Standardizing naming conventions and data structures for facility life cycle workflows is a big step toward enabling academic health enterprises to address asset capacity, location, condition, mission-readiness, liabilities and opportunities. Kimon Onuma profiles how the Department of Defense Military Health System and Veterans Affairs are redefining big data generated by large and small projects across 210 million square feet, and funneling it into actionable reports to reduce cost, time, and energy, increase quality and customer satisfaction, and respond to unforeseen challenges. He enumerates principles for success including engaging stakeholders, use of mobile technology, separating apps from data, and leveraging external industry resources.