Snap One announced it is increasing investments in software research and development to enhance overall performance, reliability and scalability of its solutions through more efficient backend processes and better user experiences. Specifically, the company will invest approximately $65 million annually in R&D, with a large portion going to the 150-person software development team.

“Snap One understands that exceptional user experiences are the key to creating happy long-time customers,” said David Moore, executive vice president of engineering & technology at Snap One. “Software delivers improved experiences by enhancing simplicity, reliability, security, functionality and even maintenance service from Partners. As we continue to release innovative hardware products and remote services, along with integrating new third-party solutions, our software investments will ensure enhanced reliability and strengthen customer trust in our valued partners and hardware brands.”

Snap One has long championed the importance of software development to support the growth of the residential and commercial custom integration (CI) industries, and it offers Snap One partners a catalog of integration drivers with more than 20,000 for its Control4 products. Current initiatives aim to improve the Snap One's cloud infrastructure to support the growth of remote monitoring, ensure all backend systems are scalable for the future, resolve bugs, maintain and expand interoperability, and develop new features and experiences.

“One of the longest-running challenges in both the residential and commercial CI industries has been the tendency of systems to lose functionality, interoperability or simply become outdated as these systems age,” Moore explained. “Our software engineers extend the capabilities, value, and lifetime of hardware through powerful software updates, providing long-term consumer benefits.”

The company is also focusing on enhancements to its OvrC remote system management platform, which can enhance both new and existing Control4 systems by offering integrators remote access to troubleshoot system issues, adjust settings, apply software updates and even reset equipment. Users of Snap One’s Araknis, Control4, Luma, Binary and WattBox products can expect enhancements to performance and functionality down the line, continuing the recent influx of software releases that provided Snap One Partners with access to colored lighting control, Daylight Agent lighting automation, Ryff-to-MoIP capability, a new MultiDisplay Manager for digital signage and voice control through Control4 Halo remotes. Operations-focused improvements have included reducing Control4 mobile app connection times, increasing intercom reliability and using predictive tools to proactively prevent more than 40 outages.

According to Alex Mann, Snap One senior vice president of engineering for cloud, data science, and cybersecurity, the software team’s work is vital to stay ahead of bad actors, grow cloud capabilities and maintain reliability as demands on data centers and other infrastructure grows. 

“Right now, we remediate more than 20 vulnerabilities each month to stay ahead of hackers, which is a never-ending battle,” Mann said. “At the same time, we are continually adding to our total cloud storage and processing capabilities and have boosted our cloud infrastructure to provide 99.95 percent reliability in more than 100 countries. Additionally, the OvrC platform will be dual-hosted in two data centers by the end of this year, enhancing reliability and speed to support our partners’ customer relationships.”

In both the short- and long-term, Snap One sees these investments as a critical competitive measure to keep pace with the rapid release of IoT devices, improve usability and desirability among consumers and businesses and ensure platform stability and security.

“We are making it easier for our partners to install, program and troubleshoot systems; making it easier for our users to customize and reliably enjoy their experiences; and making it easier to keep up with future needs through new architectures, expanded cloud capabilities and consistent third-party driver development,” Moore concluded. “The renewed investment focus on software will enable Snap One to continue as a leader in software innovation and deliver increasingly more value to our customers and the CI community at large.”

For more information, visit: snapone.com.