Busting the Biggest Cloud Storage Myths in Video Surveillance

The rapid growth of cloud technology, analytics, A.I./machine learning, and other related advances have enabled organizations to innovate faster and create a competitive advantage over their less tech-savvy peers to grow market share. However, some industries, like video surveillance, have been slower to change without a push by their target customers, demanding innovations and technologies to work better with their own IT or cloud infrastructures.

The video surveillance market has traditionally been a place of tried and true technologies with a long, prosperous life based on the axiom, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” (even if it’s inefficient.) There are some myths that hardware storage vendors have continued to use to create fear, uncertainty, and doubt in light of newer, faster, cheaper, and more secure cloud storage options for video surveillance. Here are a few of those myths, debunked.

Cost-Related Myths: How much does video surveillance storage cost?

Myth: Cloud storage is more expensive than on-premise storage.

Fact: Faced with expanding storage needs due to the proliferation of high-resolution cameras and growing retention periods, leveraging on-site, centralized storage alone is inefficient and expensive. Centralized storage requires perpetual maintenance, such as managing software releases, patches, and bug fixes. It also requires capacity, performance planning, and technology refresh cycles. Every terabyte of video removed from existing primary storage generates actual savings by delaying the substantial cost of adding additional on-site storage. This includes not just the hardware cost but also the licensing and maintenance costs, network costs, energy costs, and datacenter costs.

Myth: Data egress charges cause budget overages.

Fact: Not all cloud storage is priced the same, and cloud hyperscalers are known to charge up to five times as much as other cloud providers for data transfer, egress, and access fees. These charges can bring the cloud storage price tag well above the cost of an on-premises server. Although this has deterred folks from embracing cloud storage in the past, some “Cloud Storage 2.0” providers have built architectures to eliminate these hidden costs. No charges for egress or API fees, especially for the video surveillance market, translates into a lower, fixed-price investment in data protection and storage. These cost savings on cloud storage are critical for organizations looking to stabilize monthly spending while maintaining swift and easy access to their business-critical data.

Security & Compliance Myths: How secure is cloud storage for video surveillance?

Myth: Cloud storage video surveillance is not as secure as on-premises surveillance storage.

Fact: According to the Security Industry Association report “2023 Security Mega Trends”, Cybersecurity is top of mind for security industry leaders. Many organizations in the surveillance space are moving to a hybrid-cloud strategy, utilizing a combination of on-premises and cloud storage technology for the highest level of security and reliability to best suit their goals and requirements. A hybrid cloud strategy is a great way to have multiple copies of video (one on-site, one in the cloud) and mitigate data loss while decreasing the purchases of replacement or additional on-premises infrastructure. Using file immutability ensures that surveillance video is completely secure in the cloud, preventing any modification or deletion of files.

In addition to immutability, a “defense-in-depth” approach to security protects against the broadest range of threats. Wasabi employs strong authentication and authorization controls for all cloud computing, storage, and networking infrastructure; and encrypts data using AES256-bit at rest and in transit to safeguard confidential data. All data stored on Wasabi is encrypted by default to protect data at rest, and all communications with Wasabi are transmitted using HTTPS to protect data in transit.

Myth: Cloud storage for video surveillance may not meet regulatory compliance requirements.

Fact: As data and video specifically become more regulated, it’s essential to pick a solution that meets regulation standards. Cloud storage for video surveillance can meet compliance requirements in several ways:

Encryption: Cloud storage providers should encrypt the data both in transit (while being transferred to the cloud) and at rest (when stored in the cloud). Encryption helps protect the data from unauthorized access and ensures that it is only accessible to authorized personnel.

Access controls: Cloud storage providers should implement robust access controls to ensure that only authorized personnel can access the stored data, including multi-factor authentication, role-based access, and activity logging.

Data backup: Cloud storage providers should have robust data backup and recovery procedures to ensure that data isn’t lost in a disaster or other unforeseen event.

Compliance certifications: Cloud storage providers may also obtain certifications such as SOC 2, PCI DSS, and HIPAA, demonstrating that they have implemented controls to meet specific compliance requirements.Most cloud providers meet these industry compliance standards, but some meet more than others. Compliance requirements vary depending on industry and jurisdiction. It’s important to carefully review requirements that apply to your organization and ensure that the cloud storage provider you choose can meet those compliance requirements.

Performance Myths: How Performant is Cloud Storage for Video Surveillance?

Myth: Response time or latency in the cloud can delay access to stored data when you need it most.

Fact: While traditional cloud storage providers offer many different “tiers” of storage that dictate the performance of response time and latency, there’s only one tier of storage that matters – Hot cloud storage.

Hot cloud storage is designed to provide fast, immediate access to data and can make video surveillance data readily available. Using a cloud object storage system optimized for fast data retrieval, such as Wasabi hot cloud storage, can support real-time streaming of surveillance video. Additionally, using a globally distributed network of servers, hot cloud storage can help reduce latency and improve data access speeds from different locations worldwide. This is especially important for video surveillance applications where data needs to be accessed from multiple locations or in real time.

To learn more about hot cloud storage for video surveillance footage, read ESG: Delivering Scalable and Cost-effective Storage Solutions for Video Surveillance Recordings.