Page 19 - Security Today, March/April 2024

businesses. While profitability was encouraging, scalability issues forced Telefónica to discontinue the service. That set the stage for cloud video offerings and many Telcos followed suit. Most of them failed because their business models combined small business and residential sales under the same roof.
Pioneers Meet Heightened Expectations
It was not long before a second wave of hosted video startups de- cided to modify standard cameras and their firmware to connect them to the cloud. Dropcam and CameraManager were among two of these pioneering companies. Initially the challenge with cloud- based video was bandwidth, but the problem was solved as broad- band became ubiquitous. And, until around 2008, standard (PAL or NTSC) resolution was acceptable, so the combination worked.
However, once flat HD TVs began to appear in living rooms, people expected better quality from surveillance cameras too. For- tunately, timing coincided with a new H.264 compression method, so better image quality with less noise was now possible. Later came smart compression methods such as Axis Zipstream technology.
With the emergence of cloud service providers like AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, businesses no longer had to make major invest- ments in servers and other infrastructure. This was a huge step for- ward and enabled startups to provide cloud-based video solutions. Even better, these servers were often free of charge for upload since most traffic using the cloud are downloads. Cameras upload data continuously but download data rarely. Of course, uses and pricing models have since changed.
Ecosystem Poised to Elevate Video
Today, cloud video, better known as Video Software as a Service or VSaaS, generally means one of two things.
1. Cameras that are direct to the cloud.
2. A local server where the cameras are connected to the appli- ance, which is then managed through the cloud.
Either way, the popularity of VSaaS is being driven by some clear benefits, among them flexible storage, scalable systems and remote access.
So, what is next for cloud-based video beyond the obvious conveniences? A demand for higher-quality video and related data for AI models, computer vision applications and business intelligence—coupled with the ongoing evolution of today’s IP cameras with greater processing power and deep learning capabil- ities—is driving new innovative cloud platforms and hybrid archi- tectures. What’s more, edge computing is creating opportunities whereby real-time actions occur at the edge and only meta data needs to be transferred to the cloud for storage and potentially deeper analysis via new cloud-based analytics.
A Positive Forecast for the Future
A symbiosis between technological elements is creating opportu- nities for hardware manufacturers, software developers, and sys- tem integrators—ultimately introducing new innovative solutions for end-users. Furthermore, these collaborations are driving new developments in cloud-based video.
The evolution over the past two decades has been significant and it’s pushing cloud-based video into the main-
stream. Overall, it is fair to say that the haze has
lifted and the future forecast for cloud solutions
is bright and clear.
Martin Gren is the co-founder and deputy chair- man of the board, at Axis Communications.
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