Stop for a moment. Take a quick count of all the devices in your home—everything from your personal cell phones, work cell phones, and smart TVs to printers, Roku, and iPads. The number may surprise you. A number took Mike Oborny, president of residential for Texadia Systems, by surprise a few months ago when his team installed an enterprise-grade managed network in a home that had 174 networked devices. “When you start counting, the list can keep growing,” he says. “It’s no wonder we are starting to get frustrated with our home networking systems that, just five years ago, seemed fine. The older systems can’t keep up.”
Home networks were once simple—just have your internet and cable provider supply you with an inexpensive wireless router to outfit your home with reasonably consistent internet access. Today’s automated homes have rapidly evolved into a complex web of internet-connected devices that are constantly communicating with each other. Because we are so increasingly dependent on these devices, the demands on the home network have changed. An uninterrupted connection is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity.
The brand-new technology today’s managed network manages that traffic and essentially gives each device its own lane—and runs fast.
Introducing the internet of everything—the enterprise-grade managed network. “Imagine going 100 miles per hour in the HOV Lane on your commute home knowing that no other traffic could impede your progress,” Oborny says. “That’s a managed network.”
Networking equipment originally designed for critical enterprise environments is now required in the modern home. Compared to consumer-grade networks, enterprise-grade solutions offer vastly improved performance, a lifespan of 100,000 hours, limitless scalability, and unparalleled visibility. VLANs, virtual LAN, are like lanes of traffic for your home that are fast, reliable, and secure. Texadia Systems works with an enterprise-grade supplier to select and configure equipment designed by world-class manufacturers. Fortune 500 companies across the globe are built on these network infrastructures, proving their performance and reliability through the test of time. Now you can have this system for your home to control everything on the network, including home automation, security cameras, and NVR recorders, smart TVs, the ability to stream movies and television, gaming systems such as Xbox, laptops, iPads, cell phones, and even your guest’s devices. Texadia takes a product that is infinitely configurable and tailors it specifically for each unique automated home environment.
“It’s not uncommon for someone to stream music from the pool, while someone else is streaming music from the study, and another is looking at photos from a friend’s European vacation streaming on the Apple TV, while yet another family member is streaming a Netflix show, and another is playing Xbox,” Oborny says. “All the while, you’re accessing the home’s security system from your vacation in Hawaii. This is the way we are living today, which means we’ve outgrown our home’s old network. The brand-new technology today’s managed network manages that traffic and essentially gives each device its own lane—and runs fast. It also knows what lane to use when you bring home a new device. Every type of technology used gets its own lane. Of course, this system is much more expensive than your traditional ISP router system, but our customers find it’s more than worth it. It’s not like we have an IT guy down the hall at home like we do at the office. An upgraded networking system has become a necessity in many homes today.”
To get started on procuring a managed network for your home, start with an evaluation. Texadia asks homeowners for the plans of their home to use as a coverage map. This helps them present an estimate of the required equipment to cover every room and outdoor area of the home they want to be covered. “From installation to operation, from a homeowner’s perspective, it’s pretty simple,” Oborny says. “Most people think the network they have is just OK, or they don’t think it can be better. It’s absolutely possible to improve your home’s network beyond your expectations.”
Texadia Systems, through its vendor partner, manages every solution it deploys. Enterprise-grade networks are designed to work powerfully in a wide variety of environments, and precise configuration by certified engineers is required. To know if a managed network solution is enterprise-grade, check the following:
Security. Ensures holistic security across applications, infrastructure, and processes.
Control. Maintains control of content no matter where the data is accessed.
Productivity. Enables the end-user to accomplish tasks smoothly and efficiently.
Integration. Smoothly extends into the existing framework and minimizes user disruptions.
Reliability. Ensures the integrity and consistency across all applications and transactions.
Scalable. Maintains quality of service as the load increases.
Availability. Assures that services and data are always connected.
Interoperable. Effectively and safely shares data and interfaces with external systems.
Management. COS Agreement (Continuity of Service) offers efficient management for sharing information across all other devices, applications, and systems.
Support. Thoroughly supports the technology infrastructure needs across the entire environment.
Texadia Systems, LLC is an audio-visual design and integration firm that specializes in both commercial and high-end residential solutions for clients across the U.S. and Canada. From corporate boardrooms, conference rooms and collaboration spaces, restaurant, and hotel solutions to high-end residential technologies, Texadia Systems takes a consultative approach to understand your needs. To learn more about how Texadia Systems can bring your home up to speed with a managed network, visit texadiasystems.com.
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