Page 56 - Security Today, September 2019

design their managed services to all their customers—from SMBs to large enterprise accounts. Some cloud platforms require you to use spe- cific cameras when in fact the beauty of cloud services is that you can use existing devices with a gateway product or new hardware, which solves the problem of the transition with legacy equipment.
How Many Ways Can I Create Recurring Revenue?
It’s important to select the most versatile, flexible, and scalable plat- form available. That’s what you are looking for in this answer. When a platform is versatile, you can use a cloud solution where it makes most sense to move complex and costly infrastructure off premises.
Unlimited storage options provide simple and cost effective on- premise cloud and hybrid video storage, where you can select days, motion event counts, bookmarks, and quality settings for each cam- era individually and schedule video upload times for off peak. You should have unlimited flexibility for cloud recording in a simple-to- use interface and be able to select all cameras or any single cam- era, to specify video resolution and to enter the number of days to record (from one day to one year or more) or record only when motion is detected. With a flexible cloud platform, you can create a custom upload schedule to upload video to the cloud in the evening or off prime time to save bandwidth, as well as turn on and off recording as necessary.
In the example of a large boutique bank, the customer stores vid- eo in the camera and the cloud. Integrators managing these devices can ascertain current camera status; how many people have been log- ging in and viewing; how much data has been used; if a camera has been tampered or hacked; and view recorded video. With the ability to manage thousands of locations from one interface, the integrator is in control of the levels of management provided and can easily add or customize services, providing for a stickier customer.
The amount of RMR from cloud services can vary dramatically. If the camera is sending video to the cloud 24 hours a day at 4K resolution at 5 Mpbs, the RMR can range anywhere on average more than $100 per month. If it’s recording motion activity only, it may be less than $10 per month. Bandwidth is one of the limitations in the growth of cloud recording—but it also provides a lot of different variables and scenarios. Some customers only record on motion or dial down to one or two frames per second to save bandwidth. Again, it’s all dependent on the project’s parameters, and you should have the flexibility in your platform to address every customer and vertical market you serve.
How Does the Platform Help Manage and Grow My Business?
Look for a platform that’s not entirely tied to technology, but instead helps you build your managed services business through efficiency and scalability. It should prepare you for the ongoing digital trans- formation and the future of security contracting—everything “As a Service.” Leveraging one single user interface and one reporting structure for all your customers helps you readily scale the offering so you can start small and add devices as needed, boosting your RMR in the process.
Storage is critical and is tied to many parameters, including band- width of cameras, how video is stored and used and if there are regu- lations to meet for archiving. These parameters can vary drastically from job to job, so you need flexibility from your cloud provider.
For example, customers should have the ability to record and store at the edge and on the camera; upload video as needed and in the resolution required; or record based on motion or 24/7, such as for mission critical or government specifications to meet compliance requirements. Dynamic, on-demand services to store and manage all your solutions—this is what you are looking for.
What Features Help Me Support My Customers?
Here are some of the capabilities you should be able to glean from your cloud platform:
• Get status updates in real time to address issues when or before they
happen, circumventing possible compromise or security situations.
• See the entire surveillance system on a map and click on any cam- era or gateway to see details and troubleshoot immediately and
on-the-fly.
• Add, edit and delete users and remotely upgrade systems.
• Track and report on bandwidth utilization, view live video and
recorded playback, uploads, cloud storage and more with a single
dashboard.
• Provide health reports and other system/process documentation.
• E-commerce and billing management and reporting to track your
revenue per camera or per customer.
Ease of maintenance and labor savings, as well as built-in secu- rity and updates are also key to effectively using the cloud. When you can use the cloud to manage the client’s services and even reboot field devices or take locks offline, the company saves money by not having to hire a labor and field technician. Even across an enterprise with thousands of cameras, integrators can manage users, cameras, gateways and services from one web browser. They can also track bandwidth and provide the customer with network and cloud storage utilization reports. Monitoring the status of all systems in an intuitive map mode lets systems integrators jump to any device for instant, on- the-fly troubleshooting.
What About Cybersecurity and How Do I Protect My Customers?
The cloud is one of the most secure platforms, but not all are created equal. The cloud provider’s overall experience in handling a variety of vertical markets comes into play. Architecture is also paramount—and one that’s design-built from the ground up as a secure, multi-tenant platform for capture, transport, storage, management, analysis and distribution of a variety of video sources over different networks makes the most sense. With a cloud infrastructure, there’s more overall reliability in the configuration—think of it as almost a mini NOC— where if one camera goes out, the remainder stay online. With NVRs and DVRs, it’s the opposite: the entire solution networked together can suffer a failure, knocking out all cameras or components.
Uptime and reliability are paramount—and the cloud provider should provide documentation on their track record and cloud ser- vices experience. Video surveillance is network intensive and can interrupt critical data collection such as point-of-sale, so select a platform that handles bandwidth management and controls network utilization as well as one with integrated failover. This function buf- fers video when a network disconnects and then sends data automati- cally on when connectivity is restored.
Recording services should optimize video for different connection speeds and deliver storage bandwidth control. Another nice perk is the availability of secure third-party app access to recorded video on demand from any location and any connected device.
Leading cloud providers custom-create their own secure soft- ware, helping deliver services that achieve higher levels of security, privacy and compliance, including GDPR. Encryption, redundan- cy, two-factor authentication, backups and soft-
ware updates are automatic. Best of all, the cloud
regularly adds features, so you can pass along a
continuing array of new services to customers as
well.
Martin Renkis is the general manager, cloud solutions, Global Security Products, at Johnson Controls.
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