Several years ago I started writing a series about central cooling plants. As I've advanced in my building automation system (BAS) career, I've realized that central cooling plants are one of the most complex systems that a BAS technician will work on.

Well, folks, it's time. Time for me to update one of my most popular posts. A lot has happened since I wrote my two-part series on Tridium.

You can click on the links to read Part 1 and Part 2.

I initially wrote the series as a way to solidify my knowledge around Tridium. Little did I know it would become one of my most popular posts and also a top ranking Google search.

Well, a lot has changed since I wrote those articles. Tridium released a new solution called N4 (Generation 4 of Tridium essentially), and to answer a ton of questions I am updating my series.

Systems Integration is a tough topic. I've been planning to write this series for a long time. This series is going to take you from zero to systems integration hero.

In this series you will learn the process I created when I first started systems integration way back in 2008. I've since refined this process to align more closely with enterprise architecture models, but at the end of the day, it's still my same process, just a little bit cleaner :-D

In my earlier article, I went through a level review of Tridium. Much to my surprise that what is Tridium article became one of my most read articles and I continue to get e-mails asking me for greater detail.

A few of the questions I receive are:

• How does a JACE really work?
• What are the pros and cons of a platform sold through VAR's(Value Added Resellers)?
• What do I need to know if I am looking into Tridium as an offering?

All of these are good and pertinent questions. As I mentioned in my earlier article Tridium exists as a middleware BAS platform that provides the ability to connect to other systems via API's (Application Programming Interfaces).