About Vigilent
Vigilent provides AI-powered applications and services that optimize facility environments and improve their value, operation, and sustainability.
Our Story
How Vigilent achieved market leadership in dynamic cooling management
Vigilent combines strengths from multiple disciplines such as machine learning, control engineering, wireless mesh networking, analytics, and software development.
The initial work that would lead to Vigilent started when Cliff was working on his doctorate at MIT, where he studied the connections between machine learning and control engineering. After Cliff joined Johnson Controls, he applied these ideas to the challenges of energy management. Then, moving to academia at U.C. Berkeley, he integrated his ideas with the latest wireless mesh networking technology.
Cliff left U.C. Berkeley to launch Federspiel Controls, which was incorporated in 2008. With the participation of the State of California, he applied the concepts he had developed to significantly improve the energy efficiency of HVAC systems in commercial buildings. The business subsequently expanded to serve mission-critical facilities: data centers and telecom facilities.
In 2011, the company was renamed Vigilent, combining the words vigilance and intelligent to reflect the unique value it delivers through intelligent solutions that provide customers with unprecedented vigilance of their mission critical facilities. Vigilent has continued its rapid growth into new markets and geographies, assisted with investment capital from Accel Partners and two of the company’s customers, NTT Facilities, Inc. and TELUS Corporation.
Today, Vigilent counts among its customers some of the world’s largest telecommunications, data center colocation, enterprise, government, and Internet organizations, including Avnet, Digital Realty, Hutchison Telecom, IBM, Itaú Unibanco, NTT, State of California, Spark, TELUS, Verizon, and vXchnge. The company has achieved global reach via direct sales, strategic distribution partnerships, and hundreds of deployments worldwide.
The key to the growth of Vigilent is its talented and enthusiastic team, which includes top software developers and algorithm scientists, operations and manufacturing experts, and a passionate customer support team. Its culture is highly collaborative, fun, and focused on its customers’ success.
Vigilent Timeline
2008
Federspiel Controls incorporated, and installed its first three systems in data centers.
2010
NTT becomes a customer, and the company ships its first systems outside North America.
2011
The company is renamed Vigilent, to reflect the unique values it delivers to mission-critical customers. Vigilent wins Verizon’s 2011 Green and Sustainable Supplier Award.
2012
Vigilent completes a venture round led by Accel Partners. NTT and Vigilent win the Green Enterprise IT Award. NTT invests in Vigilent and becomes a distribution partner. Vigilent included in the Global Cleantech 100, and is named by Lux Research as a Top 10 Emerging Tech Company. TELUS becomes a customer and becomes the second customer to invest in Vigilent.
2013
Vigilent wins the Defense Energy and Utility Technology Challenge. Vigilent moves headquarters to Oakland, California. Vigilent establishes European subsidiary, Vigilent Europe Limited, serving the EMEA region.
2014
Electronic Environments Corporation and Vigilent establish strategic partnership. Vigilent expands product to address technical and administrative offices. Schneider Electric announces partnership to integrate Vigilent technology into StruxureWare for Data Centers. Vigilent reaches half billion kilowatt-hour energy savings milestone.
2015
Schneider Electric launches Cooling Optimize globally, with Vigilent technology at its core. Schneider Electric wins the 2015 DCS ‘DCIM Product of the Year’ highlighting Cooling Optimize. Vigilent selected as ‘Best Turnkey Solution’ at Internet of Things Awards 2015.
2016
Vigilent is named a Bloomberg New Energy Pioneer as a game-changing innovator that is revolutionizing the energy sector. Vigilent wins the TiE50 Award, in the Internet of Things category. Vigilent wins Fierce Innovation Award for Data Centers and is named ‘Best Green Application.’ Vigilent selected as the winner of the 2016 IoT Innovator Award in the “Best IoT Software – Commercial and Industrial” category.
2017
Vigilent selected as the winner of the 2017 IoT Breakthrough Award as the Industrial IoT Innovation of the Year. IDC Names Vigilent an “IDC Innovator” for supporting smarter data center infrastructure supporting dynamic and agile IT. Vigilent again wins TiEcon’s TiE50 award.
2018
Vigilent and Siemens announce global partnership to deliver dynamic thermal optimization to data centers. Hitachi Vantara announces that Vigilent technology will be part of its new Smart Data Center offering focused on self-optimizing data centers. Vigilent joins the ‘Step Up Declaration’ at the Global Climate Action Summit, underscoring its commitment to help the global economy decarbonize. Vigilent selected as one of the 20 Most Innovative IoT Companies to Watch.
2019
Vigilent is selected as the Best Autonomous Data Center Operation Solution by the Technology Elite Awards, and wins the East Bay Innovation Award in the Clean Tech category. Vigilent AI technology is highlighted in articles issued by Data Economy, Datacenter Dynamics, Data Center Knowledge and Cleantech Group. Vigilent continues to back climate action by joining with 75 companies and the AFL-CIO to call for aggressive action in support of the Paris Climate Agreement.
2020
Vigilent responds to the Covid-19 pandemic by expanding our remote installation and support capabilities for customers and partners. Vigilent is named Top Product and is also selected as the Judge’s Choice in the 2020 Environment + Energy Leader Awards; the event was keynoted by Vigilent President and CTO Dr. Clifford Federspiel. Vigilent is named winner of the 2020 IoT Innovator Award in the HVAC Optimization category.
2021
Vigilent and BGIS, a global leader in facility management, announce partnership that leverages Vigilent technology to improve HVAC operation for BGIS clients. Vigilent A.I. is deployed to monitor and help mitigate the risk of airborne virus infection in buildings. Dr. Clifford Federspiel leads creation of the NIADE (Non-Infectious Air Delivery Equivalent) metric to assess Covid-19 risk in occupied spaces. For this innovation, he is selected as an Environment + Energy 100 Leader. Vigilent receives two building awards: Best IoT Software – Autonomous Buildings, and Best Use of AI in Building Performance. The Vigilent Dynamic Cooling Management System for data centers is selected as a Solar Impulse Efficient Solution that delivers significant environmental benefits.
2022
Vigilent joins Siemens’ Xcelerator initiative, to help drive digital transformation for global enterprises. Colocation leader Evoque announces that Vigilent AI reduced their data center PUE by 20%, and plans to work with Vigilent partner BGIS to deploy our technology across all Evoque data centers. Vigilent wins the “IoT Software – Smart Buildings” category of the IoT Innovator Awards.
