For those effected in case you haven't heard...
<rant 1>
I don't have a dog in this fight but if I were and Insteon user I would be livid. Smart controls for homes, offices, warehouses, farms et al are behind critical infrastructure and thus what Insteon did was simply unacceptable. My head spins with how many things could go seriously wrong with an absolute shutdown or major outage like this with no warning.
(Tesla... Amazon Ring services... you get the idea)
That said, the take away from this is that putting C2 (command and control) function in cloud or other remote infrastructure is a bad idea, when there is no secondary local control. That's the polite way to phrase things. If you ask me local should always be primary with, if you must, remote C2 being secondary.
Fortunately, OpenHAB and Home Assistant, do have plugins that allow for Insteon users to not lose their investment but not everyone is going to want to go the route of deploying a system locally, even though, if you really care about using these type of technology you should care about deploying it in a way that is actually under YOUR control.
<rant 2>
I would also caution anyone that thinks Matter is going to be THE way to go instead of z-wave, zigbee or something that is NOT backed by large companies. Don't let that keep you on the fence at this point. While Matter is an open protocol lets not forget that bad things tend to happen when large companies swoop in and try to capture market share. The truth of the matter (no pun intended... I think), there is nothing wrong with z-wave, zigbee, wifi or even Insteon. Most controllers you can purchase or build yourself with an SBC or SFF system can speak all the protocols if you want them too. Matter is a solution looking for a problem and talking points that smart tech is "hard" is just a way to placate those who want everything to be easy. Large companies will happily sell you their stuff and squeeze out most of the smaller companies that have and are continuing to innovate in this space if consumers let them. It's not that Matter doesn't have a place in the portfolio but it is my fear that too many people will chase the brand new shiny thing thinking it is "better" because some large company says it is. Consumers need to have choice especially in an environment where device reliability and security is paramount.
</rant 2>
</rant 1>
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Keith C. Perry, MS E.E.