A system, and computer usable program product for managing a local environment using data traffic information are provided in the illustrative embodiments. According to the invention, an data traffic on a data network associated with the local environment is monitored at a networking device. The local environment includes one or more devices. A device from the one or more devices is controllable using the data network. A condition in the local environment is inferred from the data traffic. An action to cause a change in the local environment is determined. A command corresponding to the action is sent to a subset of devices in the set of devices in the local environment to perform the action.