NW Security Launches A Management Report On The Future Of Medium And Large Sized Firms Running CCTV Systems

NW Security launches its 36 page Management Report entitled ‘Preparing for the Next Generation of CCTV Systems’. The report brings together all results and analysis based on England-wide market research it conducted of medium and large sized firms running CCTV systems.

The Report reveals that England is poised to become an early and rapid adopter of Cloud CCTV. It explores why 58 per cent of all firms captured in its survey of CCTV system users, are planning to migrate their existing CCTV systems into the cloud by September 2021.

Cloud migration plans

Amongst private sector more than two thirds (71 per cent) of CCTV users were actively considering migrating their video systems into the cloud. One of the key reasons for the strong appetite for ‘Cloud CCTV’ migration, the NW Security Report finds, is that although the UK was late to moving to network video from traditional analog-based CCTV because of its widespread adoption of CCTV more than 25 years ago; the CCTV to network video tipping point has finally been breached across all sectors.

NW Security’s report also plots the increase in demand for Cloud CCTV

Sixty one per cent of England-based medium and large businesses now have network video monitoring systems rather than traditional analog-based CCTV systems, the study found. NW Security’s report also plots the increase in demand for Cloud CCTV as part of the wider acceleration of cloud migration plans in response to COVID-19.

Corporate IT applications

COVID-19 has created a rapid increase in demand for access to corporate IT applications and Management Information systems remotely, as so many of us spent most of our working week operating away from the traditional workplace.

Cloud CCTV demand fits with wider cloud migration plans which have been accelerated in response to COVID-19. Forty two per cent 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 per cent increased budgets to put more IT services and applications into the cloud following the outbreak of the pandemic. Three quarters (76 per cent) of all firms which completed NW Security’s online survey confirmed that they had accelerated cloud migration plans as a result of the pandemic.

More surprising findings

Perhaps one of the more surprising findings of this study was the fact that a third (33 per cent) of all businesses’ CCTV systems captured in NW Security’s study were still run by in-house Security or Facilities Management departments.

Many IT managers are being forced to take a deeper interest (in their organizations’ CCTV systems)"

However, now that more CCTV systems are networked than not, and Cloud CCTV migration is being actively considered by over half of organizations this year, NW Security believes IT departments will end up in charge of much more than the quarter (27 per cent) of video monitoring systems within the next couple of years. As Frank Crouwel, Managing Director of NW Security commented in the Report: “Many IT managers are being forced to take a deeper interest (in their organizations’ CCTV systems) now that the technology and security installer partner capability is available to upgrade and improve CCTV systems - potentially moving them up into the cloud and exploring AI-driven video analytics capabilities which will come as standard in the next generation of CCTV systems.”

Professional security expertise

Surprisingly, only 10 per cent of systems are supported by an external CCTV/network video specialist installer, NW Security’s study found. Yet with so much new technology coming in so quickly; and the pressure to migrate video monitoring into the cloud growing, deeper partnerships with external experts with combined pools of IT networking, cloud migration and professional security expertise are likely to gain ground, the report finds.

Frank Crouwel, confirms first-hand experience of this partnership approach: “We are seeing more businesses looking for help from expert partners for improvement and optimization of CCTV systems to ensure they are getting optimal value from their existing systems.” NW Security believes that the CCTV market is undergoing fundamental change and plans to investigate the implications of that change in a second study that it will run later this year.