Five Ways to Future Proof Your Surveillance System

This blog post discusses five ways to future-proof your surveillance system.

1. Integrate what you already have

Open architecture surveillance and security platforms allow you to benefit from a wide range of improved footage and incident management capabilities without having to replace existing hardware such as DVRs.

Integrate what you have and add the technologies you need as and when your budget allows.

2. Upgrade your cameras

Upgrading your IP cameras to the latest technology is one of the most effective options for faster, more accurate image capture.

It also enables you to take advantage of video analytics. As well as greatly reducing potential footage review times for post-event investigation, using IP-based video analytics supports real-time risk detection for incident prevention.

3. Migrate your evidence into the cloud

Start using evidence lockers located in the cloud to take advantage of digital evidence management capabilities.

The key benefit of this is improved collaboration. Live and recorded footage can be quickly and securely shared between authorised team members and external third parties such as police or other emergency responders.

4. Collaborate with your IT department

Enabling your team to receive and send data via devices connected to the cloud can transform your security operations and remote monitoring capabilities - ideal for large or multi-site facilities where live communication with field-based workers and teams is vital.

Ensure that your network infrastructure is prepared for this. Work with your IT department to look at options such as ‘meshing’, 3G/4G cameras for wireless transmission, and compression methods.

5. Plan your cloud-first approach

By gradually moving more of your system to the cloud, you can cost-effectively and flexibly increase storage capacity in a way that on-premises storage would not support. For instance, to accommodate higher camera counts, more powerful processing, or changing footage retention requirements.

Decide on your operational priorities and develop a cloud-migration plan to match. And remember, while your goal may be to go cloud-first for all aspects of your surveillance – leading solutions will allow you to take a hybrid approach to help you get there.

Find the right long-term solution provider

Finally, it’s important that you can upgrade your surveillance solution to meet changing needs. For this, make sure you choose an open architecture technology partner with a clear roadmap to ensure that future challenges and technology innovations are planned for and a robust software support agreement.

Do they have the latest cyber security measures built into their solutions to guard against data breaches? Does their solution roadmap support the integration and application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analysis to improve decision-making and operational efficiency?

Even if you are not ready for these developments, your technology partner should be.