After working with a few different cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) and talking to quite a few cloud automation companies, it has become clear that cloud services are quite similar to the home automation space.

If you just need one (device|service), it can be simple to setup but extending it is not.

For example, if we compare adding a new “smart” light switch vs spinning up a new virtual machine. Both are only good for one thing until you either connect them to other devices or a controller.

Sometimes things stop working and you don’t know why so you have to (power cycle|reset) them

You can buy your (devices|services) from different vendors, but you need a way to bridge them together (zigbee + crestron, aws + gcp). Multi-cloud and poly-cloud fit this example well.

Security is paramount. If your (front door lock|private data) is connected to the system, the system needs to be secure.

You can pay a lot of money to consultants to build the system and have no idea how to manage the system

For controllers, you can have a very simple point and click interface with no advanced features that will turn (devices|services) on/off. Or you can have a complex controller that allows you to configure things exactly as you want. You can also operate without a controller and have a limited set of people who know how to maintain the system.