Johnson Controls, which supplies builiding technology for healthcare, schools, data centers, airports, stadiums and industrial usage, has acquired FogHorn, a Silicon Valley start-up offering Edge AI software for the industrial and commercial Internet of Things (IoT). Financial terms were not disclosed.
"Value is increasingly being created by applying intelligence at the edge-device level to create real-time, secure, actionable insights," said Johnson Controls CTO Vijay Sankaran. "By pervasively integrating Foghorn's world class Edge AI throughout our OpenBlue solution portfolio, we are accelerating the pace towards our vision of smart, autonomous buildings that continuously learn, adapt and automatically respond to the needs of the environment and people."
As the number of sensors and amount of data in buildings continues to grow exponentially, the value of processing data and applying intelligence at the edge, without having to send data to the cloud, becomes increasingly pronounced.
Sastry Malladi, who served as Chief Technology Officer at Foghorn, will join Johnson Controls, reporting to Sankaran as Vice President, OpenBlue Artificial Intelligence.
"We are thrilled to bring the Foghorn team and edge AI capabilities to Johnson Controls and OpenBlue," said Sastry Malladi, Foghorn's Chief Technology Officer. "By combining our respective strengths, Johnson Controls can make an even bigger impact on continuing to address some of the world's most pressing challenges of decarbonization, sustainability and energy efficiency, indoor air quality and smart, secure buildings."
