The increasing shift towards working from home creates an opportunity for Cisco to step into consumer products by offering home solutions in the contexts of connectivity, security, communication, and entertainment. Cisco can build on its knowledge and experience with the technologies in these product categories to build trust with new customers and differentiate itself from the competition.

Since people are generating more private data than ever, hosting your own, private cloud at home can be a trustworthy, future-proof solution. At the same time, smart home devices are becoming more common, but they need to be managed and monitored in a secure way.

How might we create a trustworthy home hub solution that covers the user's needs in connectivity, data security, and home management?

The final concept is a modular, upgradable home hub that can be acquired in a configuration that meets the customers' needs best. A firewall-protected 5G router is integrated as a module into the base station, which can be extended for network-attached storage and on-device management of smart home systems.

The individual data storage modules are connected through flat pin plugs and can be removed by unlocking them with a dedicated switch that sits on top of the modules.

The base cap can be unmounted and replaced by the screen module. The screen module extends the functionality of the product by adding an on-device control for all the storage-, network- and IoT-functions. Additionally the screen can fulfill other functions in a passive mode, for example a live thermometer.

The hinge allows you to display/interact with the screen wherever you decide to place the device. On a table, countertop, shelf, or confined space.