Reasons for considering cloud deployment of XProtect

There are many reasons why enterprises and organizations should consider deploying XProtect on AWS cloud infrastructure. These can be grouped in two principal categories: general cloud deployment advantages and advantages specifically related to XProtect.

While the general advantages of AWS cloud deployment (see section: Introduction) are assumed to be known and appreciated, this section covers some of the derived and specific advantages with deploying XProtect on an AWS infrastructure and service platform.

Speed of Deployment

Video surveillance systems are complex IT systems that are both compute and storage intensive. Commissioning such a system requires careful solution design, selection of server and storage hardware, all the logistics with ordering, shipment, unpacking and installation of the hardware.

With a cloud deployment of XProtect, many of these activities can be vastly simplified if not eliminated. Overall, it allows organizations to deploy XProtect VMS faster and cheaper. Without much of the friction known from on-premises deployments, XProtect on AWS, can far easier support organizations that operate with seasonal, or temporary deployments.

The actual deployment of the XProtect BYOL product from AWS Marketplace into a specific customer’s AWS account is orchestrated by a CloudFormation template. The CloudFormation template deploys the Windows operating system and the XProtect BYOL included in the AMI on the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance selected for the deployment. This gives an instant and predicable deployment where the CloudFormation template also defines a new dedicated VPC with subnets, Security Groups and Elastic Block Store (EBS) for VMS configuration data and short-term storage of video data.

Elastic Scalability

Needs and operational circumstances change. AWS cloud infrastructure allows customers to seamlessly grow their XProtect deployment with their needs. An XProtect VMS deployment can seamlessly up to hundreds and thousands of cameras on a single EC2 instance. Leveraging the ability to shift EC2 compute platform makes the scaling instant while maintaining an attractive balance between performance and cost.

In surveillance installations with higher needs, the deployment can be scaled out on additional EC2 instances to support thousands of cameras and IoT devices.

Post deployment optimization

With the many assumptions that need to be taken into consideration as a part of the complex dimensioning of a video surveillance installation, there is an evident risk for errors in the system design. Such errors can result in system suboptimal system performance. To make an on-premises installation robust against these kinds of miscalculations or errors in the design assumptions, end-customers and system integrators prefer to factor some degree of system overprovisioning as a good system design principle.

This, however, often results in over dimensioned systems with expensive underused hardware aging without providing full return on its investment. In a cloud deployment, excess system capacity can be eliminated as a part of a post deployment cost optimization, which results in reduced AWS cost.

The elastic scalability discussed in the earlier section also works the other way around. If you have allocated a too powerful EC2 instance for your deployment, you can change it to a smaller more price effective instance type within minutes.

Unlimited Video Storage with Disaster Redundancy Option

In the same way as the compute capacity being scaled elastically, additional video storage can be added, when needed. Utilizing the multi-Availability Zone configuration, video data is replicated across muiltiple and separately operated data-centers providing disaster-proof storage of video data.

Various storage options are available on AWS. FSx storage is an option which can be used without any third-party plugins. Also, S3 storage is available and supported through a 3rd party Surveillance Bridge software. Creation of S3 storage and installation of Surveillance Bridge software is supported by XProtect BYOL CloudFormation template. It should be noted that usage of Surveillance Bridge software requires a purchase of the mentioned software through Tiger Surveillance company and mentioned software is supported by Tiger Surveillance company.

Ideal for geographically dispersed operations

Implementing geographically distributed video surveillance solutions often imply a mix of VPN networks and distributed hardware, that need to be kept operational and secure at all times. Cloud deployment is in these situations a perfect alternative where the different sites and premises are rolled into the customer’s virtual cloud environment in which XProtect is staged.

Here tangible savings can be made both in the deployment phase, but even more so in the operations phase, where costly on-premises service and support visits can be reduced to a minimum.

Flexible User Access

Cloud deployment unlocks the full potential of the XProtect client suite, where remote users can access the video management system through secure connections using the XProtect Mobile application or the XProtect Web client.

As an alternative to on-premises deployment of the XProtect Smart Client, AWS offers the possibility to run client applications as hosted user sessions in the AWS cloud using the Amazon AppStream 2.0 service.

This makes it possible to use the Smart Client on virtually any device, including browsers, computers, and tablets. AppStream 2.0 is also a good and secure way of providing Smart Client access for remote users, and law enforcement bodies, without the need to install any XProtect software.