Healthcare Surveillance Is Outgrowing Its Storage: What That Means for Patient Safety

In healthcare, security doesn’t stop at the edge of your network. It extends to every hallway, every server room, and every door that requires a badge swipe. The cameras capturing those spaces record more than just movement. Each frame is protected health information (PHI), bound by the same privacy laws as an electronic medical record.  

When that footage isn’t there when you need it, the consequences reach far beyond IT. Missed moments can delay investigations and erode patient trust. In a medical setting, reliability is safety, and anything less puts people at risk. Storage that’s secure, compliant, and instantly accessible is now part of the duty of care. 

But as the number of cameras and the resolution of footage grow, so does the pressure on the systems that store and protect that data. Traditional on-prem environments can’t keep up with the nonstop volume, and early cloud models weren’t designed for healthcare’s compliance demands. That’s the crossroads healthcare IT now faces, and where the real-world challenges of surveillance begin. 

Three pressures reshaping healthcare surveillance 

Surveillance used to be simple: record, store, and forget. Now it’s a data system in its own right, with infrastructure, storage demands, and compliance requirements that have reshaped the demands on healthcare IT.  

Compliance: Every frame tells a story 

If a patient, visitor, or even a monitor is visible in the frame, it’s PHI. That footage has to be encrypted, retained, and auditable just like any other medical record. Keeping up with shifting regulations and years-long retention mandates has turned compliance into a daily balancing act. When compliance slips, it’s not just a policy failure; it’s a patient safety issue. Missing or inaccessible footage can stall investigations, undermine accountability, and jeopardize legal protections for both patients and staff. 

Here’s what that really means in practice: 

• Retention: PHI may need to be stored for years or decades, forcing hospitals to retain massive volumes of footage. 

• Privacy controls: Footage must be encrypted in transit and at rest, with access limited to authorized users. 

• Audit logging: Every view, edit, or retrieval must be tracked and verifiable during audits or investigations. 

• Operational oversight: Facilities must maintain surveillance in public areas and train staff to use and report systems responsibly. 

Security: Cameras as the new attack surface 

Ransomware doesn’t discriminate against data from a clinic or a camera. Surveillance systems hold a wealth of visual evidence, identity details, and operational insight, enough to expose how care is delivered and where it’s most vulnerable. When those systems go offline during recovery, safety monitoring comes to a halt and already-stretched clinical teams feel the strain.  

The biggest risks are all too familiar: 

• Ransomware and data theft: Today’s attacks don’t just encrypt; they steal. That means privacy breaches on top of downtime. 

• Supply chain exposure: One weak link, whether a misconfigured video management system or an outdated patch, and sensitive footage is up for grabs. 

• Budget blind spots: Surveillance often falls outside the cybersecurity budget, leaving IT teams juggling risk with limited coverage. 

When cameras become endpoints and storage becomes the vault, the attack surface multiplies fast, and so does the urgency to secure it.  

Scalability: Data growth that refuses to slow down 

Healthcare accounts for roughly 30% of the world’s data volume, and surveillance is quickly becoming one of its fastest-growing contributors. Between continuous 24/7 video, higher camera resolutions, biometric access logs, connected IoT sensors, and telehealth consultations, the amount of unstructured data hospitals manage is only accelerating. 

Traditional on-premises systems eventually reach their ceiling. Adding capacity means buying more hardware and managing multiple storage silos across facilities. Over time, it becomes a real operational strain just to track where data lives, let alone pull the right clip during an audit. When IT teams are buried in storage management tasks, it’s time taken away from patient safety, staff training, and the initiatives that move innovation forward. 

Where traditional cloud storage falls short 

When hospitals began hitting the limits of their on-prem storage, the cloud was an obvious next step. It promised endless scalability, reliable access, and freedom from constant hardware upgrades. But as surveillance workloads grew and compliance demands intensified, some cracks began to show. 

It isn’t that cloud storage failed. It’s that most hyperscale models weren’t designed for the realities of healthcare. The same attributes that make cloud flexible in theory often create friction in practice. Three pain points stand out: 

• Unpredictable costs: Most hyperscale providers charge for every action: uploading, retrieving, and moving data. Egress and API fees can significantly inflate the bill, and they’re notoriously hard to predict. According to the 2025 Cloud Storage Index, nearly half of an average organization’s cloud bill comes from these hidden fees, leading 62% of companies to exceed their planned budgets. For healthcare, where surveillance footage must be retained and reviewed for years, those costs can quickly spiral out of control. 

• Limited accessibility: To cut costs, many organizations store footage in “cold” or archived tiers, where retrieval can take hours or trigger extra fees to expedite. During an investigation or compliance audit, that lag isn’t just inconvenient; it’s a potential liability. 

• Vendor lock-in: Moving data between providers is often prohibitively expensive, making it difficult for healthcare systems to evolve or adopt better tools. Flexibility on paper, handcuffs in practice. 

The net effect: technology that may have solved the storage shortage but introduced new complexity around cost, control, and agility. So what’s the alternative? A storage model that scales effortlessly, stays secure, and doesn’t penalize you for accessing your own data. 

Purpose-built cloud storage for healthcare 

Cloud object storage from Wasabi is designed for the scale and sensitivity of modern healthcare data. Unlike traditional object storage from hyperscalers that splits data into multiple access tiers, everything remains “hot” with Wasabi, ensuring every file remains available at any moment in a single, cost-efficient class. There’s no need to decide what to archive or pay extra to retrieve what you need. 

For healthcare, object storage makes compliance, security, and scalability part of the same conversation, not competing priorities. Data is automatically encrypted in transit and at rest. Retention policies are automatic, and features like versioning and immutability safeguard footage from deletion or ransomware tampering. Built-in redundancy across regions keeps footage accessible even during outages or investigations; in the event of a disaster, this means data can be restored quickly, minimizing disruption to care and operations.  

Wasabi Surveillance Cloud takes the principles of object storage and applies them to the realities of healthcare. It’s built for environments where uptime, compliance, and cost predictability aren’t optional; they’re must-haves. Designed for lean IT teams, it requires little ongoing management or specialized expertise. Configuration is straightforward, so even small facilities can scale confidently without adding headcount or new skill sets. 

Here’s how it solves the tradeoff: 

• Predictable costs: Transparent pricing with no egress, API, or retrieval fees makes it easy to budget for long-term retention, with no surprises buried in fine print. 

• Compliance ready: Data encryption, access logging, and immutable storage options help hospitals meet HIPAA and HITECH mandates without adding manual oversight. 

• Always accessible: Hot cloud storage keeps every file instantly available, ensuring footage is ready the moment it’s needed for an audit, investigation, or security review. 

• Seamless integration: Works with leading video management systems (VMS) and existing workflows, automating how footage is assigned, retained, and migrated according to user-defined policies, with no new hardware needed. 

• Built for scale: Expands from a single clinic to a global healthcare network, maintaining consistent performance as data grows. 

With Wasabi, healthcare organizations regain control of their surveillance data so it’s secure, compliant, and always within reach. No hidden fees. No lock-in. No adding racks or expanding your data center. Just storage that’s as reliable as the systems it protects. 

The bottom line 

Cloud object storage gives IT teams the foundation to protect sensitive footage, maintain compliance readiness, and scale without the hidden costs that have long undermined traditional cloud models. As AI-powered analytics and smarter security workflows reshape the industry, storing data in the right environment becomes the foundation for every innovation that follows. In healthcare, reliable storage isn’t optional; it’s the backbone of patient trust.