Now I am implementing video surveillance in the cloud and more often I see situations when a company consciously chooses rent as a profitable and convenient option. Today, using my old projects as an example, I will show how during the operation of a local system its price tag grows and support becomes more complicated. After that I will give you the calculations of how much the same system will cost in the cloud.
Disclaimer : All prices were taken from projects two years ago. If the cost has changed a lot, I tried to update the data.
Compare only money: small business
A small company engaged in chemical fertilizers, the office employs 7 people. You need to put 2 cameras to monitor the room.
This estimate was calculated a couple of years ago for a traditional solution:
- 2 cameras with HD quality - 5,000 rubles apiece;
- a video recorder with an uninterruptible power supply unit in case of power surges - 15,000 rubles;
- disc with a storage depth of 2 weeks - 6,000 rubles;
- router - from 2,000 rubles;
- installation and configuration services - from 10,000 rubles.
Total for on-premise launch - about 45,000 rubles.
What we counted for the same case using the VSaaS model:
- 2 HD- – 3 000 ;
- 2 SD- , , – 2 000 ;
- – 0 ;
- – 700 ;
- – 10 000 .
Total for launching VSaaS is about 20,000 rubles.
Let's say that for the traditional system we took everything into account at the start, no new costs are needed. Let's draw a graph to compare investments over time:
The cost of the cloud system equaled the cost of the traditional one after a year and a half. But in reality, on-premise will certainly require new expenses, for example, replacing failed disks. And you also need someone who will serve everything. With these expenses, the schedule will turn into steps, the payback period will increase.
The company selected the cloud from the example. The reason was not only the price, but also the fact that the office moved frequently. With the cloud, it's easier to remove cameras and move CCTV to a new office.
Proponents of the traditional solution will have their objections (I had the same):
“Well, it's just a small company. The return on investment in 1–2 years does not tell a small business anything. Small companies are planning within six months or even a couple of months. But with big business everything is different. "
But even with big companies, these arguments do not always work.
Let's compare only money: a big company
A large distributed company has several offices in Moscow. In one of the business centers, employees occupy an entire floor. It is necessary to organize monitoring of the floor for 25 cameras.
We calculated the traditional solution as follows:
- 25 cameras for 25,000 rubles - 625,000 rubles;
- Dell video server with disks for 30 days of archive - 600,000 rubles;
- professional software for managing IP cameras - 45,000 rubles;
- installation and configuration services - 250,000 rubles.
Total for on-premise launch - 1,520,000 rubles.
Video surveillance as a service for the same case:
- 25 cameras with firmware for the cloud at 15,000 rubles apiece - 375,000 rubles;
- installation and configuration services - 230,000 rubles;
- monthly payment for using the service - 22,500 rubles.
Total for VSaaS launch - 605,000 rubles.
Suppose again that in the first scenario, the server upgrade will be needed in 3-4 years. The simplified schedule will be as follows:
The cost of the cloud solution will reach 1.5 million rubles in 3.5 years. At this point, your hardware would have to be updated. At that time, I explained to the client the advantages of on-premise as follows: we offer branded servers and software, they remain with the company forever and after the upgrade will be useful for other tasks.
But it did not help. The company also chose the cloud - and did the right thing. So they split the costs over 3+ years.
But in the case of an upgrade, the costs may even exceed the first capital investment. I will show how it happens with the following example.
Add video analytics
A large Moscow shopping center had its own video surveillance system. Several local servers were installed, about 120 analog and IP cameras.
The owners of the center decided to upgrade the system in 3 stages:
- completely upgrade the IT infrastructure: replace the cable network (SCS) and active network equipment in order to increase the network bandwidth and abandon analog video cameras;
- update servers and storage systems, install modern software;
- gradually replace cameras.
The initial estimate for the upgrade looked like this:
- network modernization - 2.1 million rubles;
- server upgrade - 2.5 million rubles;
- replacement of cameras with inexpensive digital models - 1.1 million rubles;
- installation and setup services for cameras - 1.4 million rubles.
In total, the usual upgrade of the on-premise system is 7.1 million rubles.
Already a lot. But new details emerged. After the upgrade, the shopping center must be connected to the Safe City program . This requires video analytics modules: face recognition, license plate recognition, abandoned object detector. The requirements for a system with analytics are completely different: higher resolution cameras, higher bandwidth, more storage space for media files,
And cameras for recognition are mounted subject to strict restrictions. For example, a video camera for face recognition should hang in a certain place with a horizontal deviation of no more than 30 degrees, and vertically - no more than 15 degrees. Places for their installation must be carefully selected.
The estimate has doubled:
- network modernization - 2.3 million rubles;
- servers for video analytics - 7 million rubles;
- the number of cameras increased to 150, the price tag for cameras for face recognition increased to 30-40 thousand - only about 2.3 million rubles;
- licenses for software for face and number recognition - 1.5 million rubles;
- installation and setup services for cameras - 2.1 million rubles.
Total system modernization for video analytics - 15.2 million rubles.
These are only capital and operating costs. But there were also many organizational difficulties. The project was divided into stages due to financial constraints, but no one planned to stop the work of the shopping center. Therefore, the new equipment was installed in parallel with the old operating one. At some point, the client had two parallel systems that complemented, and somewhere duplicated each other's work. The security and operation services were incredibly "happy" about this.
The client did not consider the cloud, but in vain. Even if we count at current prices, a system for such tasks in the cloud would have cost 4.1 million rubles in start-up investments:
- 150 cameras for 15,000 rubles;
- active network equipment - 420,000 rubles;
- installation and configuration services - 830,000 rubles;
- video analytics module - 600,000 rubles (most of the necessary ones are already in the box).
The monthly payment would be about 0.5 million rubles.
Someone will say that this is an example of an ill-conceived project. This will not happen if you follow the design rules: unification, scalability, redundancy. And not everyone needs sophisticated analytics. If the tasks are clear and simple, you can live for years with an established surveillance system and cover depreciation.
I thought so too, until I started designing a system "for simple tasks" in the client's new office.
We will move the system to a new office
The company has planned to move the office for the New Year holidays. IT specialists contacted us in November and set a deadline: to move by January 10. The renovation of the new office has begun, electricians, ventilators and builders are already working. We needed to design and install SCS, ACS (access control system) and video surveillance.
We quickly calculated the project in order to have time to order everything before the pre-New Year rush. The IT service agreed on the terms of reference and the project, and we started installing equipment
Already during the installation of the entrance turnstiles, we met the head of the security service. It turned out that the IT service did not show the project to the security officers in time, and now something needs to be fixed for their tasks.
What works were included in excess of the budget:
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Such incidents occur more frequently than one might think. Experienced outsourcing companies immediately set aside 20% for unforeseen expenses. According to experience, upon commissioning, such a re-laying is eaten in the first six months.
Moving with the cloud is easier: we remove the cameras, mount them in a new place, insert the patch cord into any power outlet and connect to the cloud. The entire infrastructure is already ready on the side of the service provider; you can connect and configure new cameras in 1 day.
You will say that to connect cameras to the cloud, you also need to solve network problems: provide a good channel and take care of security. It is expensive to pull optics from the cloud. And if you connect to the office Internet, you need to expand the bandwidth, otherwise other devices will slow down.
Indeed, there are cases when the local system looks more interesting.
We put video surveillance on a remote site
I have always recommended installing a local system when designing video surveillance for a remote object, for example, for a warehouse in the Moscow region. For regions farther away, this decision is also justified. At such sites, there is often no stable connection, so it is easier to put your cameras, recorder or video server and record everything locally. Ideally, this video archive can be replicated to a central server during a communication session (for example, at night). This will protect you from data loss in the event of a hardware failure.
Even so, local installation is not easy if there is no one to maintain the system. Here is an example of how much you can spend on trips if your own person is not on the staff.
The client had a central office in Moscow and a small production and warehouse in the Moscow region. The remote site was monitored using a video surveillance system. There were 10-11 simple cameras and an inexpensive DVR with software from a well-known vendor. The video was stored locally and broadcasted to the central office on-line. A full-time IT specialist worked in Moscow, we serviced the system upon request as a third-party contractor.
The first time the system broke down after 5 years of trouble-free operation. We arrived and found network problems, fixed the bugs. Almost immediately, a new exit was needed: 2 cameras stopped showing. We changed the switch. For the third time, everything stopped working, the central office saw a dark screen. An interesting feature of the registrars came to light: the shell and Linux OS lay on the USB flash drive, and this flash drive died quietly. I had to buy a new one, roll up Linux and the shell along with the vendor's technical support, since without it it was impossible to restore the license. The fourth time we arrived when the recorder stopped working - it also had to be replaced.
In total, 100,000 rubles were paid for the trips... You could have paid 80,000 if you had immediately listened to the recommendations from the inspection report: change the recorder, remove the Chinese switchboard, install a new disk. These costs would solve the problems for the next 3 years.
And even in the case of unstable communication, the cloud could solve the case just as well. Now I would suggest that the client supply our network equipment and an inexpensive video recorder with an archive depth of 7 days, which would be monitored by our technical support service around the clock. Twice a week, at night, they would merge the video archive into the cloud. The service provider would charge 20-25 thousand a month for equipment rental and maintenance. The same 100,000 can be split into 5 months and have a fully functional system.
These are not all examples of contingency costs. Almost no company in my memory managed to invest in a local system at the start and pay nothing more. The reasons are different: design errors, emergency situations, untimely maintenance.
The local system is chosen if the company is large, plans for a long time, lives in one office for many years. But there are many cases when video surveillance as a service is better suited:
- the company is changing rapidly, and flexibility and speed of technology implementation are important for the business;
- the company plans to grow, and the video surveillance system will also expand, for example, to new points of sale;
- there is no way to have your own video surveillance specialist;
- there is a desire to reduce the initial costs of building a video surveillance system;
- you need to protect the video archive from loss, but without building complex and expensive storage and backup systems.
I will tell you even more about the capabilities and limitations of models at the webinar on September 3 at 11:00 . Let's talk in more detail about the tasks of video analytics in retail, construction organizations, restaurants and other companies. Register on the site and come.