I have played around the last few months with HA to cover my IoT-needs, and it's the only option if you want to avoid vendor lock-in and fragmented, expensive a

I have played around the last few months with HA to cover my IoT-needs, and it's the only option if you want to avoid vendor lock-in and fragmented, expensive and often insecure ecosystems. It is a joy to use and everything works perfectly once you have set it up. The setup part still requires familiarity with the terminal and some basic unix/posix tools, but having followed the project from the sidelines for some years, there has been a consistent effort to reduce the need to interact with the terminal to use HA. Every release (and they come quite often) brings more user friendly ways of interacting with your devices. Can't wait to see what they can achieve in a few years time! For me there are no other options, my IoT ecosystem has be under my control and contained on my own network. The open nature of the project brings a host of DIY folks together and it clearly shows in how diverse and flexible the system is for those who want to customize and tinker. I'm currently running my setup on a pi3 with a deConz dongle, which controls my IKEA lights, switches etc through the open ZigBee protocol. I have also set up IKEAs outlet switches in combination with cheap temperature sensors from China to make all my "dumb" electrical heaters smart and thermostat-driven. With HA, the opportunities are endless for those who have the prerequisite knowledge to get up to speed with how HA works. The less technically inclined is still bound to the commercial offerings, unless they know someone who can help them set it all up. Come to think of it, I would expect local business offering people to help set up (and maintain) secure IoT solutions based on HA. Does anyone know if this exists already? The setup can be greatly simplified if a business have a standard set of open components and default configurations ready to deploy and build upon.