The VSaaS market, which is already crowded with emerging video hosting service providers,is attracting more and more security manufacturers to seek its share of the pie in this newmarket. Previously merely device providers, these incumbent security companies are alsodeveloping their VSaaS solutions through partnerships and acquisitions.
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Video surveillance as a service (VSaaS) has started to gain traction with numerous new solution providers that have emerged over the past few years. Its many irresistibly tempting features, such as its“pay-as-you-use”nature and low entry barrier to deploy a video surveillance system, have gradually attracted the mass market, particularly in residential and the small-to-medium market sectors. According to a MarketsandMarkets report, the VSaaS market will grow at a CAGR of 28.1 percent over the period of 2012-2016 due to the rising demand for video surveillance.
Added value is always the key differentiator in the competition. VSaaS provides a good opportunity for business and also better services.“Customers want to interact anywhere and at any time; they want to do new things in ways that create value for them; they expect to personalize what they experience, and on top of all this, they want all interactions to be easy,”said Masaki Arizono, MD of Panasonic System Communications Company Europe. 
Panasonic's latest acquisition of Cameramanager.com, a VSaaS service provider based in Europe, aims to address all of the above by "offering a number of advantages over traditional on-site recording solutions, keeping the initial investment low and avoiding the need to use recording hardware.”
Panasonic's Latest acquisition
This acquisition represents Panasonic's first time developing its own VSaaS solution, and more importantly it reinforces the company's strategic objective of being "a device and service company."
“It is in this specific area where we foresee we will be able to make use of the cloud technology to provide additional services to our customers,”said Arizono.
“The acquisition of Cameramanager.com is aligned with the global strategy of Panasonic of creating new business platforms inside of the company which will reinforce and support the shift of Panasonic's focus from B2C into B2B,”said Arizono. The company's initial target market sector aims at B2B, SOHO and SME, and eventually will work its way into verticals such as retail, transportation, and logistics, which are already core to Panasonic's security business.
Markets Heat Up
In 2012, Sony Electronics Security Systems Division, Iomega of EMC, and Next Level Security Systems, jointly introduced a cloud-based video surveillance solution to the market. Focusing on what they do best, these companies came together for optimized results. In the same year, Axis Communications, VMS provider Salient Systems, and storage and server company Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced their VSaaS solution. The same story goes for Samsung. This year, Samsung Techwin Europe also announced the launch of their first VSaaS solution in partnership with cloud video host service provider iPronet, offering iPronet's platform and Samsung's comprehensive product selection as a white label branding option for more and more telcos, installers, and distributors who are looking to offer an alternative solution to the market. VSaaS is no longer in its infancy; business alliances and mergers and acquisitions are merely an early round in the game. Residential and SMBs sectors are going to be the new frontline of the battlefield for the security industry because of VSaaS.