A plain statement first
AFFERENT does not hold government contracts, defense authorizations or security accreditations, and it does not claim any classified capability or military deployment. This page describes, in general terms, how the company's technology could apply to public-sector infrastructure. It should be read as a statement of relevance and not of experience.
The public estate
Governments own and operate a very large amount of physical infrastructure: offices, hospitals, laboratories, depots, utilities, communications sites and installations of many kinds. The mechanical and electrical equipment within that estate is similar to equipment found elsewhere. The context differs in a few respects that matter.
- Dispersion. Facilities are spread across wide areas, including locations that are remote or difficult to reach.
- Age. Public assets are kept in service for a long time, and maintenance backlogs are common.
- Consequence. Some facilities support services whose interruption has effects well beyond the facility.
- Security. Requirements for any connected system are stringent, with good reason.
Where condition awareness applies
Resilient infrastructure
Resilience depends on knowing the state of the equipment that provides power, cooling and water to essential facilities, including the standby systems that are expected to work when primary systems fail.
Distributed sensing
An estate with many sites benefits from a consistent way of observing equipment across all of them, so that condition can be compared and priorities set centrally.
Remote assets
Equipment at unattended or hard-to-reach locations is the most expensive to inspect and the most likely to fail unnoticed. Continuous observation is most valuable where visits are least frequent.
Mission-critical equipment
For equipment that a mission depends on, earlier warning of a developing fault allows maintenance to be planned around operational needs.
Equipment health awareness
Leaders making decisions about readiness and investment are better served by current evidence on equipment condition than by schedules and age-based assumptions.
Design characteristics that are relevant
Edge processing. NODE is designed to analyze signals on the device. That reduces dependence on connectivity and limits the data that leaves a site. Read about edge AI.
Observation without control. NODE is a sensing device and is designed to stay outside control systems.
Security by design. Device identity, encrypted communication and least-privilege access are design principles described on our security page. That page also states clearly that AFFERENT holds no security certifications at present.
Working with public-sector organizations
Public-sector requirements for procurement, security and data handling are specific and demanding. AFFERENT's approach is to understand those requirements directly from the organizations concerned before making any representation about meeting them. Agencies and integrators interested in the technology are welcome to get in touch.