Build it today, scale it…tomorrow?

Surveillance installations have long consisted of more than just cameras, recorders, and clients. IoT devices, Access Control, and video analytics have been, for quite some time, an integral part of almost every large security installation. This expending functionality, coupled with a growing number of companies with an operation distributed across multiple locations, have positioned scalability as the main factor when designing a surveillance system. It is no longer sufficient to design a system that meets the customer needs right now but also expected to design a system that meets the customer needs in the near and sometimes far future. How many cameras should the system support in five years? How much storage is required to keep retention times when the camera count doubles? How much compute is necessary to support the growing system? These are a few of the questions related to scalability that integrators are expected to answer when designing systems for today’s growing businesses.

Scalability refers to the idea of a system in which every application or piece of infrastructure can be expanded to handle the increased load. When it comes to surveillance systems on-premises, scaling the system usually means hardware scaling either vertically (adding more memory, faster storage, or more powerful processors) or horizontally (adding more servers to spread the load across multiple machines). No matter how you choose to scale up, the checklist includes a long and expensive procurement process, considerable time spent on servers installation and configuration, and frequent maintenance visits on-site. For big and distributed businesses, that process might repeat itself based on the number of sites; some might also be challenged by geographical availability.

Cloud computing provides a scaling alternative that is not hardware dependent. It offers scalable architecture that removes much of the friction involved in setting up and maintaining surveillance systems on-premises. Public cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) have scalability built into their platform, allowing you to scale services such as compute, storage, and networking almost instantly. This results in an elastic system that can adapt to meet a new level of demand if and when needed. In just a few clicks, you can add compute and change storage capacity from the comfort of your own office and avoid time-consuming installation and server configuration.

We have said it before - no two customer installations are alike, and System Integrators have taken a key role in aligning the right system design with the right customer. Security applications that, until not long ago, were enabled only on-premises, are now available in new system designs that take advantage of cloud technologies. Such technologies provide you with new business opportunities and your customers with new experiences.

Milestone XProtect^® is no different. The same XProtect you know is now available on cloud giving you new system design choices. In addition to XProtect on-premises, Milestone Systems offers a cloud deployment alternative running XProtect on Amazon Web Services (AWS). You can find more information about the solution, as well as free online courses on our website.