Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) Comparison 2010

This report provides the most comprehensive analysis available of the growing video surveillance as a service (VSaaS) market, examining the benefits, challenges and impact of these offerings including 22 leading providers. This is the second version of the report.

Why Should I Care about Video Surveillance as a Service?

Bringing Software as a Service (SaaS) to physical security, Hosted & managed video have the potential to make video surveillance cheaper and easier to deploy and use.

More specifically, in the short term we expect managed & hosted video to:

• Re-shape the home and small business market segments for video surveillance
• Force traditional video surveillance providers to enhance their product offerings

Companies Covered

To provide you an in-depth understanding of the approaches being offered, we analyze the products, pricing and positioning of 22 diverse solutions.

• Archerfish (Tested)
• ByRemote
• Alarm.com
• Axis AVHS (Tested)
• Brivo
• CameraManager
• Connexed
• Dropcam
• DvTel (Tested)
• Envysion
• iControl
• Lorex (Tested)
• Napco iSee Video
• NeoVSP
• OzVision
• Rogo (Tested)
• Secure-i (Tested)
• Starvedia (Tested)
• Viaas (Tested)
• VideoCells
• Vue
• Xanboo

This is a fast changing market segment with new entrants joining the market every month and dozens of startups around the world.

We were surprised to see the level of diversity among providers, with companies not only targeting different markets but fundamentally different architectures and widely varying pricing. In our report, we examine the 8 key differentiators we saw:

• Camera Support
• On-Site Setup Complexity
• Channel Partner / Strategy
• Video Management Sophistication
• Market Segment Targeted
• Local Storage Support
• Hosting Scalability
• Pricing

What's the Future of Video Surveillance as a Service?

Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) is dangerously close to becoming over-hyped. While we understand the hype machine abhors a vacuum, managed / hosted video is just not ready for the mass market. We think many analysts are in love with the concept and the broader use of SaaS but ignoring the competitiveness of the features, pricing and competitiveness of today's managed / hosted video surveillance offerings. Most offerings are toys and fairly expensive ones at that. For instance, review our test results comparing Axis' hosted offering to Axis's own (limited) VMS software and then compare that to Milestone, a more common 'enterprise' class system.

We think managed / hosted video surveillance has a great future but it's going to take a while to get there - both to develop mature products and get the pricing competitive for the mid-market. In the long run, we think managed / hosted video is going to have a significant impact on the market disrupting the manufacturer and integrator incumbents. However, let's be prudent here and careful about understanding the real offerings and competitive value.