Tridium & the Niagara Framework

An operating system for your building

Niagara Framework® is a comprehensive software infrastructure built to solve one hard problem: getting device-level data all the way up to the enterprise. It acts as a central console that connects real-time operational data to the people and systems managing smart buildings, data centers, industrial processes, and smart cities.

Most buildings accumulate silos — a chiller plant from one vendor, lighting from another, metering from a third, each speaking its own protocol. Niagara provides the cyber-secure device connectivity and data normalization needed to unlock that data and put it in one place, in one vocabulary. There are now over one million instances of Niagara running in hundreds of thousands of projects worldwide, refined across two decades of customer-driven releases.

Not just monitoring — control

The control engine at Niagara's core is what separates it from a dashboard product. You don't only watch data flows; you write logic sequences that act on what the data shows. Integrators use Niagara's built-in data management and presentation applications to manage histories, schedules, and alarms, and to build custom operator interfaces — or to drop in graphical UI templates from the large ecosystem of Niagara partners who specialize in graphics and dashboarding.

The Niagara product family

• JACE controllers — the Java Application Control Engine is the supervisory device at the edge, hosting the Niagara station and connecting to physical devices across serial (RS-485/232), IP, LON, and analog or digital signals. The current JACE 9000 keeps the compact form factor of the 8000 while adding a quad-core processor, double the storage and RAM, and advanced security protocols and encryption.
• Niagara Supervisor — the server tier above a network of JACEs, Niagara Edge devices, and field controllers. It serves real-time graphics to standard web browsers and handles analytics, centralized data logging and trending, archiving to external databases, alarming, dashboarding, system navigation, master scheduling, database management, and integration with enterprise software.
• Niagara Edge 10 — Niagara pushed all the way down to the equipment level.
• Niagara Analytics — turning trend data into fault detection and efficiency insight.
• Niagara Cyber Defense & Enterprise Security — hardening and access control for a system that now sits on your network.
• Niagara Drivers & Video Integration — the connectors that bring third-party and non-HVAC systems into the same console.

Open protocols, no lock-in

A Niagara platform combines open and proprietary protocols on one scalable foundation, supporting an extensive range including BACnet, Modbus, and LonWorks. Niagara 4 releases and the underlying JACE hardware are BACnet Advanced Workstation (B-AWS) and BACnet Building Controller (B-BC) compliant.

The practical consequence for a building owner: your front end is no longer hostage to whoever installed the original controllers. When a piece of equipment gets replaced, the new one gets a driver, not a new head end.

Security and currency

Niagara 4.13 and later prioritize data protection with modern encryption, fortified user access controls, and secure boot. Controls systems are network assets now, and an out-of-date Niagara station is a real exposure. Part of what we do for clients on maintenance agreements is keep stations on a supported release rather than letting them drift for a decade.

How Salmon Mechanical works with Niagara

We are one of Utah's few authorized Tridium resellers, trained and credentialed to design, deploy, and service Niagara-based systems — from a single JACE in one building to a Supervisor overseeing a multi-site portfolio. We're commonly brought in to unify a campus that has drifted across three or four controls vendors, or to take over a Niagara system whose original integrator is gone.

And because we're a full-scope mechanical contractor as well as an integrator, the equipment, piping, ductwork, controls, and commissioning can all sit under one contract.

Talk to our Niagara team

Learn more

Read Tridium's own overview at tridium.com — Niagara Framework, then see all the building automation platforms we're certified on.