Cloud security: new opportunities available for integrators in the cloud

Managed services provided through the cloud offer multiple advantages for system integrators.

These include:

• Increased recurring monthly revenue: Managed services are a new business model that generates more stable and predictable income streams for integrators.
• Stickier customers: Managed services foster a more involved relationship between integrators and their customers, which can help boost customer retention. The cloud enables integrators to serve more sites without hiring additional technicians
• High gross profit margins: Cloud managed services create an opportunity for a service and technology to be purchased together, helping to generate a higher gross profit margin from the beginning of the customer relationship.
• They are easier to provide: The cloud enables integrators to serve more sites without hiring additional technicians.
• Problems can be fixed proactively: When a problem occurs on a site that is managed by a cloud-based system, the integrator can receive a real-time notification regarding the issue - possibly before the customer even notices a disruption in service.
• Increased valuation of business: According to a study by Dell, companies that utilise cloud, mobility, and security technologies are experiencing as much as 53 percent higher revenue growth rates compared to those who do not such technologies.

Importance of cloud-based solutions

The cloud also challenges integrators to educate customers on the value of the new approach

The cloud also challenges integrators to educate customers on the value of the new approach. For example, the cloud changes the expense model of security systems. It allows customers to shift from a capital expenditure (CapEx) model, where large capital funding is required to purchase equipment, to an operational expenditure (OpEx) model, where the costs of the solution become an operating expense.

Since the cameras, installation, storage, and software are packaged into the service, you don’t need a large capital outlay up front - you simply pay a predictable expense every month. Leveraging this difference opens new sales opportunities for integrators.

The benefits of cloud services on how physical security equipment and software services can be monitored and maintained through a connected service is a particular benefit to integrators.

Data monitoring and security

“By having data describing the health of the system shared on the cloud, system integrators can observe data on demand and create proactive maintenance plans in coordination with the end user,” says Stuart Rawling, Director of Business Development, Pelco by Schneider Electric, and one of our Expert Panelists.

A daily challenge for end users is balancing human resources used in the operation of a system

“Such plans should result in increased system reliability and less downtime. If system performance data is aggregated and anonymised, it could also be used by manufacturers to analyse and form conclusions about maintenance schedules and system lifespan.”

A benefit is happier customers. “A daily challenge for end users is balancing human resources used in the operation of a system and daily maintenance, with maintenance having shared responsibility with the system integrator,” says Rawling.

The cloud software as a service

The SaaS model gives companies the resources to improve the deep learning model"

The cloud also can help to make cutting edge technologies more affordable. Economies of scale provided by the Cloud (Software as a Service, or SaaS) are making the sophisticated capabilities of deep learning affordable to a wider audience. Meanwhile, deep learning augments cloud systems with capabilities that may not be available (or affordable) in on-premise systems, thus accelerating the broader move to cloud systems.

“Having a SaaS model gives companies the resources to improve the deep learning model,” says Shawn Guan, CEO and co-founder of Umbo Computer Vision, a provider of deep learning video analytics.

"We can make more accurate systems that scale better and faster. SaaS enables vendors to do something great with deep learning. You don’t have to redo it for everybody. One customer benefit from another customer and all the knowledge is aggregated together.”