No, NVRs are not "Outdated"

Recently, a competitor started claiming that Onboard Camera Storage is replacing "Outdated NVRs." Onboard Camera Storage is a Great Supplement to NVRs, but only using onboard camera storage is as smart as putting your application server on your AC pad.

What's the claim?

There's a security camera company that has been claiming that "outdated NVRs" are being replaced by onboard camera storage.

Who is Making the Claim

This claim is part of a section of their sales pitch which, depending on the salesman, implies or directly states that only their equipment is secure. This sales pitch claims that the use of NVRs is somehow "outdated." The presentation spreads misinformation about the way an NVR works.

Actually, "One of the Fastest Ways to Lose You Job" is Considering Outdoor Data Storage

One of the most oft-repeated phrases in this company's presentation is that getting an NVR is "one of the fastest ways to lose your job." First, anyone using this degree of fear to sell equipment should raise red flags. A good sales pitch educates and informs. It doesn't sell on fear. (We hope you recognize that we're using the phrase, ironically.) Let's see why getting rid of an NVR is a terrible idea.

1. Two is Better than One, but Seven Backups is Best

One of the most dangerous aspects of this sales presentation is that it makes it seem like you have to choose between storage on the NVR level or camera level when you can easily get both.

Many IP cameraIP camera models models have the ability to have backup storage on the camera and at the NVR level. As long as you aren't considering budget level IP cameras, you should be able to set up on-camera storage and storage on the NVR.

With an SCW system you can easily get nine different types of copies of the video if you want:

 onboard camera storage
 storage on the NVR
 a hot-swap NVR (a backup NVR in a different on-site location)
 FTP backup of events with our Snapshot feature
 RAID on the NVR
 a backup via eSata through the NVR
 a NAS backup through the NVR

You can choose as many or as few of these as you want. There's no reason to reduce your options down to just on-camera storage.

2. Don't Store Company Data Outside

You wouldn't install a company server on your AC pad.

Storing video on an SSD or hardened flash drive in a camera outside and nowhere else is a terrible idea. Outdoor cameras are the most likely cameras to be vandalized or damaged. Most (and all of our) IP cameras will alert you if they are disconnected, damaged, have their image obscured, are painted, or turned to face a new direction. After you receive this alert, you'll want to rest assured that the video wasn't destroyed if the camera was smashed or stolen. Having the files on the NVR means that a vandal would have to pass through multiple layers of security, getting past your video surveillance, access control doors, and alarm systems.

Additionally, outdoor data storage only sends low-resolution thumbnails to the cloud, which means that if the camera is vandalized, there's no cloud-based central repository for meaningful HD video data--there are only low-resolution thumbnails.

3. The Entire Point of Security is to Create a Secure Perimeter.

Security exists to secure something, sometimes that is your family, sometimes that is money or inventory. In a corporate or government environment, the top priority always includes company and consumer data. That sensitive data needs to be in the most secure section of your building--usually in your server room or innermost vault.

Surveillance footage also needs to reside in the same location because if the security footage is disabled, deleted, stolen, or destroyed, it becomes impossible to tell if other data was also accessed. Placing the storage outside means that a potential threat doesn't have to pass through as many security checks as data that is stored in your inner sanctum.

Here's the Truth

Having only one copy of your surveillance footage is bad. You can easily get multiple copies of surveillance footage by using an NVR and IP camera system.