

How Microsoft quietly built the city of the future - raghavsethi
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/stories/88acres/88-acres-how-microsoft-quietly-built-the-city-of-the-future-chapter-1.aspx

======
johnohara
_In one building garage, exhaust fans had been mistakenly left on for a year
(to the tune of $66,000 of wasted energy). Within moments of coming online,
the smart buildings solution sniffed out this fault and the problem was
corrected._

And also why this work is important. Environmental and conservation arguments
aside, it means $66,000 worth of product and services had to be sold to pay
for one simple mistake.

In large organizations, these types of mistakes occur every day and can add up
quickly.

The article was light on specifics, and the ROC control room doesn't seem to
bespeak a 500 acre campus, but actively pursuing the problem looks very
interesting.

~~~
spydum
what they don't mention, is how much it cost to build and support this massive
sensor infrastructure and analytics. I would wager $66k/year is a drop in the
bucket.

~~~
dhugiaskmak
Well, they saved quite a lot by not paying the billion and a half dollars that
they owe Washington state in taxes, so they can afford it.

------
bretthopper
This is a pretty poor attempt at copying the NY Times design for their Snow
Fall project ([http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-
fall/#/?part=tunne...](http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-
fall/#/?part=tunnel-creek)).

It's lacking the top nav and the typography is terrible. Generally just lacks
some polish and execution.

~~~
chubot
Wow, "next page" is broken/nonexistent in firefox. I could only read the first
page with it... Had to switch to Chrome to get past the first page.

~~~
bonzoesc
And even then the "next page" button wanted to play peek-a-boo with me.

------
kragen
> That data has given the team deep insights

What a shame they didn't bother to include any of them in the article. Instead
they filled it with shitty similes like this:

> Microsoft’s buildings were experiencing data dissonance that would make the
> works of Igor Stravinsky sound like a barbershop quartet.

I was no fan of Microsoft in its Gates days, but I can't imagine it would have
produced anything as bad as this article. Apparently the reason for this
content-free article is that Microsoft hired some dumbshit to write it who
couldn't be bothered to learn enough to understand what they were writing
about:

> He projects the algorithm on a screen, and then launches into a deeply
> technical explanation about when a discharge air pressure set point is
> something-something, then the air is being overcooled by something-something
> for a duration of 900,000 milliseconds.

The Accenture white paper linked
[http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/8/8/4885BBB9-2675-4...](http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/8/8/4885BBB9-2675-42CB-9CF2-F11B69C3C2FB/energy-
smart-buildings-whitepaper-1.pdf) is slightly better, but only very slightly.

Sensor networks are a promising approach for improving the efficiency of
existing buildings, but the <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passivhaus> approach
seems much better for new buildings. Instead of removing unwanted heat with
finicky mechanical systems with valves that get stuck, you don't let the heat
in in the first place; and similarly for maintaining warmth in the winter.
There's plenty of solar energy to keep your temperature pleasant year-round,
unless you're in Siberia or something, and solar energy used to heat your
house is 100% efficient, rather than the 20% provided by photovoltaic panels.
It's mostly stupid to use marketed energy to heat and cool things.

~~~
astangl
When I hear somebody say 900,000 milliseconds, it makes me wonder why he
didn't quote the number in nanoseconds or worse.

On top of all the other problems with this puff piece, I couldn't shake the
feeling that Microsoft will probably end up leading the way in buildings
susceptible to viruses and other malware, consistent with their security
record.

My expectation with implementing anything like this is that you immediately
pluck some low-hanging fruit (fixing some inefficiencies) when the system goes
online, and then it quickly becomes way more difficult to find further
inefficiences to eliminate. The article makes it seem like there's an endless
stream of inefficiencies they're finding.

~~~
kragen
He was probably quoting a whole series of time intervals in milliseconds: "if
the valve doesn't open within 200 milliseconds or the air is being overcooled
by more than two degrees after 900 000 milliseconds".

------
rlu
I had originally commented saying that this was a great read. I was only half-
way done though. After finishing the entire thing, I agree that it could have
used more details.

Overall I do think it's a good read (so, you know, some of you should read it
instead of just posting about the layout of the site..). It just could have
had a little less fluff and more details. You do end up getting a solid sense
of how useful this could be to other companies.

I thought the whitepaper linked on the fifth page might be a good source for
more information, but unfortunately the link didn't work for me.

------
eykanal
Very interesting overview. I wonder how the sensors work... can they detect a
broken pipe at a specific location? The article also kept referring to
"equipment"... how granular does that get? Is an entire heating system one
piece of "equipment", or can they get down to the component level?

Still, very cool. I know we trivialize dealing with lots of data, but still,
this is a huge amount of information they have to automatically receive,
triage, prioritize, and possibly even act upon. Impressive.

~~~
ronbo
My thought is that even if they are only detecting water and electricity
throughput in each building and the temperature and light in each room, they
can see hot-spots where too much energy or water is being used. If they have a
model of the wiring, piping and heating conduits, then a defective part might
be identified or at least a limited set of possibilities be found.

I think MS is one of the greenest IT companies in the world - folks here
should give credit where its due. They have also been setting standards for
energy conservation in co-lo facilities.

------
freejack
It might just be me, I found that initial scrolling transition to be brutally
distracting.

And I wanted to give the article a proper chance, so I read down the page and
stumbled over the navigation to the next page, which gave me this error:

"We are sorry, the page you requested cannot be found."

And then after a few seconds, that page redirected me automatically to a Bing
search for this string:

"en us news stories 88acres 88 acres how microsoft quietly built the city of
the future chapter 2 aspx"

At least Bing had the good sense to return the original article as the first
result.

~~~
rlu
Hm, I get a similar error when trying to download the whitepaper on the fifth
page. I can change pages fine, but when I try and click on the link it does a
"download microsoft" Bing search...

~~~
tempaccount9473
> stumbled over the navigation to the next page, which gave me this error

> I get a similar error when trying to download the whitepaper on the fifth
> page.

So... first time you two have used a Microsoft product then?

Well, in case you're wondering, pretty much all Miscrosoft software is a
stolen design wrapped around a buggy core when first released.

~~~
rlu
Thanks for your insightful comment and help on the problem! I'll make sure to
remember that about Microsoft software.

------
archangel_one
Sounds interesting, but totally lacking in specifics, or enough explanation of
how some of the claims would work. Like the statement on the first page that
engineers would be able to fix a stuck damper or leaky valve with "a few
clicks" - how's that gonna happen, exactly?

~~~
bluedino
There's probably a button called 'power cycle' or 'manually open/close'

------
dsdjung
Looks like smart building and smart city concept is a continuation of the
things that were happening in his previous work at Cisco. Great potential and
a good vision. Only seeing this moving at any speed in small patches, but a
real difference when you have it.

------
mturmon
Breathless in tone and lacking specifics. Seems like interesting work, though.
Frustrating.

------
deckar01
This is what happens when the maintenance crew finds the keys to R&D.

~~~
simplyinfinity
I believe this is the most interesting comment on this thread. Almost
everything else is bashing. huh.

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zem
am i the only one who found this exciting? sure, the tone and content are
puff-piecey, but reading between the lines they are doing some genuinely
interesting things with data acquisition and centralised control, and proving
that it works on a largish scale, with measurable (not to mention large!)
savings in terms of money and energy.

~~~
rurounijones
Yea, it was pure PR BUT I am a big believer that data analytics are underused
in industries all over the world that could be making huge improvements.

------
k3n
Since this is obviously a marketing piece from MS, I'll attack the delivery
and not the substance (since the substance is propaganda anyways)...

But are we back in the year 2000? That header image is 936kb! And for what
purpose -- to show that they're in-tune with the over-saturated photo
hipsters? Seriously, the image doesn't even lend anything to the article;
looks like just a generic shot of some random 'burb. I see no signs of high-
tech or futurism represented. What...the.....they have another gigantic,
completely useless image on each of the next 2 pages as well?

And this horrid navigation thing that slowly slides in at the bottom? It
doesn't even queue (if you scroll up/down rapidly a few times the nav bar will
bounce up & down several times in succession).

This might be the worst website I've seen all year.

~~~
rubyrescue
that's redmond in the foreground and seattle in the background

~~~
k3n
Yes, but does it add anything to the piece?

~~~
sgk284
It's a picture of the campus that they're talking about. Everything below the
big tree line in the middle of the picture is Microsoft's campus. Note that
it's not even the whole thing. The campus is huge and extends outside of the
picture in every direction but north.

It's relevant because it puts into perspective how massive their campus is.

~~~
k3n
> Everything below the big tree line in the middle of the picture is
> Microsoft's campus. Note that it's not even the whole thing. The campus is
> huge and extends outside of the picture in every direction but north.

Thanks for the background! Where did you get this information (it sounds like
you're already intimately familiar with it)? The caption on the image
certainly doesn't convey it. IMO one shouldn't have to go to the comments
section of an unrelated news site to learn the significance of a photo on your
website.

I wouldn't be railing against it if it actually contributed to the article as
supporting evidence (e.g. visual aide), such as if it was implemented with
some sort of informational overlay, or if it was presented as a flat map (like
the default Google Maps view) with labelled structures, zones, etc.

But it's not; it's just a photo lacking context.

~~~
sgk284
I know this because I used to work on Windows :) Our part of the campus is (or
was?) in the lower left portion. My office was just outside the lower left of
the picture.

The big hole in the ground (right in the middle of the image) eventually
became this:
[http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ImageGallery/ImageDetails...](http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ImageGallery/ImageDetails.mspx?id=E8A168C3-8519-40ED-A62D-5537DC7D1EF4)

In that picture, you see the common area. The buildings on the left and right
both have places to eat, as well as some shops for employees only (like an
AT&T store, a UPS store, and a few others). There is also usually an art
exhibit in the left building. In the background, the green field you see is an
olympic (iirc) sized soccer field. In the winter, they sometimes put an ice
skating rink on a portion of it.

Surrounding the area seen in that image (but not visible, unfortunately), are
four new office buildings in the same style as the common buildings (but twice
as tall). They're referred to as Studios A, B, C or D. One of them houses a
lot of the XBox teams (and Microsoft game studios), not sure about the other
3.

The Microsoft campus is truly a marvel. It's giant, has it's own
transportation system, has the world's largest underground parking garage
(it's actually underneath the buildings in the image I linked above) and every
day over 50,000 people come and go to it. It's a mini-city in every way.

------
malyk
All the technology stuff is great, but as for this being the city of the
future? Pass!

It's far to spread out. It's not very walkable. There's too much space
dedicated to parking. etc. It fails almost every test for being a good city.
It's basically a technology enabled suburb. Gross.

~~~
kabdib
Not too different from a large college campus (the U of MD was like this, with
approximately the same number of people on campus).

It does put a damper on cross-group communication, but it's probably better
than having a collection of skyscrapers. Also, Redmond doesn't like buildings
more than 3 stories tall (their fire equipment can't deal -- why MS can't buy
Redmond different fire equipment is beyond me).

~~~
malyk
College campuses are pretty nice for college, but I don't think they translate
well as a city. I'll admit to being a bit of a new-urbanism and walkability
snob, so when I look at a campus as "the city of the future" it makes me gag a
bit. They are ok, but missing most of what makes "real" cities great.

------
cybernoodles
Also, NASA has been doing prototyping for this tech since 2007:
[http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/sustainability-
base/index....](http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/sustainability-
base/index.html)

------
bazzargh
I'm not going to knock the story (oddly I was checking my home's year on year
power reduction just before I read it) but I have to wonder if there is a
connection to the previous story about SuperDaE
(<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5274345>)

Specifically the bit that purportedly showed a screenshot of "Control power to
individual outlets" on the MS network?

I know, probably coincidence.

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gamblor956
As a counterpoint to all the negative comments about this article's typography
and navigation, I viewed this article in IE9 at work and had absolutely no
problems with the typography (which properlyl displays as Segoe UI) or with
navigation.

Who would have thought that a Microsoft website looks best in a Microsoft
browser?

~~~
dublinben
Likewise, I had no problems in Firefox 20. I don't know why people are
complaining so much.

------
l0c0b0x
Thank you for building the city of the future Microsoft, now please build a
simple website that isn't broken for Firefox and Chrome users: >50% the users
on the planet.

------
blaines
Oh, I didn't even notice there was a page 2...

Interesting though, wonder if there's any crossover with their "Smart Home"
projects.

------
auctiontheory
Microsoft realizing it can no longer compete in software and turning instead
to real estate ... will be the mother of all pivots.

~~~
umsm
Technically, they dominate the desktop OS and office suite markets.

~~~
otikik
They didn't need the "Technically" before.

~~~
umsm
I don't think I understand your comment. If you are referring to the english
words of the post, yes, the word "technically" can be used. The parent comment
stated an opinion, I stated a fact.

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sneak
It's not "quietly" if you spend $20k in engineer time to make a parallax-
scrolly webpage to show it off to the world.

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rocky1138
Did anyone else get a 404 when they went to this page?

------
mrcactu5
i like how Microsoft is quietly reinventing itself -- by stealing everyone
else's great ideas. Nonetheless...

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ttrreeww
If that's a city of the future, then I don't want any part of it...

~~~
clauretano
Agreed. As you can see from the image at the top, the "city" they built is a
sprawling mess of buildings quite far from the city (Seattle, in the
background). Depending on your team, you may need to frequently take Shuttle
Connect to get to meetings, or walk a mile or more. If you live within walking
distance from campus, you'll be dependent on a car for everything else.
There's just endless cookie cutter suburbia around there.

~~~
bluedino
Don't most large software companies have a 'campus' feel to their
headquarters? I would imagine back in the 80's when they were
designed/created, nobody wanted to go work inside a towering, souless, black
glass skyscraper for 10 hours a day.

A lot of people would kill for a view of water and trees and the ability to
walk outside at lunch.

~~~
roc
How many campuses have you seen, that are covered in that much concrete?

While greenery is great, I'd rather be able to walk to a proper park than have
it in the form of a glorified berm between parking lots.

~~~
mynameisvlad
You have clearly never been to the Microsoft campus. There's trees and green
everywhere, and parking, for the most part, is in a parking building or
underneath the buildings. There's actually very little overground non-enclosed
parking.

Hell, even the photo itself doesn't have _that_ much exposed concrete apart
from the buildings themselves. You can _clearly_ see that there's a lot of
greenery surrounding buildings.

~~~
roc
I was looking at the pictures on the site. The first image and the fifth. The
fifth, specifically, makes Microsoft's campus look like a dime-a-dozen
corporate/suburban landscape.

Granted the images don't show any parking structures or buildings that appear
to have integrated structures. So it's quite possible the images aren't
representative of the build-out you're referring to.

And, aside from the ballpark, the 'greenery' surrounding the buildings is
exactly the sort of glorified berm I'm talking about: that's hardly functional
greenery. It's better than none, but _far_ less desirable than a proper park
with functional spaces for laying out, taking walks, playing frisbee or catch,
etc.

Kudos to Microsoft for having the ballpark though, and more is due, if it's
one of several such spaces. The rest of the campus though, as characterized in
those pictures, does not look great.

------
zenbowman
lold

------
3dptz
_I'm not going to comment on the substance, but OMG Micro$oft sucks!_

Anything with Microsoft in the title is trollbait I guess.

