Backwards compatibility: Why is it important again?

What is it, what does it really mean, how does it help me, and why should i care?

“Backwards compatibility” is almost certainly a phrase you are familiar with, any Trend literature you might have read concerning a new release will have had this phrase embedded throughout.

In fact, we repeat these two words so often it has perhaps lost its meaning and become yet another buzz phrase to be issued on demand.

But try to think of any other item in your life where the concept applies.

You bought a TV set in 1980, and, if it still worked, would you expect it to work with digital streaming services offered in 2024?

If you bought a car in 1990, would you not be amazed if the vendor told you tomorrow that airbags, modern braking systems, and satnav could all be easily retrofitted?

Obviously, that is not the case - you could update the TV and car to modern standards, but at a cost which would not only greatly exceed the original selling price of the item but would also be far in excess of a new modern replacement.

So, what is the point of all this, and what is the relevance to buildings: given that you can replace everything with new in order to take advantage of modern technology and practises?

Several things make buildings very different to both a car and TV. In the former, you don’t expect a car to work 24/7 for 25 years, and in the latter, you probably don’t expect it to last 5 years, let alone 25.?

Buildings are usually designed with at least a 25 year life expectancy, and will probably be in use long after that, but technology, cyber security, control practises, compliance demands and general occupier expectations all change far more frequently than that.

So, to paint a picture of a real-world example.

A Trend building from 1984, for example, running with a state of the art (as was the case in the 80s!) current loop network of IQ1 controllers can have one of those controllers replaced pretty simply with an IQ5 controller issued from the factory tomorrow, or next year, or whenever.

And what is more, you can still benefit from most of the new features resident in that IQ5 (modbus integration, T1L remote I/O to name but two) no need to rewire the network, replace the sensors/actuators, rewrite the control strategy from scratch or even replace the supervisory software. So, no “rip and replace” methodology for the system in other words. This is clearly a significant?cost reduction of course,?but also a fairly non-disruptive process in the operation of the building. Data available before will be contiguous with data available after the replacement, alarm histories will be retained, the controls and visibility will be the same, etc.

Many manufacturers now claim to offer this, but they are too late - only one really does do it and has for 40 years or so.

And how does this help when building something brand new where the history is unimportant? “Backwards compatibility” is equal to true “future proofing”, depending where on the timeline you sit - everything becomes history eventually! Our brand-new building today might not be your concern in 25 years, but they will be someone’s…