Mar 02, 2022 by Toktabek, Tim
The following article is an excerpt from Mercku’s Smart Home as a Service EBook – our expert-written,
Across the globe, millions of consumers seek the convenience, comfort, security, and energy efficiency that comes with building a connected home. This is a reality with the aid of smart home technology.
While it’s easy to imagine the smart home as the next technological revolution, we’re not quite there yet.
Consumers want a seamless experience, not a complicated puzzle of endless devices that may or may not communicate with each other to create the perfect smart home ecosystem. When you buy a car, you don’t shop for its components individually, so why should your smart home shopping experience be any different?
A smart home is, by definition, a home that could be monitored and managed remotely. Users can interact with devices through software applications on their phones, computers, or tablets that are connected to the devices via wire/wireless using sensors.
Source: Mercku Smart Home as a Service Ebook
Smart home systems have several applications:
A smart home, Navigant research claims, is more than just individual connected devices and DIY automation solutions. Instead, it requires a platform that uses software and services to support an ecosystem of interconnected devices.
Simply put, having a set of smart devices across your home doesn’t necessarily make it a smart home, but having a set of interconnected smart devices does. Smart home devices and systems, as a part of the Internet of Things (IoT), should operate by communicating with each other and sharing information to provide homeowners with a unified experience.
Consumers face the problem of having to work with several of the countless smart home devices in the market and can’t depend on one to meet all their requirements. Consumers want interoperability, ease of use, and data privacy.
Ultimately, the goal of a smart home is to act autonomously and intuitively to meet homeowners’ needs learned through artificial intelligence. This is where an understanding of IoT is needed.
Source: Mercku Smart Home as a Service Ebook
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the connection of everyday objects, like a coffee maker, with the internet, creating a virtual object in the cloud that can be managed remotely.
It is a network of devices capable of gathering, storing, and transmitting historical data between them, and can be controlled through an interface, like a mobile phone or tablet, to perform a service.
Sticking with the coffee maker example, you can use an app interface to schedule a time in the future when you want your coffee to be ready. Now imagine this in the form of a service provided to you.
You’ve probably heard of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), but what does “as-a-service” mean?
The term showed up in the early 2000s and is used to describe a service facilitated via the cloud, without the requirement for on-premises equipment. Meaning the hardware and software costs are all handled by the service provider and not by the user.
It is known primarily for its business model – instead of selling a product with more upfront costs (e. g., buying a smart thermostat), this model relies on a monthly subscription. Included with the subscription are added benefits such as enhanced customer and technical support, added network security, and more, catering to consumer needs.
This shift to cloud computing is already happening in the home, and many of the applications and data that are currently managed on-premises will soon be hosted in the cloud. For example, home broadband and cable television are shifting towards remote management by service providers, and soon energy management and home security will too.
Even though wireless connectivity, IoT, and AI, are all innovations we undermine today, smart home technology has come a long way in a relatively short amount of time. However, setting up a smart home on your own gets complicated.
When connectivity is not enough, Smart Home as a Service (SHaaS) is the solution. This business model equips consumers with a managed service experience instead of a device-based strategy, which is the current trend.
Consumers want the convenience of a smart home without the endless tasks and costs associated with it. Instead of worrying about which products to select or how to install and monitor them, service providers, internet service providers (ISP’s), or cable TV providers do it for them.
The smart home concept brings a seamless experience to its users by interconnecting smart devices across the house providing new benefits and features. However, several problems arise with turning this concept into a reality, where a major issue is caused by several WiFi standards being used all at once.
If the concept of Smart Home as a Service has caught your attention and you want to learn more about it, check our SHaaS EBook to gain deep insights and statistical data that will make you well versed with the ins and outs of the SHaaS concept.
Thanks for reading! This article is an excerpt from Mercku’s Smart Home as a Service EBook – our expert-written,
Want to learn more about WiFi instead? Our team of experts has put together an eBook that explores the past, present and future of WiFi! Read our WiFi: The Definitive Guide eBook for ultimate WiFi mastery.
For more information about Mercku’s Connectivity Suite, our hardware and how you can partner with Mercku, please reach out to the team at connect@mercku.com.
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