đ§ #026: Emmanuel Daniel of Microsoft on building smart from the ground up
âYou see all these devices, you see all these components, and all of this data. You're like, can I do more by bringing all this together to create a unified experience? Not only for the facilities manager. But also for the owner developer and the final end user of the space and building. So for me, it was shock, admiration, and the opportunity to transform this industry.â
âEmmanuel Daniel
Welcome to Nexus, a newsletter and podcast for smart people applying smart building technologyâhosted by James Dice. If youâre new to Nexus, you might want to start here.
The Nexus podcast (Apple | Spotify | YouTube | Other apps) is our chance to explore and learn with the brightest in our industryâtogether. The project is directly funded by listeners like you who have joined the Nexus Pro membership community.
You can join Nexus Pro to get a weekly-ish deep dive, access to the Nexus Vendor Landscape, and invites to exclusive events with a community of smart buildings nerds.
Episode 26 is a conversation with Emmanuel Daniel, who is responsible for building and delivering the technology transformation strategy for Microsoft's campuses around the world.

Summary
- We talked about the history of smart building tech on Microsoftâs campuses, and then dove into the project going on right now at Microsoft HQâthe Redmond Campus Modernization Project.
- When one of the worldâs leading technology companies builds a new campus, how smart is it? The answer is pretty damn smart.
Mentions and Links
- Accenture Energy-Smart Buildings 2011 (9:12)
- Microsoft Campus Modernization (15:01)
- Azure (43:29)
- DTDL (43:32)
You can find Emmanuel Daniel on LinkedIn.
Enjoy!
Music credit: The Garden State by Audiobinger
THE ABOVE AUDIO, VIDEO, SUMMARY, AND LINKS WILL ALWAYS BE FREE. PODCAST DEEP DIVES WITH MY REACTIONS, MY TOP HIGHLIGHTS, AND THE FULL TRANSCRIPT ARE EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS OF NEXUS PRO.
Hereâs this weekâs deep dive outline:
- My reaction, including highlights with timestamps:
- Intro to the building world: âshock, admiration, and the opportunity to transform this industryâ
- Emmanuel answers Jamesâ favorite question - a camp may be forming around pain points / evolving user expectations?
- Microsoft campuses - evolution from a focus on optimizing efficiency to focus on user experience
- 5 key layers of Redmond campus modernization: master plan, environment and building layout, infrastructure, platform, experience
- What it means to build smart from the ground up
- The business case for smart buildings at Microsoft
- Emmanuelâs definition of âplatformâ
- Simplifying the ideation process by focusing on behaviors instead of personas
- How Microsoft is bridging traditional silos on this new campus
- What is sensor rationalization?
- The platform layer, providing use cases
- Considerations from the cutting edge: cost, the meaning of space, effectiveness, and the operations model
- Full transcript
âYou see all these devices, you see all these components, and all of this data. You're like, can I do more by bringing all this together to create a unified experience? Not only for the facilities manager. But also for the owner developer and the final end user of the space and building. So for me, it was shock, admiration, and the opportunity to transform this industry.â
âEmmanuel Daniel
Welcome to Nexus, a newsletter and podcast for smart people applying smart building technologyâhosted by James Dice. If youâre new to Nexus, you might want to start here.
The Nexus podcast (Apple | Spotify | YouTube | Other apps) is our chance to explore and learn with the brightest in our industryâtogether. The project is directly funded by listeners like you who have joined the Nexus Pro membership community.
You can join Nexus Pro to get a weekly-ish deep dive, access to the Nexus Vendor Landscape, and invites to exclusive events with a community of smart buildings nerds.
Episode 26 is a conversation with Emmanuel Daniel, who is responsible for building and delivering the technology transformation strategy for Microsoft's campuses around the world.

Summary
- We talked about the history of smart building tech on Microsoftâs campuses, and then dove into the project going on right now at Microsoft HQâthe Redmond Campus Modernization Project.
- When one of the worldâs leading technology companies builds a new campus, how smart is it? The answer is pretty damn smart.
Mentions and Links
- Accenture Energy-Smart Buildings 2011 (9:12)
- Microsoft Campus Modernization (15:01)
- Azure (43:29)
- DTDL (43:32)
You can find Emmanuel Daniel on LinkedIn.
Enjoy!
Music credit: The Garden State by Audiobinger
THE ABOVE AUDIO, VIDEO, SUMMARY, AND LINKS WILL ALWAYS BE FREE. PODCAST DEEP DIVES WITH MY REACTIONS, MY TOP HIGHLIGHTS, AND THE FULL TRANSCRIPT ARE EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS OF NEXUS PRO.
Hereâs this weekâs deep dive outline:
- My reaction, including highlights with timestamps:
- Intro to the building world: âshock, admiration, and the opportunity to transform this industryâ
- Emmanuel answers Jamesâ favorite question - a camp may be forming around pain points / evolving user expectations?
- Microsoft campuses - evolution from a focus on optimizing efficiency to focus on user experience
- 5 key layers of Redmond campus modernization: master plan, environment and building layout, infrastructure, platform, experience
- What it means to build smart from the ground up
- The business case for smart buildings at Microsoft
- Emmanuelâs definition of âplatformâ
- Simplifying the ideation process by focusing on behaviors instead of personas
- How Microsoft is bridging traditional silos on this new campus
- What is sensor rationalization?
- The platform layer, providing use cases
- Considerations from the cutting edge: cost, the meaning of space, effectiveness, and the operations model
- Full transcript




This is a great piece!
I agree.