The evolution of CCTV has been continuous since its appearance in the 1940s for the observation of rocket launches. Recording on videotapes and later on hard drives, the transition to IP, video analytics, and Hybrid recorders, and more recently, the new HD over coaxial technologies are some examples of this evolution.

However, in recent years, the video surveillance industry has been drastically commoditized. There has been an increase in competition, offering similar products and without any added value, which has led the CCTV market to a price war. The same project is today around 80% cheaper than five years ago, which requires multiplying productivity by five to achieve the same return as 5 years ago.

Why It Is So Demanding?

Traditional CCTV solutions based on DVRs do not seem to be the answer in the short or medium-term since they do not provide differentiation, have many limitations for the end customer, and require a great economic effort on the part of the installers at the installation, maintenance and support level.: installation of hardware and software at the customer’s home, recurring software updates due to cyber-security vulnerabilities or new functionalities, need to open ports at the customer’s home, the complexity of the access to recordings, need for additional hardware due to changes in the installation. To all this, the reduction must be added in the durability of the HW, the lack of software updates after a while, the limited number of concurrent sessions in a DVR,

In recent years, much has been said about the benefits of CCTV On Cloud, but beware, all that glitters is not gold. Most of these solutions are very basic and with limitations. They are cameras with special firmware that connect directly to an internet router at the customer’s home and send the video to the cloud, but: What happens if the internet goes down? How do you manage internet upload bandwidth for various types of traffic? Is the content encrypted? What happens if the customer changes their internet provider? Where is the cloud? What level of certification does that cloud have? Can you record continuously? What redundancy do you offer me? How many cameras and what models does the solution support? Does it support other technologies besides IP? How do you guarantee cybersecurity? Can you run video analytics on any camera? Getting these questions answered is essential when been analyzing each solution. 

What Is Cloud Telephony?

Cloud telephony, or telephony in the cloud, can be provided through an application accessible via the Internet. Although telephony in the cloud uses the VoIP protocol, mention is made of the cloud since it can be provided by a third-party VoIP Cisco provider other than the one that provides the Internet service. 

For this reason, the concept of the cloud is used when the telephony service can be accessed from any device with Internet access, be it mobile computers or personal computers.