Deploying a Cloud Strategy

Deploying a Cloud Strategy

Why mid-market companies can—and should—deploy a video cloud strategy

  • By Andreas Pettersson
  • Feb 01, 2019

There’s enormous opportunity for all enterprises in the cloud, and those in the middle market are taking note. For mid-market businesses, the past few years have been the dawn of a new era in cloud adoption—one marked by significant growth in the maturity of IT teams and a resulting push toward more sophisticated cloud deployments. As a 2018 Techaisle report on SMB and mid-market IT maturity segments revealed, 52 percent of mid-market enterprises can be considered “advanced” as far as IT deployments. This means these businesses have chosen to adopt cloud solutions. However, businesses can face challenges in terms of platform selection, data/process management, security and other factors that can delay deployment.

When it comes to video surveillance, there is a clear business case for midsize businesses to migrate to the cloud. Benefits of cloudbased video surveillance include better security, less hardware, data redundancy, easier scalability, and perhaps most importantly, actionable analytics. Ultimately, adopting cloud for video surveillance is a key step for mid-market businesses toward managing their operations like an enterprise business, but adopting video cloud technology demands a strategic approach to avoid common hurdles.

Obstacles to Mid-market Cloud Video Surveillance Adoption

Despite benefits of cloud-based video surveillance, many mid-market organizations face challenges to deploying a video cloud strategy, including prioritization and confidence in data security.

Prioritization. Mid-market businesses may not have the internal resources compared to those of large enterprises. Whereas larger organizations have dedicated teams focused on cloud mapping and strategy—and actively working to identify functions, like surveillance, that would be best served in the cloud—many mid-market businesses do not. Instead, as the Techaisle study pointed out, a significant percentage of mid-market enterprises approach cloud purchasing on an ad-hoc, rather than strategic, basis. As a result, cloud-based surveillance often takes a backseat to more immediate business concerns.

Confidence. With mid-market organizations, there’s a widespread lack of confidence that often accompanies a cloud move. A Deloitte study of technology and the mid-market pointed out, this insecurity stems from concerns that a move to the cloud represents a relinquishing of control and a significantly heightened risk of data being compromised or corrupted. This sense of insecurity can become even more pronounced when it comes to surveillance footage, something all businesses guard securely.

Business Benefits of Adopting a Video Cloud Strategy

Central management of multi-site locations: On-premise video surveillance presents a management and cost challenge for mid-market businesses, especially as they scale. When organizations confine their video surveillance to on-prem, they must manually monitor hardware in addition to upgrading and replacing it as needed. While this approach works in the traditional sense, providing location-specific video recordings to be reviewed live and at later dates, it prevents organizations from seeing their business as one enterprise. Because video data is siloed from site to site, mid-market businesses are unable to correlate their data and lose out on actionable insights.

Scalability and security of cloud. In contrast to on-prem video surveillance, a cloud-based approach is built to scale up securely and without incurring additional technology and hardware costs. When mid-market organizations migrate video to the cloud, they put themselves in a flexible environment where their surveillance capabilities can seamlessly keep pace with business growth. Software maintenance is streamlined with automatic updates pushed out through the cloud. Mid-market businesses migrating to cloud benefit from having their software always up-to-date.

Machine learning and predictive analytics. By moving video to the cloud, businesses can turn untapped surveillance data into a powerful intelligence tool. The advancement of IoT and machine learning enables companies to glean actionable insights from their previously static video data. Combining video surveillance data with IoT sensor data (such as access control and building management) within the cloud allows businesses to identify patterns, investigate anomalies, and optimize for efficiency.

With these benefits in mind, how can mid-market organizations set themselves up for success by migrating video surveillance to the cloud?

Key Components for Successful Migration

Mid-market businesses pursuing cloud-based video surveillance solutions must be careful to devise a strategy that is both realistic for the business today and sustainable for the business in the future. Certainly there are many factors to consider when evaluating cloudbased surveillance providers, but three key components are critical for successful migration to the cloud.

Identifying needs of today. There is no shortage of vendors providing cloud-based surveillance solutions. When considering all the various offerings, the evaluation process can be overwhelming. That’s why it is critical to identify what your business needs today but still keeping in mind what you may need in the future. For some, the needs of today may simply be basic video data management. Consider this: if a solution is unable to meet the needs of business today, how will that solution cater to needs of the future?

One size does not fit all when it comes to cloud. Often, businesses view cloud migration as a massive deployment that includes bulldozing previous systems and processes. The beauty of cloud is that it works with you. There is no right way to adopting cloud and the key is understanding what makes sense for your business. For some organizations, it means having a hybrid of both on-premise and cloudbased solutions. For others, it means deploying cloud selectively at certain sites or areas on a trial basis before having a comprehensive migration plan.

Find a solution that add true value. There are many claims to what cloud-based solutions can—or, more importantly, cannot—do when it comes to video surveillance. As mid-market organizations consider solution providers relative to the needs of their businesses today, it is important to evaluate what vendors offer outside of the basics: security, data redundancy, ease of scalability, and analytics.

Mid-market businesses have much to gain from adopting cloud-based video surveillance, and the beauty of cloud is that these organizations can implement solutions as it best suits their business needs.

This article originally appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of Security Today.

Featured

  • Security Industry Association Announces the 2026 Security Megatrends

    The Security Industry Association (SIA) has identified and forecasted the 2026 Security Megatrends, which form the basis of SIA’s signature annual Security Megatrends report defining the top 10 factors influencing both near- and long-term change in the global security industry. Read Now

  • The Future of Access Control: Cloud-Based Solutions for Safer Workplaces

    Access controls have revolutionized the way we protect our people, assets and operations. Gone are the days of cumbersome keychains and the security liabilities they introduced, but it’s a mistake to think that their evolution has reached its peak. Read Now

  • A Look at AI

    Large language models (LLMs) have taken the world by storm. Within months of OpenAI launching its AI chatbot, ChatGPT, it amassed more than 100 million users, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history. Read Now

  • First, Do No Harm: Responsibly Applying Artificial Intelligence

    It was 2022 when early LLMs (Large Language Models) brought the term “AI” into mainstream public consciousness and since then, we’ve seen security corporations and integrators attempt to develop their solutions and sales pitches around the biggest tech boom of the 21st century. However, not all “artificial intelligence” is equally suitable for security applications, and it’s essential for end users to remain vigilant in understanding how their solutions are utilizing AI. Read Now

  • Improve Incident Response With Intelligent Cloud Video Surveillance

    Video surveillance is a vital part of business security, helping institutions protect against everyday threats for increased employee, customer, and student safety. However, many outdated surveillance solutions lack the ability to offer immediate insights into critical incidents. This slows down investigations and limits how effectively teams can respond to situations, creating greater risks for the organization. Read Now

Most   Popular

New Products

  • EasyGate SPT and SPD

    EasyGate SPT SPD

    Security solutions do not have to be ordinary, let alone unattractive. Having renewed their best-selling speed gates, Cominfo has once again demonstrated their Art of Security philosophy in practice — and confirmed their position as an industry-leading manufacturers of premium speed gates and turnstiles.

  • HD2055 Modular Barricade

    Delta Scientific’s electric HD2055 modular shallow foundation barricade is tested to ASTM M50/P1 with negative penetration from the vehicle upon impact. With a shallow foundation of only 24 inches, the HD2055 can be installed without worrying about buried power lines and other below grade obstructions. The modular make-up of the barrier also allows you to cover wider roadways by adding additional modules to the system. The HD2055 boasts an Emergency Fast Operation of 1.5 seconds giving the guard ample time to deploy under a high threat situation.

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”