ONLY FOR COMMERCIAL USE?
The driving force behind MVaaS in the US commercial space has been a lack of internal resources to manage the video and to have the administrator expertise to use it wisely. "Much of the MVaaS supply chain is outsourced to cheaper labor, which allows users to pay low recurring fees over time as opposed to large capital expenditure that may not show an ROI. Also, various MVaaS models exist, allowing customers to pay by the service, specific device channel or their specific uses," Shepherd said.
In the past few years, businesses have begun to see that surveillance footage holds hidden business intelligence that can be used as a strategic management tool to drive bottom line improvements. "Businesses understand that by integrating video to key business data systems, users gain access to actionable insight," Steinfort said."This insight gives operators a clearer understanding of what's happening in the day-to-day operations of their business and enables users to make positive changes within the organization to improve productivity and financial performance." During the same time period, MVaaS providers began developing easy-to-use, rapidly scalable solutions that require minimal IT support on the customer's end. "Perhaps the largest
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| ▲ Jumbi Edulbehram, VP of Business Development, Next Level Security Systems |
deviation from traditional solutions is that these MVaaS solutions are designed to be used by hundreds or thousands of users in the organization, which provide the network effect," Steinfort observed.
Other driving forces noted by Lohse include more mature and refined options to choose from, increased dealer and end-user awareness and understanding of cloud technology, and more affordable solutions as they incur economies of scale in bandwidth and storage.
That is not to say it is all smoothing sailing, though. "Porting video to third parties, sending them overseas for review, and opening up closed networks to possible threats and hackers have become common concerns as of late. Additional concern with liability and risk is added if a video is somehow publicized without the customer's permission," Shepherd said.
However, Edulbehram expects that the private/ residential sector will use nothing but MVaaS in a few years. "Today's concerns are largely based on a lack of information or not following basic security practices. Most users are comfortable with conducting sensitive financial transactions over the network, and I expect to see similar comfort levels with remote security services."
Lohse echoed in agreement. “I do believe that the private/residential sector will eventually pick up. The limiting forces right now are just cost and need.”
For iControl, residential applications in the U.S. are significantly increasing due to recent mass-market launches such as ADT Pulse interactive services and other interactive home management and security offerings by major broadband service providers, Roberts said. "While consumer concern regarding privacy is prevalent, many software solutions address this via encryption techniques. Our solution actually creates a Wi-Fi subnet in the home, enabling encryption of the data using the latest technologies."
3DES and SSL security encryption protocols, along with ISO certifications, should ensure the peace of mind most customers require, Mill added.