In today’s world, it’s not surprising that there’s been a significant increase in the use of video surveillance systems. The challenge is that these systems can be difficult to manage and are limited by the amount of video they can store.
To address that issue, Eagle Eye Networks created a video surveillance system managed via the cloud and recently expanded its services to partners through its channel program.
Founded by company CEO Dean Drako, who previously established firewall vendor Barracuda Networks, the Eagle Eye Security Camera VMS is designed to be simple to install even in the smallest of businesses.
As part of the channel program, Eagle Eye Networks will generate leads on behalf of partners, gain access to dashboards to manage systems that no longer need to be preconfigured before installation, and provide 24/7 support and the ability for partners to brand Eagle Eye Security Camera VMS under their own brand at no additional charge.
Because Eagle Eye Security Camera VMS is based on a cloud service delivered via four data centers that customers pay for on a monthly basis, channel partners now have an opportunity to create recurring revenue by providing services for managing video surveillance systems, Drako said. Previous generations of video surveillance systems, Drako said, simply record events until the local storage is full. The Eagle Eye Security VMS system allows solution providers to continuously monitor video surveillance systems and locally store files they want while archiving the rest of the video feeds in the cloud. The system is designed to work with video cameras from multiple manufacturers and to allow customers to add more cameras at any time.
“Everything that goes into the cloud using our system is fully encrypted,” Drako said.
In addition to creating recurring revenue, solution providers can make as much as 20 to 40 points of margin per sale.
Whether to deter petty crime or allow law enforcement officials to respond better to emergencies, video surveillance systems are increasingly becoming part of the IT landscape. The opportunity for solution providers is that while many businesses will immediately appreciate the need for video surveillance systems, very few of them actually want to manage them.
Michael Vizard has been covering IT issues in the enterprise for 25 years as an editor and columnist for publications such as InfoWorld, eWEEK, Baseline, CRN, ComputerWorld and Digital Review.