Over two thirds (71%) of medium and large-sized firms in the private sector and 43% of public sector organisations, all running CCTV systems, are planning to migrate them into the cloud within the next 12 months according to a new survey from NW Security. An average of 58% of all public and private sector businesses captured in this England-wide survey, are planning to migrate their existing CCTV systems into the cloud over the next 12 months.
The most significant early adopter sector for ‘Cloud CCTV’ is construction where 89% of medium-sized firms (with 50 to 249 employees) and large firms with 250 or more staff are migrating their video security systems into the cloud over the next 12 months. The second most enthusiastic Cloud CCTV adopter is the wholesale distribution and retail sectors where 80% are planning CCTV system migration into the cloud. The third fastest Cloud CCTV adopters are manufacturers where 78% of respondents to NW Security’s business survey were migrating or planning CCTV system migration into the cloud over the next 12 months.
The report also found that 61% England-based medium and large businesses had network video surveillance systems rather than traditional analogue-based CCTV systems.
“It’s amazing to confirm what we’ve suspected for some time – that network video surveillance adoption has finally gone through the tipping point versus traditional CCTV,” said Frank Crouwel, Managing Director of NW Security. “It took over 20 years from the invention of the world’s first network camera (by Axis in 1996) to reach this important market milestone in the UK. Why so long? The reason is that the UK was an enthusiastic early adopter of traditional CCTV, which meant that it was relatively late to IP video. However, now that significantly more systems are networked, the UK has seemingly become a hot spot for migration of video surveillance data storage and management into the cloud. And the technology is ready: mature Video Surveillance as a Service offerings and Cloud CCTV services are reaching the UK market just as Cloud CCTV demand is peaking.”
Cloud CCTV fits into wider cloud migration plans which have been accelerated in response to Covid-19. 42% of all medium and large-sized businesses admitted that their ‘cloud migration plans are being accelerated in 2020/21 because of Covid-19’. A further 34% increased budgets to put more IT services and applications into the cloud following the outbreak of the pandemic.
Three quarters (76%) of firms which completed the survey carried out during September 2020 across England delivered by market research firm Opinium, confirmed that they had accelerated cloud migration plans as a result of the pandemic.
Crouwel added: “Our study verifies what we’ve been noticing since hard lockdown was mandated back in late March. In short, there’s a greater appetite to move more applications into the cloud and CCTV is finally part of that acceleration.”
Google Cloud is enjoying the highest penetration of Cloud CCTV migrators: 61% of firms, planning to migrate CCTV into the cloud, named Google as their preferred Infrastructure as a Service platform. IBM Cloud featured with 46% of firms captured in this study. Amazon Web Services was in use (or planned use) by 40% of respondents.
In terms of other irreversible security technology trends which medium and large-sized businesses predicted; there were three ‘stand out’ sectors which foresaw a tighter focus on cyber security across all networked systems as an irreversible IT change precipitated by Covid-19: 50% of healthcare operations, 46% of financial services firms and 43% of schools and colleges flagged the rise of cyber security concerns and corresponding budgets to harden systems.
Cloud migration tends to be favoured by firms facing pressures to reduce Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) in favour of purchasing and running IT applications via subscription services out of ongoing Operational Expenditure or OPEX. One in every six (16%) private sector firms in this study saw ‘increased scrutiny of costs and a move from CAPEX to OPEX spending’ as a trend that was being irreversibly accelerated by Covid-19. The professional services sector was the most enthusiastic adopters of this way of thinking – a third (33%) of them saw OPEX rather than CAPEX as an irreversible governor of IT decision making following the pandemic.
“What we are seeing here is three key drivers for accelerating Cloud CCTV migration coming together right now,” noted Crouwel. “Number one is Covid-19 which is stimulating an acceleration of all IT applications into the cloud, creating a ‘Remote Everything’ phenomenon as we like to call it. Number two is the fact that the UK has finally gone through its ‘CCTV to Network Video’ tipping point, so that well over half of all UK-installed CCTV systems are now on an IP network. And finally, number three is the wider drive to ‘servitise’ to accommodate IT decision-makers and C-suite executives who want to pay for all network-based services based on their usage levels like a utility. Servitisation fuels cloud migration as this is the preferred way of delivering IT services at predictable prices via affordable monthly subscriptions, while still delivering highly reliable services with near 100% uptime.”
