When considering video storage, enterprises today often find themselves on-premises—with a side of cloud.
Yet many want to cut away from on-premises equipment and proprietary systems that require costly site visits for upgrades, maintenance, and repairs. They wish to reap the benefits of centralized management and use video data for more than just security and insurance claims.
Increasingly, video data is enhancing customer and employee experiences, improving safety, guiding new opportunities, and increasing efficiency. It’s a scalable, adaptable solution that aids growth even as strategies, customers, or offerings change.
Data, data everywhere
Businesses are leveraging video technologies for more than security. They’re deploying connected smart cameras and sensors to glean invaluable insights from an abundance of device data. Such IoT devices will represent about half (14.7 billion) of all global networked devices by 2023, Cisco reported.
With so much data comes the question of where to store it all. Moving to the cloud is often the answer to tech-driven business questions, but may not be the most appropriate response to this one.
Cost, agility, and scalability are typical drivers of cloud adoption; control, integration, and custody are standard reasons for staying on-premises. When it comes to video, by storing recent footage on the cameras themselves, enterprises have immediate access to coverage if incidents occur. Archiving footage in the cloud weeks later preserves video at a lower cost. Using cloud-first management solutions provides the strength and flexibility organizations need in this era of hybrid and remote workplaces.
This multi-pronged approach delivers the immediacy that security, insurance, and human resources want, plus the savings CFOs demand. Indeed, 37% of storage, archive, backup, and file server solutions will migrate to the cloud over the next three years.
Living on the edge
Rather than sending video to and from cloud-based storage, edge computing brings data storage and computing power closer to the user. This cuts latency and load, enhancing the user experience. With video, it results in higher resolution, improved buffering, and greater accessibility.
Wherever it is, data should be encrypted and secured. That’s why Meraki uploads data to MV Cloud Archive over an SSL/TLS connection. Stored video is encrypted at rest. Other security features in Meraki smart cameras include unique user accounts, end-to-end data encryption, and built-in hardware security.
“We take the privacy of customer video very seriously,” all Meraki camera documentation says.
Fast and glorious
Myriad organizations worldwide—across industries and the public sector—use Meraki smart cameras and the Meraki cloud to streamline security and create smart spaces.
Maxeon, which designs and manufactures high-efficiency solar technologies, reduced the time it took to review footage to mere minutes, compared with up to seven days, after it installed Meraki MV smart cameras. The Singapore-based company’s access to security events became as easy as a few clicks on the Meraki dashboard, a process that enhanced security, productivity, and value.
Likewise, the combination of the Meraki dashboard and smart cameras simplified strategic deployment of personnel at the College of New Jersey and reduced costs. The college saves “a lot of money” on licenses for three times the number of cameras compared with its legacy system, said CIO Leonard Niebo. It also increased the visibility of its police force and IT staff, and made the school’s population more aware of law enforcement’s presence.
Video on the edge—with an archive in the cloud—is an exciting, safe, and rewarding place to be.