NW Security publishes findings from CCTV system owners study

March 12, 2021

FEATURED

A new report from NW Security has suggested that England is set to become an early adopter of cloud-based video monitoring.

Cloud CCTV demand

NW Security launched the company’s 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% 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.

Amongst the private sector more than two thirds (71%) of CCTV users were actively considering migrating their video systems into the cloud.

Network video “tipping point” breached

The report found that one of the key reasons for the strong appetite for Cloud CCTV migration is that – although the UK was late in moving to network video from traditional analogue-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.

61% of England-based medium and large businesses now have network video monitoring systems rather than traditional analogue-based CCTV systems, the study found.

Wider cloud push accelerated by COVID-19

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 the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, this has created a rapid surge in demand for access to corporate IT applications and Management Information systems remotely, with many employees operating away from the traditional workplace.

Cloud CCTV demand fits with wider cloud migration plans which have been accelerated in response to the pandemic. 42% 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% increased budgets to put more IT services and applications into the cloud following the outbreak of the pandemic.

76% of all firms which completed NW Security’s online survey confirmed that they had accelerated cloud migration plans as a result of the pandemic.

In-house control of CCTV slowly moving from Security & FM to IT departments

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

However – now that more CCTV systems are networked than not – and Cloud CCTV migration is being actively considered by over half of organisations in 2021, NW Security believes IT departments will end up in charge of much more than the 27% of video monitoring systems within the next couple of years.

Frank Crouwel, Managing Director of NW Security commented in the Report: “Many IT managers are being forced to take a deeper interest (in their organisations’ 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.”

Need for greater collaboration to manage ‘Next Gen’ CCTV

Surprisingly today, only 10% of systems are supported by an external CCTV/network video specialist installer, NW Security’s study also 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.

Crouwel adds: “We are seeing more businesses looking for help from expert partners for improvement and optimisation of CCTV systems to ensure they are getting optimal value from their existing systems.”

A copy of NW Security’s full report is available to download here.

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