The alliance between Bentley Systems and Microsoft has been further expanded. The two companies announced this week their continued alliance will drive advancing infrastructure for smart city urban planning and smart construction—two areas with expansive opportunities as both old and new cities globally address climate change resilience and smart growth through advanced technologies.
Combining Technologies
The alliance will combine Microsoft’s Azure IoT (Internet of Things) Digital Twins and Azure Maps with Bentley’s iTwins platform, enabling engineers, architects, constructors, and city planners to work with a comprehensive city-scale digital twin. This will enable these stakeholders to optimize operational efficiency, empower better decision-making, and reduce costs and streamline collaboration.
The Bentley and Microsoft alliance builds on Bentley Systems’ global leadership in engineering software for AECOM (architecture, engineering, construction, operations, and maintenance) professionals—with particular strength in critical infrastructure, road and rail networks, public works, and utilities, and smart city solutions.
At Bentley, we believe that infrastructure digital twins can empower engineers, constructors, and owner-operators to design, build, and operate infrastructure assets that are more cost-effective, more resilient, and more sustainable.
“At Bentley, we believe that infrastructure digital twins can empower engineers, constructors, and owner-operators to design, build and operate infrastructure assets that are more cost-effective, more resilient, and more sustainable,” said Greg Bentley, CEO, Bentley Systems. “With Azure as the foundation of our cloud services, our offerings are more broadly scaled and differentiated by the further integrations of Microsoft technologies. We are excited to extend our partnership to bring new digital twin advances to infrastructure engineering organizations and their constituents.”
“With Azure IoT, Azure Digital Twins and Bentley’s iTwins platform, the world’s infrastructure — vital to our economies and environment — stands to gain so much by enabling people to create comprehensive digital models of an entire environment,” said Casey McGee, vice president Partner Development, US One Commercial Partner, Microsoft. “Our expanded strategic alliance with Bentley Systems opens up new opportunities for innovation and will accelerate the benefits of digital twins for infrastructure engineering organizations and, more broadly, society at large.”
Case Study: Dublin, Ireland
The capital city of Dublin, Ireland, with a population of more than 1.2 million, is working with Bentley Systems to develop a large-scale digital twin as part of the city’s planning efforts. “To overcome the challenges of getting public review and comment for new development projects in Dublin during the pandemic, we turned to Microsoft and Bentley to create an interactive virtual environment to ensure our citizens could provide their input from the safety of their homes and keep the development projects on track,” said Jamie Cudden, smart city program manager at Dublin City Council. “The impact of the pandemic has forced cities like Dublin to accelerate their digital transformation journeys. Working with Microsoft and Bentley we are reimagining how interactive virtual environments and digital twins can support citizens to engage from the safety of their own home on new development projects in their local communities. Working with these technology partners, we are building an adaptable and scalable solution based on Microsoft Teams and Bentley’s OpenCities Planner that will set the standard for the future of planning and public engagement in cities.”
Dublin, Ireland is building a digital twin of their city for smart urban planning. They are leveraging Bentley’s and Microsoft’s technologies like Microsoft Teams and Bentley’s OpenCities Planner. (Image: Bentley / All rights reserved.)
In addition to sustaining infrastructure development in smart cities, project digital twins are facilitating industrial construction. Bentley Systems was recognized by Microsoft as the 2020 MSUS Partner Award winner for the Industry-Automotive category, in which an automotive factory uses the HoloLens 2 with Bentley’s SYNCHRO 4D construction-modeling software.
Similarly, FC Barcelona, one of the oldest football clubs in Europe, is partnering with Bentley as part of the club’s renovation of Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium, the largest in Europe, currently under construction amid the pandemic. The project will upgrade streets in the neighborhood and increase capacity at the stadium to revitalize an aging stadium and for the club to compete with other top European cities.
“Bentley has been working with FC Barcelona on the Espai Barça Project for over three years, helping the architects, the construction team and the club complete an extraordinary challenge — delivering a major renovation of the stadium while it continues to host matches,” said William T. Mannarelli, director of Real Estate & Espai Barça. “With Bentley’s SYNCHRO 4D construction-modeling software running on the Azure cloud, we can apply cutting-edge techniques to manage the complex and precise scheduling required to keep the stadium open during construction.”
Bentley’s ProjectWise, in conjunction with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Teams, has empowered Bentley’s users to work from home safely while collaborating virtually on projects anywhere in the world.
The companies will further combine Bentley’s infrastructure digital twins expertise with Microsoft’s cloud technologies for:
- ProjectWise 365 — an instant-on, 100% Azure cloud-based solution that increases the speed and quality of infrastructure design and collaboration, which will be available through Microsoft’s commercial marketplace
- Bentley’s iTwins platform to leverage Microsoft’s Azure Digital Twins, Azure IoT Hub, Azure Time Series Insights, and other Microsoft cloud services, for users to rapidly store and process operational data
On Oct. 20, at Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure Conference, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will join Greg Bentley for a discussion of the companies’ new infrastructure digital twin alliance priorities. Register at Year in Infrastructure 2020.
About Bentley Systems
Bentley Systems (Nasdaq: BSY) is an infrastructure engineering software company. We provide innovative software to advance the world’s infrastructure – sustaining both the global economy and environment. Our industry-leading software solutions are used by professionals, and organizations of every size, for the design, construction, and operations of roads and bridges, rail and transit, water and wastewater, public works and utilities, buildings and campuses, and industrial facilities. Our offerings include MicroStation-based applications for modeling and simulation, ProjectWise for project delivery, AssetWise for asset and network performance, and the iTwin platform for infrastructure digital twins. Bentley Systems employs more than 4,000 colleagues and generates annual revenues of more than $700 million, in 172 countries. www.bentley.com