It’s not unusual for a horse to appear on Alex Crettenand's porch, triggering one of his 18 security cameras. Yes — a horse on the porch. And yes — 18 security cameras.
Crettenand, ADT’s Vice President of Software Engineering, has outfitted his working horse ranch in Texas with the company's second-largest ADT+ Security System deployment, boasting 26 sensors, plus 28 connected Z-Wave devices, two thermostats and much more.
It’s a fun and convenient way to keep tabs on his ranch and the often-amusing antics of the four horses his wife, Victoria, trains. But, above all, it’s a real-world testing ground for ADT+ software.
“Some might say it’s the most-recorded and secure horse ranch in Texas,” Crettenand said. “I love being able to leverage my home as a piece of helping ADT+ grow. Insights from the ranch help me constantly improve the software. It’s a real-world stress test. It also helps show how ADT+ can scale to any home.”
A home that pushes the system
Crettenand’s six-acre Whitesboro property is a working horse ranch, with people coming and going throughout the day to care for the animals and manage daily operations. The size of the land, the outdoor structures and the amount of activity help expose performance limits, edge cases and opportunities for improvement to ADT+ software.
And it offers a perspective that lab testing alone cannot. “When you’re testing something in the limited environment of just your desk, you’re not getting the full experience of using it day to day,” Crettenand said.
He shares insights and bugs from the ranch directly with his team, using his lived experiences to inform software decisions and improvements. “We use it every day to make enhancements and improve the app,” he said. “The ranch often acts as an early warning system, surfacing usability, reliability and performance issues before customers ever encounter them.”
Eventually, Crettenand's team had to build a full mockup of his system at ADT’s office in Irving, Texas. The setup mirrors his home environment, with dozens of cameras and sensors, allowing engineers to perform additional tests without disrupting life at the ranch.
Everyday tools, real-world impact
Crettenand said his favorite ADT+ features — including controlling his lights and garage access — help make managing a large, active property easier and more intuitive. Automations handle lighting based on sunrise and sunset or occupancy, reducing the need to manually check dozens of connected devices. Through the ADT+ app, Crettenand can open and close the garage door and arm or disarm his system as he comes and goes.
And ADT+ app alerts help make unexpected events easier to handle. For example, while working from the office, Crettenand received an alert about activity on his driveway. The camera feed showed that “Trashy,” one of the ranch’s horses, had escaped his pen. The alert allowed him to respond quickly and get the horse back to a safe space.
“It gives us a lot of peace of mind and also allows us to prevent accidents,” he said.
Testing for now — and the future
Along with working to perfect the ADT+ software customers currently have access to, Crettenand also tests new features at the ranch. Updates are deployed to Crettenand's system before expanding to internal pilot users across the company. Only after that testing period are updates rolled out more broadly, helping the team catch issues early and refine performance under real conditions.
Looking ahead, Crettenand sees security moving beyond simple alerts toward systems that can add more context to what is happening at a home. Cameras and intelligence, he believes, will play a growing role in making protection more proactive.
“Over time, we’re going to be able to start catching things earlier and earlier before they happen, using artificial intelligence,” Crettenand said.