Hybrid cloud entails the best of both on-premises and cloud solutions. When deployed right, hybrid cloud video offers much flexibility and cost-savings for users.
Hybrid cloud entails the best of both
on-premises and cloud solutions. When deployed right, hybrid cloud video offers much flexibility and cost-savings for users.
How hybrid cloud video works
In a hybrid architecture, the system can be configured so that, for example, video data from certain cameras that are deemed critical are stored on-premises, and those from other cameras go to the cloud. Or video footage is stored on-premises first and is then
pushed to the cloud after a certain period for long-term storage. Either way, the user achieves some cloud savings as well as bandwidth optimization.
“You can keep your immediately recorded video for the first 10 to 20 days on-premises and then have it trickled to the cloud. And in a true hybrid cloud, when you’re retrieving video you won't necessarily know whether you’re getting it from the cloud or from the on-premises storage,” said Danny Berkovic, SVP of Electronic Security at Securitas Australia.
According to Laurent Villeneuve, Product Marketing Manager at Genetec, the way hybrid cloud is deployed depends on the end user’s own needs and requirements, and there are three common approaches to deploying hybrid cloud.
“The first and perhaps most common deployment would include an on-premises VMS system along with a simple cloud storage extension that could support, for example, longer retention periods of video downsized to lower definition. This would be considered the entry point to what we could call a hybrid architecture. A second common category would include enterprise customers with a global footprint of geographically distributed operations. Here, the architecture would reveal a network of cloud and local video management and storage appliances, services and components as required. In this case they may run a larger VMS deployment in their headquarters which would mostly be on premises, with many smaller, remote sites federated into the main site,” Villeneuve said.
“The third category would be an organization of virtually any size, but one that elects to run its VMS and associated video analytics within its on-premises infrastructure connected to a number of cloud applications to export and share video. This architecture would be typical for say a municipal police department that needs to collaborate securely on video evidence between precincts and other law enforcement agencies. In this case, they may include local clouds managed by the larger organization,” he added. “Thanks to the unprecedented flexibility of today’s hybrid architectures, whatever your organization’s particular needs are, there is a solution for there for you.”
What equipment is needed for hybrid cloud video
In terms of equipment, the user of course needs to have the cameras onsite. Then, they need a hardware device onsite that saves some videos and pushes others to the cloud. “In case of a hybrid setup a customer would buy and install a piece of hardware similar to cloud-enabled NVR (gateway or bridge), plug it into Internet and connect cameras to it. Often some footage is stored on hybrid device. Simple analytics could be processed on the edge as well. Web UI, sharing and notification functionality are usually located on the cloud side,” said Viachaslau Hrytsevich, CEO of
3dEYE.
“The system architecture is basically the same as a pure cloud solution, the only difference being where the data is stored. The customer essentially buys the storage up front and deploys it at the edge. Once there, we connect that storage array to the cloud, and centralize it and the connected cameras into a single interface that is identical to our pure cloud offering. It would be hard to tell the difference from a user experience perspective if you did not know that the data was being stored at the edge,” said Dean Drako, Founder and CEO of Eagle Eye Networks.