Top 3 Reasons to Use Edge Storage with Cloud Video Surveillance

When it comes to cloud video surveillance, the most common question businesses ask is:

“If I’m relying on all my surveillance footage being uploaded to the cloud —what happens to the recordings if the internet goes down?”

This is a great question — obviously with no internet, there’s no ability to save video offsite to the cloud. To address this, customers can set up a local, redundant edge storage option. Edge storage is a term to describe a storage drive that’s local to the camera/device, e.g. SD card or a Network Attached Storage (NAS). The most cost-effective option in a multi-location cloud deployment is SD cards, so let’s focus on that one. Here’s our Top 3 Benefits of Edge Storage with Cloud…   

#1 – Edge storages offers redundancy and reliability

In the case of a network failure—such as a switch failure or the WiFi goes down or entire internet access is down for the site — edge storage offers failover recording so that valuable surveillance footage won’t be lost. When the network connection is restored and the system returns to normal operation, edge storage ensures that local video is recorded seamlessly. This ensures that clients have uninterrupted video recordings and have consistent system reliability.

#2 – Edge storage is convenient

Most decent IP cameras have an on-board SD card slot and you can easily configure the camera to save media locally so that internet disruptions don’t mean you lose footage. This means you don’t need separate storage devices or anything complicated — just use the on-board SD card. In the case of Camcloud’s cloud video surveillance, customers can configure their preferred edge storage option for each cloud camera right from the Camcloud apps, while also enabling easy retrieval. This offers ultimate flexibility in the case of lost network connectivity.

#3 – Edge storage is inexpensive

Wanna know the best part? It’s very inexpensive. As long as you have a decent IP camera (which you need anyway) just pop a $20 or $30 SD card into it, and you have a much more resilient system. No need for complicated extra network setup or sophisticated redundancy options — most deployments can work just fine using this approach. 

Best of Both Worlds

All in all, the combination of high-reliability, convenient cloud storage as your primary storage for surveillance footage combined with redundant edge storage for those rare times the internet is interrupted, gets you the best of both worlds — all the power and convenience of a cloud based system with a little extra resiliency and peace of mind.