Computime Drives Smart Home Innovation with Real-Time IoT Monitoring on AWS

Hong Kong–based Computime advances sustainable living through connected buildings, robotic automation, and energy-saving technology. One of its businesses, SALUS Controls, is a technology company focused on smart homes and energy-efficient products. The company designs and builds smart home devices for sale in 14 countries, manufacturing more than 1 million thermostats each month.

A recent report by Statista estimates that smart home technology will be in one third of all homes by 2028, and smart heating, lighting, and security systems controlled by smartphone apps will be commonplace. This represents a huge market opportunity for SALUS Controls, which offers solutions in all three areas. “It’s clear that customer experience will be key to realizing the sales possibilities across our markets,” says Dean Jepson, managing director of SALUS Controls.

When SALUS Controls set out to improve its customers’ user experience, the company’s first target was log-in times and app performance, which were slowing during spikes in app usage. The underlying issue was a lack of scalability on the Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure which connected customer apps to their devices. “We were looking for an IoT solution that could resolve our scalability and latency issues,” says Jason Chan, software director at Computime.

To solve its scalability and performance challenges, SALUS Controls turned to Amazon Web Services (AWS). SALUS Controls was already running its data analytics platform on AWS, using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances for compute, Amazon Redshift as a data warehouse, and Amazon OpenSearch Service for real-time operational data analysis.

IT personnel at Salus Controls worked with AWS to deploy AWS IoT Core, which can help connect billions of IoT devices and route trillions of messages to AWS services without customers having to manage infrastructure. “The advantage of AWS IoT Core was that AWS handled the operating system, the servers, and the load balancing for us,” comments Chan. “We could focus on software development.”

By migrating to AWS IoT Core, SALUS Controls eliminated its scaling challenges. The company can ensure app performance is maintained and log-in times are always fast, even when IoT data traffic jumps 50 percent or more. Chan adds, “AWS IoT Core is also providing cost savings and freeing up resources that we can reinvest back into our product development.”

Furthermore, the migration will simplify the evolution of the company’s smart home products. “The migration has optimized our app's responsiveness for real-time, seamless interactions,” Chan explains. “It paves the way for new features like device sharing and simplified gateway management without factory resets.”

The company can also focus on developing new artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for settings optimization, maintenance scheduling, and other use cases. “We can swiftly innovate and adapt to market needs, helping people run heating, lighting, and cooling systems in more efficient ways,” states Chan. 

With AWS IoT Core, SALUS Controls looks forward to capitalizing on growth opportunities in the coming years. Says Jepson, “Migrating to AWS has given us confidence that we can take advantage of a rapidly growing market.” The move has also provided better support for innovation. Chan adds, “We’ve improved user experiences, empowering real-time interactions and intuitive features like device sharing while simplifying infrastructure management.”

When spikes occur in IoT data traffic, the AWS infrastructure automatically scales so that app performance won’t fall. As a result, customers can reliably adjust their heating systems during cold snaps when everyone wants to warm their homes. Jepson explains, “In the event of connectivity issues affecting heating functionality, it's not merely a technical concern but also a matter of comfort for our customers. Working with reliable technology partners like AWS helps us maintain high service levels.”

The company can also continue with its robust pace of innovation. Each year, SALUS Controls and other Computime businesses file more than 200 patents on product innovations. “Using AWS, we can deliver our business strategy to create smarter, interconnected living spaces for an evolving market,” Jepson concludes.