Cloud services will continue to make a major impact on connectivity – expanding physical security, safety and building intelligence to more places than ever before. This transformation – part loT, part digital innovation – can have a positive impact on end users and systems integrators.
A complete solution is now more practical than ever to achieve – as open systems communicate with each other and interoperability increases. It’s only the beginning – billions of connected devices will be part of the infrastructure as the years progress. Adoption of cloud technology adoption also opens the door for new opportunities in managed service offerings and new ways of working for integrators and end users. To further enable interconnectivity via the cloud, what’s needed next is a standardized interface and protocols for cloud communications.
Opps for integrators and end-users
While the market remains in transition as integrators gain confidence, there are early adopters, including technology savvy multi-national integrators focused on IT and R&D. These systems integrators are beginning to embrace the cloud as a vehicle to easily add new services, including the ability to remotely manage and maintain systems for time and labor savings and new revenue streams. For end users, there’s greater efficiency in administration and management – and enhanced visibility across systems – when leveraging the cloud.
Openness is critical to systems integrators and their installations because it gives these companies the possibility to connect with their own methods or tools and retain complete transparency across devices and systems. An open cloud environment provides the ultimate flexibility in application and the ability to adapt, move, change, and reconfigure systems at will – as long as it’s a non-proprietary environment.
Systems integrators can more fully leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging edge computing technology with the cloud and achieve bandwidth and storage efficiencies for video and other data. Standardization will further propel integration in surveillance between software, systems and services.
As an advocate of interoperability between physical security devices and cloud-based applications, ONVIF is discussing and deliberating with industry thought leaders on the best way to move forward to achieve greater openness.
Profile M is one of our starting points. With Profile M, ONVIF is focused on standardizing protocols commonly used in the cloud space for the handling of analytics metadata between cameras, VMS and other software platforms. Data from individual devices is agnostic to a specific device and its capabilities. This is the first time a profile has this type of flexibility, allowing for the ability to connect to different ecosystems. With Profile M, devices that aren’t physical pieces of hardware, like cloud and server-based services and software, can connect and communicate.
The flexibility of the cloud adds value to the installation and gives both systems integrators and their customers more opportunity to devise a complete solution with the best results.
