"We have a system that is not prepared for that type of capacity," Elengical says. "Everybody is doing their virtual calls or zoom conferences from home, which is not something that a residential system may be able to accommodate."

Elengical says upgrades to residential systems in apartments, including to better servers, can improve user experience in times like these.

"One thing we think about is how many other systems within the building are actually using this technology as well," Elengical says. "So the smarter our buildings become, the more bandwidth you need to both support the back of the house as well as tenant needs." 

In student housing, the needs could be even higher. "Students are bringing lots and lots of devices onto the campus," Elengical says. "You now need to support twice the number of devices that have been there in the past. So all of that connective capacity, which you need to think about more in offices, is becoming pretty critical in residential as well."

The working environment isn't just influencing home connectivity. It has ramifications for other sectors as well. "Many logistics hubs are in overdrive to meet our new home delivery needs in this new decentralized working environment," Elengical says.

While single-family homes, apartment buildings and even logistics hubs have been using more bandwidth and energy, commercial structures will be consuming less. Fortunately, energy analytics systems can give building managers visibility into their energy usage, and sensors can show them physical occupancy, according to Elengical.

"Using these two things [sensors and energy management systems], you can start to manage your energy much more closely, particularly during times of low occupancy," Elengical says. 

The data provided by these systems can help building operators reduce energy, even with systems that they can't shut off altogether.

"When it [occupancy] is low, you can see that there are maybe a couple of people in an office," Elengical says. "You can certainly find other strategies to make sure you're turning energy on without really using too much or running it at a lower, more efficient level. We need to really use these energy systems and optimize physical occupancy."