Designed for network and IT systems

From a technical standpoint, Milestone XProtect VMS products are designed and implemented as a regular IT infrastructure system. The product’s system architecture, with a client-server design and management principles, should therefore be very familiar to IT and network administrators.

Use standard IT equipment, configuration options, and protocols:

  • Standard servers of your choice

  • Standard storage of your choice; SATA, SAS, SSD, DAS, SAN, NAS, iSCSI, etc. 

  • Standard storage configuration of your choice; RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, etc.

  • Standard network equipment with configuration and layout of your choice including support for VLAN’s, VPN, and firewalls etc.

  • Standard certificate-based HTTPS encryption of network communication

  • Integrates with the standard Microsoft Active Directory

  • Integrates with OpenID and OAuth2 authentication and authorization

  • Use standard Microsoft SQL Server for storing the VMS configuration and logs 

Wide choice of Microsoft® Windows® operating systems:

  • Microsoft Windows 10 (64 bit) - Pro & Enterprise

  • Microsoft Windows 10 (64 bit) - IoT Enterprise LTSB (v1607 or later)

  • Microsoft Windows 10 (64 bit) - IoT Enterprise (v1803 or later) & IoT Core

  • Microsoft Windows 11 (64 bit) - Pro & Enterprise

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (64 bit) - Essentials, Standard & Datacenter

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2019 (64 bit) - Essentials, Standard & Datacenter

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2022 (64 bit) - Essentials, Standard & Datacenter

The newest updated list can be found here: System Requirements

Support for cloud hosting and virtualization technology:

  • Support for VMware

  • Support for Microsoft Hyper-V

  • Support for Amazon AWS

  • Support for Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines

  • As well as all other virtualization technologies supporting Microsoft Windows operating systems

Easy installation and upgrade:

  • All XProtect VMS products are offered in fully functioning trial versions. These trial versions can easily be upgraded to paid versions by simply applying a new license file to the running system – No need to reinstall, reconfigure or even restart the VMS

  • Likewise, XProtect Expert and XProtect Professional+ can easily be upgraded to a more advanced XProtect product by simply applying a new license file to the running system – Again, no need to reinstall, reconfigure or even restart the VMS

  • Installers for the VMS server components and clients are hosted on the management server for easy download to new computers where VMS components should be installed – No need to manually distribute installers via USB thumb drives

  • Easy upgrade or addition of new camera drivers via dedicated device packs - No need to upgrade all VMS components and clients to support new camera models or new camera firmware

Flexible deployment that can be scaled over time:

  • A scalable system architecture. Depending on the requirements, configuration, system size or usage, everything can be run on a single server, or components can be distributed over multiple servers. This provides everyone with the option to choose the most cost-efficient hardware and VMS system design that fits their needs, whether the needs are for a small or a large VMS installation.

  • Support for Milestone Federated Architecture™ to tie related systems together

  • Support for Milestone Interconnect™ to tie independent systems together

Central management and monitoring:

  • All VMS management and configuration is done through a Management Client that can be used on any computer, for instance on the IT or VMS administrator’s local workstation. This eliminates the need to access the VMS servers directly to manage the VMS

  • The XProtect VMS products support definition of an unrestricted number of user roles, each with support for controlling which cameras/devices, functions and features the users in the role can access or administrate

  • Having the roles defined, users are simply added to the roles they should have in the VMS

  • Using Microsoft Active Directory (AD), it can be even simpler to manage the VMS users. The reason for this is that AD groups can be used in the VMS roles, which allows management of VMS access by simply assigning users to the right groups in the AD

  • Built-in server and VMS performance monitoring including email notification on events and failures. Alternatively, or in addition to the built-in monitoring, you can use standard IT tools to monitor the servers, storage, network, etc.

Secure and reliable architecture:

  • Failover support on management and event servers via:

    • XProtect Management Server Failover add-on product

    • Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC)

    • Virtualization software like VMware, Microsoft HyperV etc.

  • Dedicated hot-standby or cold-standby failover recording servers

  • Certificate based HTTPS encryption of communication between VMS servers and clients, and between recording servers and cameras

  • Support for separating client network and camera network, thus preventing that users and equipment on the client network get the opportunity to tamper with or hack the cameras or interfere with video recording

For more information and recommendations on securing and hardening the servers, network, and VMS installation:

Predictable cost:

  • Transparent and simple license structure

    • Base license:

      • The base license unlocks all software functionality and allows the software to be installed and used on multiple sites when owned by the same legal entity

    • Device license:

      • For single and multi-sensor cameras, a device license typically allows use of all video channels in the device. For video encoders, NVR’s, DVR’s etc. a device license may be needed per each channel that is enabled

      • For precise information on supported devices and the device license required: Supported Devices

    • Milestone Care Plus is mandatory for XProtect Corporate and XProtect Expert for the first year. Milestone Care Plus gives access to new product releases for free

    • Milestone Care Plus is optional for XProtect Professional+

  • No license cost on number of recording servers used

  • No license cost on storage amount used

  • No license cost on number of clients used

  • No license cost regardless of video codec used – for instance, H.264, H.265 etc.

  • Predictable maintenance cost as the system runs on standard IT equipment