Highlights:

  • Recently, Wasabi Technologies Inc. ventured into the physical security sector with a digital video-optimized version of its cloud storage service.
  • Its new Surveillance Cloud uses software on a local Windows PC to send footage with occasional access from onsite servers directly to Wasabi cloud storage.

Recently, Wasabi Technologies Inc. ventured into the physical security sector with a digital video-optimized version of its cloud storage service.

The Boston-based company claimed its “bottomless” storage option is aimed at the surveillance business, struggling to manage the requirements of high-resolution cameras that may take up to 40 gigabytes of storage each minute of footage. Firms subject to obligatory retention requirements or in need of upgrading their technology to support advanced applications, such as facial recognition, face more significant storage pressure.

Wasabi stated that updating on-premises infrastructure to handle archival videos of 100 terabytes or more is neither practicable nor cost-effective for most businesses.

Its new Surveillance Cloud is a hybrid storage architecture that utilizes software on a local Windows PC to transfer footage with occasional access from onsite servers directly to Wasabi cloud storage. According to Wasabi’s vice president of cloud strategy, David Boland, the software operates invisibly and continually in the background. Video may be accessed in milliseconds, and online video capabilities such as random access and fast-forwarding are available to viewers.

David Boland, said, “As soon a video file is captured and closed, we can either make a copy and move it to the cloud or move the original to the cloud and leave behind a shim file with a header that says where the data is located.” The file’s header information identifies which device created the data, while the color coding shows whether the file is stored locally or in the cloud.

Transparent operation

David Friend, the Chief Executive, stated that the service is meant to be almost transparent to users. He further said, “People who are used to storing their videos on Windows-based machines don’t have to change anything. This will automatically make your local machine appear to be bottomless.”

Wasabi has developed interfaces for the 20 leading vendors of video management systems. David Boland said, “After giving us the cold shoulder for the first three or four years, the manufacturers have seen that customers don’t see a lot of advantage in owning their hardware, and the margins are pretty lousy anyway. They want to get out of the business of hardware and focus on the functionality inherent in the VMSes.”

Recently, more than one billion surveillance cameras have been in operation, and artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to monitor them since there are insufficient humans to do it, he added.

The service is available at a monthly flat rate of USD 10.99 per terabyte, roughly double the base price of Wasabi’s – USD 5.99. Boland stated that the value of the delivered on-premises software justifies the fee.

David Friend stated that he runs Windows on his personal computer, which has “only 256 gigabytes of storage, but three or four terabytes that appear to be there.” Accessing cloud-based video files “might take a half second, but you do not have to wait for the whole file to come back. It will start streaming instantly.”, he said.