InfluxDB is an open source time series database developed by the company InfluxData. As all time series databases, it is optimized for storage and retrieval of time series data in fields such as operations monitoring, application metrics, Internet of Things, and real-time analytics. In fact, InfluxDB data are very similar to Tridium Niagara histories: timestamps, values and some extra tags / flags.

InfluxDB is completely free for commercial purposes. It could be hosted on premises, on any public cloud or on a serverless InfluxCloud platform. And with a free tier available on InfluxCloud, you can register and get it running within minutes.

InfluxDB comes with script like language Flux designed for querying, analyzing, and acting on data. It has a powerful UI for building custom dashboards to visualize your data. Finally, there is Telegraf – a server agent for collecting and sending metrics and events from databases, systems, and IoT sensors. There are 200+ plugins available, allowing to collect data from all kinds of sources: weather services, IoT devices, automation protocols, cloud databases, hardware metrics etc.

So why might you need to integrate Niagara with InfluxDB? After all, Niagara already has built-in time series database.

• Export Niagara histories to InfluxDB. It can store much more information and query it a lot faster. It can even automatically downsample data as defined in retention policies.
• Use Telegraf to import data into InfluxDB from various sources and then export them into Niagara.
• Build visually stunning dashboards with tools like Grafana using InfluxDB as a data source. Such dashboards can provide an executive level overview of your building management system.
• Feed Niagara histories via InfluxDB into Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software to provide “Single Pane of Glass” experience.