Cloud based security cameras 100% lack any and all future reliability. What Eli is not realizing is that there is a difference between cloud enhanced and cloud reliant. In pretty much all cloud based security cameras, the developers go out of their way to make sure that the only way you can access the video, is through their servers. This is done to create new revenue streams (charge for what would otherwise be free). Also know that as soon as sales drop or profits drop, or the server upkeep becomes a burden, then you can bet that those servers will be shut down, and you will be left with an expensive paperweight.

With a traditional IP camera, you can access the cameras locally, record locally, access them locally even when the internet is down. And when you feel the need, you can enhance it with the cloud by having the footage recorded remotely.

Overall, with these cloud reliant products, your use of the product is at the mercy of a profit motivated company, and you can bet that they will choose the most financially beneficial course of action. If these companies had even the slightest care for the customer, they would not go out of their way to strip out all methods of local access. Because of this, the only time when such a camera purchase would be financially sound, is if you have to decide between using taking cash out of your wallet and using it to clean up dog poop, or buy the cloud reliant camera.

IP camera systems have really come down in price, and best of all, it will run today, and it will still likely work 10 years after the company that has made it, killed their servers, or gone out of business.

How would you feel if you purchased the camera for $150 and then 3-6 months later, the company goes out of business, leaving you with a paperweight?

PS, if you take apart a dropcam, you will see that they went to great lengthts to make sure that you could not gain local access to the video feeds. The linux distro that it runs, has all local access stripped out. These companies make their money by charging you for traditionally free functions, and thus it is in their financial interest to make sure that you could not gain use of those functions without paying them.

In IT, and business in general, you have to examine the value of your investment. It is important to consider every possible point of failure and determine what point of failure is unnecessary. For example, having to go through a dropcam server to view your camera is technically unnecessary, but the need for electricity is necessary.

If you are purchasing a piece of equipment for your business and want to avoid wasting money, then assume that what ever you are going to buy, will be used for the next 50+ years. Think about what could possible go wrong in those 50+ years. This is useful for determining all that ca go wrong and what is within your control, and what is out of your control.

In business, you never want a product/ device that your business relies on, to be dependent on the financial success of another company (unless it cannot be avoided), e.g., you cannot realistically avoid the need for fuel for a fleet of trucks, thus if the oil companies fail, then you will be in trouble. On the other hand, you can avoid these cloud reliant cameras by using a more traditional system that allows local access and recording in addition to the option of all of these cloud services if you want.

Where is the benefit in allowing a third party vendor to manage your data on servers you have little to no control over? I like the concept for recording data that is not security sensitive i.e. video production project. 

I’m too cheap, I just use an old computer with a webcam and keep the camera on, remote viewing in on my phone through Team Viewer.

No it does not matter 🙂

Hey +Eli the Computer Guy how much this camera?. It’s compatibility with SO Linux and Windows. I can use this camera with skype for conversation ?

you should have blurred out those phone numbers on your phone screen…..just letting you know +Eli the Computer Guy 

hey eli nice video info.can you upload video about how to connect two different company internet leased line to dlink router. concept is when one leased line is down.other leased line run automatic in our pc …..please clear this concept…thanks 

This is just a stupid stupid idea. Why would you want to waste so much bandwidth uploading video 24/7 to an outside server?

i`m using forscam ip cameras and not too bad

Great Job! Kevin H, Director, Technical Services, Hands of Support Computer Services

Thats what we want. A dvr. I don’t trust cloud recording. I don’t want my video on someone else’s server

I’m not a big fan of using proprietary systems like nest (Dropcam) and canary, so I’m looking for a system where I can just add any ip camera. I found these cameras called Axis and I’m interested in using camcloud with these cameras, since they are plug and play. They claim that the upload bandwidth is only 256kbs and if internet is lost, they can record locally to an SD card or NAS device. Have you tested this service? I would really like to see what you thought prior to investing my 10 locations on this service. They also have continuous recording through their dealer channel, but I’m not sure if I really need that. Their site is http://www.camcloud.com, please let me know what you think.