Could a Virtual Home Controller in the Cloud Have Mass Market Appeal?
October 31, 2011

A well-designed Home Controller Server running on the appropriate hardware in the cloud is certainly familiar technology to computer hardware and software engineers. But are home automation companies willing to invest the development dollars necessary to convert a simpler home controller to a multi-threaded server process running online in state-of-the art server hardware in the cloud computing center?

For sure leading home automation manufacturers have hardware and software engineers already on staff so what's the hurdle? After all your home controller is nothing more than a specal purpose computer. Well, it could be an order of magnitude leap in complexity dealing with a multitasking computer operating system essentially treating the online request from your home to "execute sunset lighting scene " as an online transaction handled by a server process designed to retrieve the appropriate context representing your home and respond with a command string your "thin" home client device will recognize as the correct lighting control commands for your system.

But sophisticated online transaction processing systems have been installed to operate ATM networks and Stock Exchanges around the world since the late 1970s. So changing the home automation system architecture to a remote client, host server structure is certainly doable if the HA product company is willing to make the investment in systems development.

To me this investment would only make sense if the HA company could dramatically increase their market share by offering a home automation solution that had all the capabilities of the leading systems available today at a fraction of the cost. Thus creating a true mass market for smart home technology.

If the HA company could offer a thin home controller for $100 and charge a monthly fee by the feature set or subsystem (e.g. entertainment centers, distributed audio/video, lighting controls, climate controls, security, and surveillance systems) it would be possible for the homeowner to buy home controllers and subsystems incrementally as their needs changed over time.

We agree this sounds like an extension of the cable TV model, but I believe a similar approach is needed for smart home technology to move from "nice to have" to "must have" for the majority of homeowners.

If the above becomes a reality down the road, CE Dealers who sell and install smart home technology may choose to stick with the high end, highly specialized smart home projects or become very proficient installing cloud-based mainstream smart home solutions.

I, for one, would welcome the opportunity to make that business decision!

Comments anyone?