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sold per-camera-per-month as a
metered service. There were many
of these at the shows I attended
and this whole area of the industry
is still shaping up in terms of pric-
ing, features, and market fit.
My hope is that as customers
become better educated about the
Cloud, we will see less misapplica-
tion of term. Remember: it is our
job as providers to demonstrate
leadership and help them along.
For further clarification on the
definition of the Cloud, we have
made a short, informative and
entertaining video: http://bit.ly/br
ivo n
these types of headlines indi-
cate just how hungry marketing
departments are to force the word
"Cloud" into their publicity and
literature. It's no wonder custom-
ers are confused.
So, where are the real Cloud
applications? By category, the
biggest emerging group is in video
surveillance, variously known as
hosted video or Video Software
as a Service (VSaaS). Many of
these are true Cloud applications
because they are: a) hosted, b)
multi-tenant, supporting numer-
ous customers in a single instance,
c) massively scalable, and d)
can be remotely accessed through
holes in the customer firewall
to saying this is a "Cloud based
system" is a big stretch indeed.
A second point of distinction:
simply moving a software applica-
tion from a local server to a 3rd
party data centre does not make
it a Cloud application. It is com-
monly accepted that Cloud sys-
tems are defined by multi-tenancy,
metered usage, rapid provisioning,
and massive scalability. Think
about it this way, if you have a
server with an old application ar-
chitecture, and you move it 1,000
miles to someone else's data cen-
tre, have you transformed it into
a Cloud application? No. You're
just playing hide-the-server. And it
won't magically support thousands
of end user organisations (scalable,
multi-tenancy) or suddenly be any
faster for new users to provision.
Common offenders I wit-
nessed at recent tradeshows were
typically old-line software systems
that needed a fresh coat of virtual
paint to get ready for the ball...I
mean show. In one of the worst
examples I saw this spring, one
company claimed to be offering
a security system "using Cloud-
based protocols". Uh that's just
good old IP. While I have to credit
their PR agency for working the
term "Cloud" into their press re-
lease, it turns out that this was just
an old-fashioned case of remote
access. As much as anything else,
Let's begin by reminding ourselves
what the Cloud is all about. At
a bare minimum, "Cloud" un-
equivocally implies "hosted". You
can check this with the US Na-
tional Institute of Technology and
Standards. They have published
the most widely accepted and
universally referenced definitions
of Cloud technology (NIST SP
800-145), and every one of them
includes the concept of hosting.
In practical terms, this key
definition excludes systems that
merely support connections to
the Internet for remote access.
Think about it: if remote access
equals Cloud were true, your PC
from 1995 with an AOL account
would have qualified as a "Cloud
system". In our industry, IP-based
security products connected to
the Internet solve many important
problems, but they are not Cloud
products in and of themselves.
Saying otherwise is confusing and
a disservice to our customers.
A common offender in this
regard is the new breed of IP
security appliances not the
products, but the marketing. Let
me state that I fully believe there
is an important niche for products
with an appliance architecture. For
end users who simply can't wrap
their heads around the Cloud,
it's a comfortable alternative to
the complexity and expense of
legacy server designs. But making
the leap from a local device that
voice of
the security market
Willtherealcloud
securitypleasestandup?
I have attended a number of tradeshows through the
first half of 2012, and it's clear to me that many peo-
ple still don't understand the difference between real
Cloud solutions, and products that merely connect to
the Internet. It's equally clear that many vendors are
actively confusing the market.
By Steve Van Till, President and CEO, Brivo Systems
SteveVanTill,PresidentandCEO,BrivoSystems.