to illustrate the fundamental principles of information displays and the winner of 17 awards for design and content. If you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing it I would check it out here.

What made me think of Mr. Tufte’s masterpiece? It’s the public preview of project codename “GeoFlow” for Excel which empowers users to take an existing data set and visualize it it 3D.

GeoFlow originated in Microsoft Research, evolving out of the successful WorldWide Telescope project for scientific and academic communities to explore large volumes of astronomical and geological data. Researchers collaborated closely with the Office product team to usher GeoFlow from its research lab inception to this public preview availability in Excel. GeoFlow adds to the existing self-service Business Intelligence capabilities in Excel 2013, such as Microsoft Data Explorer Preview and Power View, to help discover and visualize large amounts of data, from Twitter traffic to sales performance to population data in cities around the world.

You can read more about GeoFlow here and you even learn about a Utility example entitled: “Electricity seasonal use simulation using project codename “GeoFlow” Preview and Power View” here.

GeoFlow is a remarkable tool and just one more example of how Microsoft is changing the self-service BI landscape. – Jon C. Arnold

Blue sky thinking with O365

MSPowerUtilities — Tue, 28 May 2013 20:26:38 GMT

A quote from the CIO: “Office 365 was a compelling solution for AGL's business that seemed to address issues around flexibility and bring-your-own-device opportunities”. Read the story here.

What is even more interesting is that the O365 service is being provided offshore, at least for now. We just announce that we are expanding our Windows Azure data centers Down Under to satisfy customer demand. Enjoy. - Jon C. Arnold

It’s Time for the Next Wave

MSPowerUtilities — Thu, 09 May 2013 05:59:25 GMT

Microsoft has just published the Smart Energy Reference Architecture SERA v2.0, after many months of diligent work on the part of architects, partners and Microsoft engineers combined. The document has grown slightly from the SERA version 1.0 length of 130 pages: SERA v2.0 is now 255 pages. The principle of addressing industry challenges first and then discussing how the Microsoft stack can be used to address those challenges is maintained in the new version, with the first 163 pages being technology agnostic. One industry analyst, Jesse Berst, describes SERA v2.0 as: What every utility can learn from Microsoft and we would encourage you to read the analysis..

Some of the new content was driven by the rapid advances in Microsoft technologies and new solution offerings. This includes many new relevant products, not the least of which are Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure, SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW), Windows Phone 8 and Dynamics. The technology advances are truly profound and can significantly change the way Utilities do business.

However, the majority of the content has been driven by the SERA Advisory Council which is a working group composed of partners and customers. The Foundational Pillars and the Advisory Council’s areas of focus resulting in the New Developments in SERA 2.0 are in the graphic at the right. Not to repeat the document here, these topics are front and center to virtually every Utility today and SERA provides relevant guidance for how to think about and address each.

We wish to express our sincere appreciation to our partners and customers who labored through multiple reviews and contributed much of the content. We would not have been able to produce this quality document without their help. - Larry Cochrane

Cloud Produces $1 Billion for Microsoft

MSPowerUtilities — Thu, 02 May 2013 19:19:39 GMT

We couldn’t help but beam brightly when we saw this headline the other day in the Seattle Times: “Windows Azure now one of Microsoft’s billion-dollar businesses.” Here’s the summary:

It’s a big deal at Microsoft when one of its products or services joins its billion-dollar club, the ones that bring in a billion dollars or more of revenue a year.

The latest to join that club: the Windows Azure cloud platform, which launched in 2010. Curt Anderson, chief financial officer of Microsoft’s Server and Tools division, told Bloomberg News that annual sales of Windows Azure software and related software programs have now surpassed $1 billion.

Moreover, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. is quoted in the article as saying “I expect [revenues from the cloud for Microsoft] to double annually.”

We are excited both about our company achieving this milestone and also having a future that looks so bright for the utility sector.

As we’ve mentioned before and demonstrated with some select case studies, we believe cloud computing represents a unique opportunity for utilities in the Big Data era. They have the opportunity to save money and resources in many different ways using cloud computing in different ways across their operations. We know that some utilities have reservations about sending all their computing systems up to the cloud and we think they are right to have those cautions. But nonetheless, there are countless opportunities to benefit from small cloud engagements, in their many different forms.

In fact, one of the benefits of getting our newest version of the Smart Energy Reference Architecture is to see the expanded sections on cloud computing for utilities. Take a look and I think you’ll see why we’re confident the Forrester analyst’s prediction will come true. Utilities and many other companies in many other industries will see the benefits of the cloud each new day. We’re happy to help. – Jon C. Arnold

Webcast: Use of Gaming Technology and 3D Humans to Manage Worker Exposure to Radiation at Nuclear Plants

MSPowerUtilities — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 13:13:48 GMT

We have written before about the Kinect effect and how it is spurring innovation in industry and specifically how Kinect adds to utility health and safety record performances in nuclear facilities with our partner Siemens.

We would like to invite everyone to join us for a free webcast on Wednesday, April 24^th at 11AM eastern time, presented by Siemens and Microsoft on the “Use of Gaming Technology and 3D Humans to Manage Worker Exposure to Radiation at Nuclear Plants”. The webcast will be recorded and available for those that cannot attend the live session.

As background, Utility workers at nuclear facilities are exposed to radiation that must be kept below certain levels to be considered safe. ALARA, an acronym for “As Low As Reasonable Achievable,” is a principle set forth by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that gives employers an absolute duty to ensure the safety and health of workers in every aspect related to the work in radioactive environments.

During this webcast Siemens PLM Software and Microsoft will examine the unique challenges utilities face when training for and planning ALARA human work processes. A special guest speaker from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will talk about the ground breaking work they did to create an algorithm to estimate radiological dosage in nuclear plants. Siemens PLM Software and Microsoft will discuss commercial off the shelf software available today to help utilities improve employee health and safety programs by utilizing advanced IT tools for ALARA planning, while also improving work efficiency in the plant. Demonstrations will include Siemens PLM Software’s work planning application Tecnomatix with “Jack and Jill”, the virtual humans and the Kinect for Windows system.

This is a great example of innovation in industry and we hope you can join us! – Jon C. Arnold

Leveraging the Cloud Takes IT Support to the Post-Nick Burns Era

MSPowerUtilities — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 01:41:47 GMT

Most information age workers have had an experience worth telling about their company’s on-site technology support guru. And most experiences are about the petty tyrannies the support guy leverages over his co-workers, or the small non-monetary favors (like lunch at the local steakhouse) they require to keep the computer system running. Have you ever seen the Saturday Night Live skit about “Nick Burns, Your Company’s Computer Guy”? If not, it’s worth a look, here.

But ole Nick has met his comeuppance with the advent of cloud computing, as the delivery of IT services has moved to on-demand models.

Take for example the recent announcement that Mainstream Renewable Power has contracted with Auxilion to provide its Virtual Service Desk to all its employees and affiliates across five continents. MRP designs and operates renewable power installations around the world, so it needs robust IT-support systems to keep the turbines turning, so to say. It’s choosing Auxilion to create a virtual agent – colloquially called the IT Guy – is a major move, and their strategy to keep MRP an all-Microsoft shop continues. Auxilion is a Microsoft cloud technology provider.

As MRP says in the press release:

"We are experiencing exponential business growth and realised that traditional on-premise, localised and multi-vendor approaches to IT support simply aren't scalable," commented John Shaw, CIO at Mainstream. "With end-to-end global IT support services from one partner, our Information Services team focus on priority IT improvement projects, safe in the knowledge our employees and affiliates are well supported at all times."

And that’s yet another great thing about the cloud: Nick Burns can put away his passport. – Jon C. Arnold

How Microsoft Quietly Built the City of the Future

MSPowerUtilities — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:37:45 GMT

Helping to modernize the world’s infrastructure has been a key focus for us at Microsoft. Whether it’s power & utilities, manufacturing or cities we are working to provide innovative solutions that look beyond the status quo and provide new thinking to help solve many of the world’s complex problems.

We like to practice what we preach here at Microsoft and a great example is the work that Darrell Smith, our director of facilities and energy, is doing to create a remarkable smart campus. Darrel assembled a small team of engineers that cast aside suggestions that we spend US$60 million to turn our 500-acre headquarters into a smart campus to achieve energy savings and other efficiency gains. Instead, he applied the “Internet of Things meets Big Data” approach to create a data-driven software solution that is slashing the cost of operating our campus of 125 buildings. The software, which is saving us millions of dollars, has been so successful that we and our partners are now helping building managers across the world deploy the same solution. With commercial buildings consuming an estimated 40 percent of the world’s total energy, the potential is huge.

It’s an amazing story that continues to unfold and definitely worth a read. Enjoy the full story here! – Jon C. Arnold

Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration Trend Continues in Worldwide Industry: ABB Looks to the Cloud

MSPowerUtilities — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:12:32 GMT

Utilities and utility services companies around the world continue to recognize the value of knowledge and information as dynamos to corporate activity. Harnessing the knowledge of workers and enabling them to collaborate – wherever they are located – allows them to create more robust products and services that truly advance innovation and progress.

But utilities have known that the obstacles to greater collaboration is partly a technology problem and partly a people/process/culture problem. Good, intuitive, secure technology must be in place, and the corporate leadership must encourage its use among all its employees, changing their work habits to produce more for everyone. More and more companies are advancing this trend.

Today, there is yet more evidence of the uptake of collaboration and knowledge sharing in the announcement that ABB will deploy Microsoft Office 365 and Yammer for its 145,000 employees in 100 countries.

ABB’s use of Office 365 will transition their employees from multiple IT collaboration and messaging solutions to Office 365, our cloud-based platform for productivity, communication, collaboration and enterprise social media. Yammer is Microsoft’s private social network for companies, allowing their employees to collaborate securely across departments, geographies, and content and business applications.

ABB will likely use Office 365 to simplify their online meetings, possibly reducing travel costs by 15-20 percent. Yammer’s discussion groups will greatly accelerate problem-solving among groups working in different geographies on the same equipment, experiencing the same problems.

It’s an exciting day, a tribute to the vision of integrated corporate activity for increasing efficiency in industry. – Jon C. Arnold

How Windows Azure is Helping Manage Solar Energy Generation in Japan

MSPowerUtilities — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 19:24:28 GMT

Continuing our series of postings on how the cloud is gaining momentum is in Power & Utilities, there is an excellent story posted today by our Environmental Sustainability Team. The story is about the new Iwami Higashi Solar Power Station which is part of Japan’s shift toward renewables following the Fukushima disaster in 2011. The facility is using a power generation management system is built on the Windows Azure platform and went into production in March. By using a cloud-based system, the power station’s performance can be monitored remotely to ensure that the power station’s generation capacity is used as effectively as possible. It’s a fascinating story and I would highly recommend spending a few minutes reading it here. – Jon C. Arnold

Schneider Electric unveils their cloud based “Orbit” mobile inspection solution

MSPowerUtilities — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:59:03 GMT

We have written numerous times in this blog on how Microsoft partners are releasing Cloud based applications that can help Utilities reduce costs and increase productivity. Couple this with our last blog where Zpryme Forecasts Cloud Future for Utilities and you can see an undeniable trend that is further exemplified by Schneider Electric’s unveiling of their Azure based “Orbit” mobile inspection offering at their Link user’s conference.

The interest in this SaaS solution was staggering. The sessions were standing room only when this next generation mobile platform for utilities and telecommunications providers was outlined. Orbit allows field crews to know where to go, what to do, and what information to gather. The results of their work is reported back in real time, so coordinators can have better information about what’s happening out there. Utilities who need to gather critical information about their infrastructure will benefit from not having to purchase and manage an on premise infrastructure.

Pole inspections, substation inspections, leak detections, storm damage assessments, and just about any inspection application you can think of can be quickly set up and deployed. While this service model offers the ability to scale up and down on demand, the model also allows Schneider Electric to rapidly deploy enhancements and new capabilities, not to mention a lower total cost of ownership. Failover, backup and recovery are included along with federated security and role-based access. It’s a single sign-on solution. And with the hybrid environment, your GIS data will remain on premise. On the mobile end, Schneider Electric will facilitate the use of numerous devices including Windows 7 and Windows 8 based tablets and hardened laptops. Mobile users can be completely offline. Leveraging Azure, if your internal network goes down, field crews can continue working. If outside communication is severed, field crews can continue working. All in all, it was very exciting to see the high level of interest. We are looking forward to seeing this offering commercially release and in action very soon. – Larry Kuhl