Choosing the Right Approach for Video Surveillance Systems: On-Premise Servers, Cloud Computing, or Edge

In recent years, advancements in technology have revolutionized the physical security industry, particularly in the realm of video surveillance. With the increasing availability and affordability of computing power, organizations now have multiple options for managing their video surveillance systems, including edge computing, cloud computing, and on-premise servers. Each approach has its own benefits and downsides, and understanding them is essential to determine which better suits your specific case and requirements.

On-premise servers

On-premise servers involve hosting the video surveillance infrastructure within an organization's premises. It heavily relies on enterprise servers equipped with one, two, four, or even more high-end Nvidia GPUs.

Investing in such powerful servers ensures unmatched performance and capability for handling complex tasks and data-intensive applications. They are designed to handle decoding and managing video while running advanced analytics, including deep learning models.

On-premise servers provide organizations with complete control and management over their video surveillance systems. This allows them to tailor the system to their specific requirements, implement custom integrations, and ensure compliance with internal policies and regulations.

Since video processing occurs locally, on-premise servers are less dependent on network availability or bandwidth requirements. This ensures consistent accessibility to live and recorded footage, even during network disruptions.

The main disadvantage is high upfront costs. On-premise servers typically require substantial investment in hardware and software licenses. An enterprise server equipped with four GPUs can be quite expensive, often costing tens of thousands of dollars and having an effective life of only three to five years. This initial cost can be a barrier for smaller organizations with limited resources.

On-premise servers require regular maintenance, updates, and hardware replacements. That means that organizations need to allocate resources for IT teams or consider outsourcing to ensure optimal system performance and security.

It's important to note that servers need regular patching to protect against vulnerabilities. With constant advancements in technology, software updates are crucial to keeping servers secure and running smoothly. Another aspect to consider is the significant lead time and difficulties in getting the correct hardware configuration for your server. However, this is a testament to the customization options available on enterprise servers. You have the opportunity to tailor your server to meet your specific requirements, whether it's for high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, or big data analytics. While it may take some time to configure the hardware, the end result will be a server perfectly suited to your needs.

Lastly, vital data needs to be backed up or mirrored offsite. This is an essential precaution to safeguard valuable information in the event of hardware failures, natural disasters, or human errors. By backing up your data offsite, you can ensure its availability and quick recovery, minimizing any potential downtime and loss of critical information.

Expanding an on-premise video surveillance system can be a daunting task, as it often entails substantial investments in infrastructure and the hiring of additional staff. These factors can impose limitations on the system's scalability, particularly for large organizations operating across multiple locations.

Cloud computing

Cloud computing leverages the power of remote data centers to process and store video footage. There is a wide range of cloud services available, from popular public clouds like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud to the exclusive private clouds offered by top vendors.

Cloud services for video analytics provide a convenient solution to federate sites, allowing organizations to monitor multiple physical locations effortlessly. Cloud-based video surveillance systems are flexible and scalable. You can easily add new cameras or locations, scale up capacity during peak periods, and reduce it just as simply when things quiet down. This makes it an excellent choice for growing organizations or those with widely distributed operations, as it simplifies management and maintenance.

With abundant computational resources, cloud platforms enable advanced video analytics and AI algorithms. This includes features like object recognition, anomaly detection, and predictive analytics, providing organizations with valuable insights and enhanced security operations. Cloud computing also offers the vendor the ability to seamlessly incorporate software upgrades and new analytics.

Cloud providers ensure high availability and redundancy, with data replicated across multiple servers and geographically diverse locations. This reduces the risk of data loss due to hardware failures or natural disasters.

The main hindrance to the effective use of cloud-based video surveillance is its heavy dependence on network connectivity. Organizations with limited or inconsistent internet connection might experience difficulties uploading or accessing footage in real-time.

Utilizing cloud computing means entrusting video footage to an external provider, which may raise concerns about data ownership, privacy, and security. Organizations should carefully select reputable providers and ensure their compliance with privacy regulations.

Edge computing

Edge computing involves processing data closer to the source, such as directly on the surveillance camera, edge devices or a local network video recorder (NVR). When it comes to video monitoring solutions, which have to analyze a huge amount of data from multiple cameras in real time, that is an important advantage. With edge computing, video footage is processed and analyzed locally, reducing the amount of data that needs to be transmitted over the network. This minimizes bandwidth consumption, making it ideal for environments with limited connectivity or high costs associated with data transmission. Additionally, by performing analytics and data processing locally, edge computing significantly reduces latency. This ensures a real-time or near-real-time response for immediate security actions.

Edge computing can also ensure enhanced privacy and security due to the fact that sensitive video data remains on-premise, minimizing the risk of unauthorized access or data breaches. This is particularly important for organizations that handle confidential or sensitive information.

Edge processing, with its low latency, bandwidth efficiency, and improved privacy and security, emerges as the superior option for AI-powered event recognition, including object detection, traffic monitoring, and facial recognition, as well as identifying unusual behaviors. By placing the AI processing closer to where the data is captured, organizations can develop video surveillance systems that are more intelligent and responsive. This innovative approach enhances security measures, reduces false alarms, and enables proactive measures against emerging threats.

On the downside, it’s worth mentioning the complexity of expanding an edge-based video surveillance system across multiple sites or locations. This is due to the fact that each individual location would necessitate its own local processing and management infrastructure. This can pose a significant challenge in terms of logistics and overall system efficiency.